Penelope Fellows
- Born: 26 Nov 1749, Stonecutters Street,
London 1
2
- Baptised: 22 Dec 1749, St Bride's, Fleet
Street, London 3
- Marriage (1): Dr Edward Bancroft, M.D.,
F.R.S. 1771 or c. 1777 in London or Paris
- Died: 10 May 1784, Duke St, St James's,
London aged 34 4
- Buried: 13 May 1784, St James's Church,
Piccadilly 5
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Edith Bancroft, Penelope's
great-granddaughter, writes that Penelope's parents were William
Fellows (of Shropshire) and Penelope Wells (of Cork, Ireland), 6
both
Roman Catholics.* Edith also gives Penelope's date of birth as 26th
November 1749. 7 Surprisingly, however, that date of birth
was recorded for a Penelope Fellows, the daughter of William and
Penelope of Stonecutters Street, London, when she was baptised in St
Bride's Church, Fleet Street, on December 22nd that year. Edith does
not disclose her source of information for the date of birth she quotes
for Penelope but it seems improbable that she obtained it from the St
Bride's Church records - apart from anything else, she would not have
been looking for it in Anglican church records in London and, had she
found it, it would have undermined her view that Penelope came from
Shropshire and was a Roman Catholic.
Unless by some extraordinary coincidence there were two Penelope
Fellows born at that time with the same date of birth and with parents
named William and Penelope, it seems pretty certain that Edward's wife
was the daughter of the William and Penelope Fellows who lived in the
vicinity of the Old Bailey in the City of London. She was one of six
children born to them between 1744 and 1756 whose baptismal records
have survived. She had three sisters and two brothers. Her father's
occupation has not been discovered but her mother's maiden name was
probably Euster. 8
Given Edward's business activities, his opportunity for an amorous
pursuit of Penelope was limited so it seems probable that it occurred
in London not Shropshire. Penelope conceived their first child, Edward
Nathaniel, in c. August 1771, so "courtship" and marriage could only
have taken place sometime during the period when Edward was in England
that year, i.e. between April and September. No record has been found
of their marriage in England then but there is some evidence that it
took place several years later in France.
The evidence for Penelope and Edward's marriage in Paris comes from
documents in the National Archives detailing claims and counter claims
between Edward and Paul Wentworth over monies owed to each other. In
Wentworth's counter claim, he mentions that he gave a total of £40 to
"Penelope Fellows" between April and May 1777 when she was getting
ready to leave London to join Edward in Paris. His claim also mentions
that she later became Mrs. Bancroft. Wentworth may, of course, have
known Penelope before she married Edward and mistakenly used her maiden
name but that seems very unlikely given his assertion about her later
marriage.9 It could be, therefore, that Penelope was
Edward's mistress initially as some observers believed at the time;**
such a liaison would not have been out of place in Georgian England.
When Penelope died in May 1784, her burial took place in the Anglican
church of St James's, Piccadilly, barely 300 yards from where she had
been living in Duke Street.
Many years later, in 1802, when Edward wrote what turned out to be his
last Will, he defined his children as those "born of the body of my
late wife Penelope some years since deceased …" thereby confirming
Penelope's status.
Notes
* Edith Bancroft
gives no source for her statement that Penelope's parents were this
couple and at the present time (2023) there is no explanation of how
they found their way into Penelope's and Edward's story.
** In the Revd. John
Vardill's memorial to the Commissioners enquiring into the losses and
services of American loyalists in November 1783, he mentions amongst
his other services to the Crown, arranging (in 1777) for someone to
scrutinise letters being taken to Edward in Paris by his "mistress".
Later, Edward's is said to have scandalised Arthur Lee (one of American
Commissioners in Paris) by openly having a "mistress" in Paris. In both
cases, they would have been Penelope.10 11
Penelope married Dr Edward Bancroft, M.D.,
F.R.S., son of Edward Bancroft and Mary Ely, 1771 or c. 1777 in London
or Paris. (Dr Edward Bancroft, M.D., F.R.S. was born on 9 Jan 1744/45
in Westfield, Massachusetts 12, baptised on 13 Jan 1744/45 in Westfield,
Massachusetts,13
died on 8 Sep 1821 in Addington Square, Margate, Kent 14 and was buried on 14 Sep 1821 in Iden,
Sussex 15 16.)
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Sources
1 Edith
Bancroft, "The Bancroft
Family" (An unpublished family history of the Bancroft family by Edith
Bancroft (1862-1941) now in the possession of J R U Green (2023)), Page
70 (see
below).
2 Parish
Registers of England and Wales,
St Bride's, Fleet Street — Baptisms in December 1749 (see below).
3 Parish
Registers of England and Wales,
St Bride's, Fleet Street — Baptisms in December 1749. …
22 — Penelope daughter of Wm. Fellows & Penelope his wife —
Stonecutters
Street — born Novr 26th.
4 Edith
Bancroft, "The Bancroft
Family" (An unpublished family history of the Bancroft family by Edith
Bancroft (1862-1941) now in the possession of J R U Green (2023)), Page
70. …
…… he [Edward] arrived in London too late to see his wife again as she
died on
May 10th, 1784 in her thirty fifth year as she was born on 26th Novr
1749.
5 Parish
Registers of England and Wales,
St James, Piccadilly - Burials - 1754-1812. …
Buried May 1784
13 - Penelope Pencroft … … W[oman]. … There are good grounds for
supposing that
this is Penelope's burial record even though her name is recorded quite
clearly
in the register as Pencroft. First, the family was living at No. 6,
Duke
Street, St James's, secondly, Penelope died on May 10th, thirdly, with
Edward
away in America, there may not have been any adult Bancrofts to arrange
her
burial and ensure that her name was correctly registered, and, finally,
the
name Pencroft was extremely uncommon at that time in London.
6 Edith
Bancroft, "The Bancroft
Family" (An unpublished family history of the Bancroft family by Edith
Bancroft (1862-1941) now in the possession of J R U Green (2023)), Page
49. …
"… About this time 1771 he married Penelope daughter of William
Fellowes
Esqr. of Shropshire - her mother was Penelope Wells, daughter of H.
Wells Esqr.
of Cork. It was supposed to have been a runaway match, the Fellows
objecting to
it on religious grounds as they were Roman Catholics.".
7 Edith
Bancroft, "The Bancroft
Family" (An unpublished family history of the Bancroft family by Edith
Bancroft (1862-1941) now in the possession of J R U Green (2023)), Page
70. …
" … as she died on May 10th, 1784 in her thirty fifth year, as she was
born on the 26th Novr. 1749.".
8
FamilySearch (FamilySearch a genealogical
organisation run
by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Amongst other
things, it
maintains a very large searchable genealogical database.), Book Number
942 B4HA
V.13. ...
Name: William Fellows, Spouse's Name: Penelope Euster, Marriage Date:
26 Aug
1742, Marriage Place: Saint James, Clerkenwell, London.
9 The
National Archives, Kew (Formerly
known as The Public Records Office), Bancroft v. Wentworth b.& plea
— Date
1788 — Reference: C 12/160/29.
10 Lewis
Einstein, Divided Loyalties —
Americans in England during the War of Independence (Published 1933
by
Cobden-Sanderson in London), Appendix C — Memorial of John Vardill,
Page 414. …
Your Memorialist having also discovered that a Mistress of Dr. Bancroft
Secy.
to Dr. Franklin, was about to leave for Paris, [this is in 1777]…
procured a
Person to accompany her to Brighthelmston (Brighton) who there obtained
a coppy
[sic] of the most Material Contents of the Letters, for the use of
Government.".
11 Lewis
Einstein, Divided Loyalties —
Americans in England during the War of Independence (Published 1933
by
Cobden-Sanderson in London), Page 15. …
… And Deane and Franklin, who had lately arrived, invited Bancroft to
stay
under their roof at Passy, where he resided for a full year before
setting up
an establishment of his own in which he flaunted a mistress to the
scandal of
Arthur Lee ….
12 Edith
Bancroft, "The Bancroft
Family" (An unpublished family history of the Bancroft family by Edith
Bancroft (1862-1941) now in the possession of J R U Green (2023)), Page
47.
13 Compiled
by The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, "International Genealogical Index (IGI) (a.k.a.
Family
Search)" (First published in 1973; data as at December 2008), The
publick
[sic] records of the church at Westfield, 1679-1836 First
Congregational Church
(Westfield, Massachusetts).
14 The Champion (Published at London
1814-1822), Sunday 16 September 1821, Page: 16 — DEATHS. ...
At his house in Margate, on the 8th, Edward Bancroft, Esq., M. D., aged
76. Of
the several London newspapers reporting Edward's death most give it as
occurring on September 8th though this conflicts with the reported date
on his
gravestone of September 7th.
15
Gravestone, Iden Churchyard within the burial
ground of the Lamb family. Sacred to the Memory of Edward Bancroft
M.D., F.R.S.
who departed this life September 7th 1821 aged 76. ...
16 Parish
Registers of England and Wales,
Iden - Burials - 1821. …
No. 49. Edward Bancroft M.D. F.R.S. F.S.A. - Margate - Septr. 14th - 76
years -
Wm. Jackson.
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