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THOMAS LAMBERT

Of Lamberth and Telham Court, Battle Sussex

1810 – 1881

  Thomas Lambert was a successful businessman and property owner and accumulated a considerable estate over his lifetime.  We know nothing of his early life.  His marriage certificate shows his address as Lamberth in 1840.  He was the eldest son of Thomas Lambert (d 1843) and Elizabeth, daughter of James Tiley Esq of Saul, Co, Gloucester.

Thomas (b 1810) and his brother Frederick Walter (d 11.02.81) were most likely the “sons” in the business of Thomas Lambert & Sons.  The 1882 London Post directory shows the firm as

“hydraulic and gas engineers, patentees and manufacturers of high pressure valve cocks, closets, pumps, sluice valves, wrought iron tubes and fillings”

The premises were at Short Street, Lamberth SE and 28 to 31 New Cut, Lamberth SE; and Walsall, Staffordshire.  We know that both Thomas and his father had the same occupation and so perhaps Thomas Senior founded the business.

On 10 September 1840, Thomas married Eliza Fox in the parish church in Kensington.  Eliza (b 02.05.1808) was the daughter of Lt Col Isaac Fox who owned a coffee plantation, Mt Cressy near Kingston in Jamaica.  Isaac was lost at sea in January 1811 and her mother, Mary Eliza was left to raise Eliza and her younger brother, Isaac (b 14.02.1810).

Eliza’s mother, Mary Eliza Young came from a well-known Scottish family that moved to the West Indies after the 1715 Jacobite uprising, and traced its history to Sir David Young, Chamberlain to Mary Queen of Scots.  Mary Eliza’s uncle, Admiral William Young served at Copenhagen and in the Battle of the Nile.

Mary Eliza subsequently remarried twice, firstly to Christopher Parkinson Crisp and then to Charles Thomas Depree.  John James Ruskin (1785 – 1864) was a business associate of Charles Depree.  He subsequently acted as trustee in the Will of Charles Depree’s daughter.  JJ Ruskin was the father of the celebrated art critic and writer, John Ruskin (1819 – 1810).  JJ Ruskin’s niece, Mary Bridget Richardson married Eliza’s brother, Isaac (b 1810) who immigrated to Australia in 1838 with his wife and first son, George.

Eliza was 32 years of age when she married Thomas Lambert in 1840.  They had seven children.  These in order are as follows:

Thomas Lambert       (b 1841).  Thomas appears to have predeceased his father (d 1881) although a photograph the Australian cousins have of him show he reached adulthood.

Rev Frederick Fox Lambert            (b 1843).  Frederick’s qualifications are shown as MA of CCC Oxford, and Rector of Cothall Herts.  He was entrusted with the executorship of some of the family Wills and was trustee for the minors of these Wills.  He was alive at the time of the First World War when he met his second cousin, namesake and my grandfather, Frederick Young Fox.  This was probably in 1918 when FY Fox was recovering from wounds received in France.

The only letter held by the Australian cousins from Mary Eliza Depree is dated 23 February 1867.  In it she mentions that he preached his first sermon on 13 January in St George’s church and that his father, Thomas was present, unknown to his son, and that he gave a very good sermon.

Edward Tiley Lambert          (b 1844).  Edward Tiley was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1865) and is shown as a magistrate for Sussex in 1898 and 1907.  In 1877 Edward married Janie, third daughter of James McLaren Esq, Innergellie Fife. 

We only know of two sons.

Henry McLaren Lambert (b 1879) was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge.  He was Lieutenant in the Royal Dragoons in 1907 and a temporary Captain when he was killed in action in 1915.

Reginald Everett Lambert (b 1882) was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1903 MA 1904) and was a Lieutenant ret, late Nottinghamshire RHA, TF in 1920.  He married Evelyn in 1907.  She was the second daughter of Alexander Dick – Cunynham Esq of 15 Eccleston Square SW.  They had, with other issue, a son Anthony Edward (b 1911).

Reginald’s address in 1920 was still shown as the family property left by Thomas Lambert to his father.  This was Telham Court, Battle Sussex.  The property was bought by Thomas in 1875 form a Samuel Carter Esq and was formerly known as Quarry Hill.

Emma Lambert          (b 1847).  Little is known of Emma.  She married William Edward Everett.  There may have been a son Frederick, and Australian relative correspond with a Gordon and Keyna Everett.

Streeter Lambert      (b 1848?).  Birth date is not known, but he was not at home in the 1861 census, so could have been older than Frederick and could have died by 1898 when Edward is recorded as the second surviving son.  A photo of him at age 30, if it were taken at the same time as the other family members, would give him a birth date of 1848.  Streeter inherited the business carried out at Walsall from his father.

Isaac Cowley Lambert          (b 1851).  Again, we know noting other than he was present at the death of his grandmother, Mary Eliza Depree who died at home at 15 Buckingham Place, Brighton on 15 April 1875.

He was not included as an executor of his father’s estate.  Mrs Depree, in her letter of 23 February 1867 says that he was contemplating doing law while at Rugby.

Mary Eliza Lambert   (b 1854).  Mary married John Lothian Bell and again, we know only that the Australian relatives correspond with a Thomas and Gladys Bell.  A Thomas Bell Jnr is mentioned in Thomas Lambert’s Will.

Thomas Lambert married a second time after the death of Eliza in 1875.  In 1877 he married Emily, second daughter of the late Allen Everett Esq of Edgbaston.

It is not known if Thomas’ second wife was related to his daughter, Emma’s husband, William Edmund Everett.  Interestingly, Thomas’ son, Edward also included Everett as a second name for his second son and one must assume they held the Everett’s in high regard.

It appears at some stage Thomas, Eliza and the children lived with Thomas’ mother in law, Mary Eliza Depree, at 15 Buckingham Place, Brighton on the Sussex coast.  The 1861 census shows

Mary Eliza Depree (72), Eliza Lambert (50), and Frederick (17), Emma (14), Isaac C (10), Mary Eliza (6) and a general servant at the address.

The 1871 census showed Mrs Depree living on her own, except for a domestic servant.

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