THIS IS FINDON — www.findonvillage.com created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

MEN OF INFLUENCE

George Lyall (1779-1853)

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002

The Lyall family of Findon are shown on the 1808 Manorial map of the village as owning or leasing a considerable area of land in the parish, including a portion on the west side of the main road, alongside the road at Nepcote and also in the Horsham Road (later to become part of Albert Short's Findon Farm.  This map, surveyed by George Bassett, is held at the County Archives in Chichester.  At this period there were around 420 inhabitants in Findon.

Grey Point in The Square.

In their time various members of the Lyall dynasty lived at the properties known as Avery House, 56 High Street as well as the house we now call Grey Point in the hub of Findon in The Square.  With the number of offspring the Lyall family was producing it does seem obvious that they would hardly all have been accommodated in Grey Point alone.

Averys (formerly known as The Cottage) in the High Street, Findon.

The first occupants I can find of Averys are the Lyall family.  Did they have it built?   The answer to this question has evaded me.  The next residents were the Wrights followed in 1866 by General and Mrs. Williams.

Of John Lyall's sons, the eldest, George (1779-1853), succeeded him to the business and also the property in The Square.  It was around 1830 that an extension was added to the east of the Lyall's house, this was the garden wing.  George married a City heiress, Margaret Edwards (1792-1869) and they had three children. 

Margaret Edwards (1792-1869)

George was a politician and a merchant and from 1805 the head of the family firm of East India traders and ship-owners. Several vessels were owned by him, one being named Good Czar of 264 tons and built at Chatham in Kent in 1814.  The following is a letter to him from his younger brother, Haseldine Lyall, the master of that ship when it sailed from Portsmouth on January 24th 1816 and arrived in Barcelona on 6th March 1816 —

N.B. {?} indicates illegible portions
{*****} indicates missing portions
  [      ] indicates assumed text

 

 

Ship Good Czar   March 10th 1816.
At anchor Barcelona Roads.


 

To: George Lyall Esq.,
No. 7 Royal Exchange, London.

My dear Brother

After a long passage of forty-three days, we arrived safe here on the 5th inst having encountered with nothing but easterly winds since we left Lisbon, till within a short distance of this port.

We got pratique on the 7th inst, and, having thrown a good part of my ballast overboard before my arrival here I was enabled to report the ship ready to take on her cargo on the day following, the 8th.  We are I find to take nothing in at this port, our ports of loading are two viz Tarragona where we are only to take in 75 pipes of Brandy and the remainder of the cargo (which will be wine) we are to take in at a small place a little further westward called Bennecalin, so insignificant it appears that it is not even mentioned in the chart I have got with me.   I am glad we are not going loaded for in the mole there is not water enough for us and the Roadstead (although excellent holding ground) is always troubled with a heavy sea swell very inconvenient for taking in cargo.

The house I am addressed to here, appears as far as I can judge a very respectable one, they appear to have a good deal of business as a great number of ships here are also consigned to them.  I have met with every attention and civility from them — the cargo they tell me is all ready for shipping so that I have a fair prospect of the weather only {?} favourable of being soon dispatched out of this Sea when I hope the remainder of the voyage will be in proportion as short as it hitherto been long.   As the post for England does not go out till the 13th inst. I shall probably not send this away until my arrival at Tarragona for which port I shall sail this afternoon addressed to the house of Messrs. Killekelly {?} co.

 

Tarragona March 12th 1816.

My dr Brother

We left Barcelona the 10th inst and arrived here this afternoon.  I have seen the merchants who informed me the brandy is all ready for shipping so that I hope not to be longer than four days taken (sic) it in when I shall proceed without delay (weather permitting) to Bennecalin finally to complete my cargo which done, I wll send you the certificate of it, and the number of days that may have expired taking it in, signed by the merchants to enable you to {?} the [outward freight].

I am pretty well satisfied with the crew I have shipped, Mr. Bremson (the Mate) is a very steady sober man apparently but certainly rather dull and inactive although at all times willing seemingly to do his best...{*****} from the very strict line of {?} {*****} feel pleasure in {?} {*****} leeway I made at Lisbon, which however I trust you will never allow a fault of mine as none other but the safety of the ship was the cause.

I shall write my dear mother before I quit the Coast [and to] whom with thoughts of my d'r family I beg to [be] most kindly remembered wishing [them] and you all health and prosperity and believe me

My dear Brother,
Yours very affectionately,

Haseldine Lyall.

 

The Good Czar continued on her voyage and arrived in Rio Janeiro on 26th July 1816 and returned to Gravesend in Kent on 4th May 1817 from Montevideo.

George was a Director of the East India Company and also was its Chairman twice.  The family concern diversified under his guidance out of shipping into docks and insurance.  This was timed just as London became the most important commercial and financial capital of the world.  He succeeded in building up his business empire and made his fortune out of government contracts during the Napoleonic Wars and went on to make a second fortune out of the growth of the Port of London.  As well as Grey Point, he had a grand London house overlooking Regent's Park and lived in some style.

George backed a number of ventures and was at the pinnacle of the commercial establishment of the day.  One of these being in 1836 an ambitious railway project from Launceston in Cornwall to Victoria. This was under the royal patronage of Her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria — the future Queen.  The Share Certificate for the enterprise was dated 15th April 1836 and shows George as a co-sponsor —  but events did not go the plan and the scheme did not materialise.

Various investment companies were set up in the 1800's to deal with business and trade in the colonies. Some of these were rather obscure, such as The New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land Commercial Association (this was in 1836 and was supposedly a semi-secret group even for those days!).  Others were The Australian Agricultural Company, The London Emigration Committee, and also the rather absurdly-named Committee for Promoting Emigration of Females to Australian Colonies (CPEFAC for short!) of which George's name appears as an investor in 1825.  I have visions of a cargo of ripe young girls walking up the gangway and waving goodbye as they were shipped off to populate the colonies!

The New Zealand Company was set up early in the 1800's mainly to promote the wool and flax trade. Many of the investors appear to have been London merchants of the day, bankers and MP's. Among the members listed is no other than.....yes, George again, and documented as "the politician and merchant, head of a family firm in East India trade and ship-owners from 1805, chairman of The General Ship-owners' Society in 1832, Tory MP for Essex."

In July 2002, I entered into some interesting correspondence with Allan Pope in New Zealand concerning the Lyall family.

 

 

1st July 2002.

Dear Valerie

 
I have been researching the background of the directors and promoters of the New Zealand Company in its several iterations from 1825-1840 and while searching the Internet came across the website for Findon Village which contains the most useful biographical information on George Lyall snr I have so far discovered.
 
From your research can you please provide some of the sources you have used so I may find further in depth biographical information on this gentleman.  If this is not possible I would be extremely grateful if you could give me the name of the firm(s) with which he was associated in making his fortune. His name is forever remembered in Wellington New Zealand by having a bay and suburb named after him on the south coast adjacent to Wellington's Rongotai airport.  Many others of the promotors or directors of the New Zealand Company(s) have their names similarly remembered throughout New Zealand Company settlements.
 
I look forward to your reply and thank you for taking the time to read my request.
 
Yours faithfully
 
Allan K Pope
 

Allan K. Pope, New Zealand.

 


George appears to have been a very busy man engaged with running his own shipping fleet, presiding over the meetings which initiated the reforming of Lloyd's Register of shipping, promoting the great Marine Indemnity Company at Lloyd's, as well as the London Docks and Guardian Insurance Companies, directing and chairing the East India Company, and, as Member of Parliament, introducing and carrying successfully through the house a bill for the benefit of Merchant Seamen's Widows.  I am wondering if he could have had the interest or time to travelled to the other side of the world to potter around the shores of New Zealand.

George's success set the seal on his career when he became a Tory Member of Parliament for the City of London and was a man of some influence in the capital and it goes without saying, in Findon also.

By 1839 much of the Parish of Findon belonged to four large estates.  These being the Findon Manor, Muntham Manor, Findon Park and Cissbury Estate.  Most of the Findon Manor Estate, comprising Tolmare farm and Spencer’s or Roger’s farm (683 acres) was let to one farmer, but the other three estates were kept in hand.  One smaller estate of 111 acres belonged to George Lyall, and was later to become amalgamated into Findon Farm.  It is known that crops grown in the village at that time were wheat, barley and turnips.

George’s son, another George (1819-1881), became as equally influential as his father and he appears to have inherited the property in The Square from him.  

George Junior was the Member of Parliament for Whitehaven and also the Governor of the Bank of England from 1871 until 1873.   He had thirteen children in all.  He had five by his first wife (Eleanor Harriett Manley), whom he married in 1845. Sadly, all but one (Constance Mary Lyall, b.1849) died in infancy. As if that wasn't bad enough, his wife died in their eighth year of marriage, leaving him a widower at the age of thirty-four. 

He married again two years later (Frances Cave), and had a further eight children, seven of whom appear to have survived (one died at birth). His tenth child was Captain Charles Noel Lyall who I have found on the Valuation List for the Parish of Findon dated 1914.   He owned the shop and sheds in Nepcote occupied by William Ockenden so I can only assume from this that some of George's children kept links with Findon. 

By 1881 George was the head of a rather large household at 35 Eaton Square in London (where he died later the same year).  In December 2001, I heard from Barry Cutter whose great grandmother, Martha Cutter was a 47-year-old maid in 1881 at George's property.   What a small world it is.

Another piece of family trivia: a few weeks ago I discovered that there is a conifer tree found in the mountains of Western Canada called Lyall's Larch (botanical name = Larix lyalli)!!  We have no known connection to Canada either, but I am following a lead about an obscure ancestor who was a botanist.

Continue if you would like to know about George's Uncle Alfred, (his father's youngest brother), and see the exquisite sketches executed by Alfred's wife, Mary in The Dreamer and the Artist.

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THIS IS FINDON — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.

E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com