The Pauper Viscountess

John Willis 1781 - 1845 was a son of our ancestors, James Willis and Elizabeth Tebb. He became an apothecary and surgeon. 

Elizabeth Edmead 1781 - 1847 was the daughter of Thomas and Prudence Edmead and was born in Staines, Middlesex.

John Willis and Elizabeth Edmead were married at St John’s Church, Egham on the 5th of May 1803. One of the witnesses to the marriage was Frances Collett. She was the half-sister of our ancestor, Mary Bartholomew. Mary Bartholomew had married John’s brother, William Willis at Egham in 1797. 

Julia Willis 1804 - 1890

John and Elizabeth had eight children, the eldest of whom was Julia, born 1804. The family was living in Lambeth from the 1810s onward. On the 2nd of December 1819, two months before her sixteenth birthday, Julia married Matthew Barnewall, Viscount Kingsland at St Mary’s Church, Lambeth. The wedding was witnessed by Julia’s parents. Julia was Viscount Kingsland’s third wife. 

Matthew Barnewall was born in about 1763 in Dublin, Ireland. He was a descendant of the 1st Viscount Kingsland, Nicholas Barnewall, for whom the title was created in 1646. Matthew became the 6th Viscount in 1814 when the 5th Viscount died without an heir. His claim to the title went back to his great-grandfather, who was one of the first Viscount’s younger sons. He also inherited the title Baron Turvey. In the normal course of events he wouldn’t have been expected to inherit - there was just a lack of male heirs. It was an Irish title. Viscount Kingsland had been living in Lambeth since at least 1810, probably before. He and Julia didn’t have children and there were no surviving heirs from his previous marriages. 

Viscount Kingsland died at Walcot Place, Lambeth (home of the Willis family) in November 1833. He was buried at St Mary’s Church, Lambeth on the 22nd of November 1833. He doesn’t appear to have left a will, I don’t think that he had any money to speak of. There were no more Barnewall heirs to inherit and his titles became extinct. 

There’s an interesting article about Matthew Barnewall here. It’s quite entertaining and worth a read but takes ages to load for some reason, so be patient. 

Julia was still living at Walcot Place with her parents in 1841. Her father died in 1845 and left a will appointing his son William George (potential villain!) and daughter Julia executor and executrix of his will. Joseph Keates of Egham was appointed as a trustee with William.

Julia didn’t remarry. She worked as a needlewoman and died at the age of eighty six in 1890. 

Her death was reported in The Times as follows:-

"Viscountess Kingsland died at Francis-street on Friday last in the 86th year of her age. When only in middle life she had been reduced to extreme poverty through the dishonesty of a trustee, until at last she was forced to earn her living by needlework. In 1878 she received £100 from the Royal Bounty, and has since been in receipt of a small pension. She was the widow of the sixth Viscount Kingsland, whose title became extinct in 1833".

There’s a bit more detail here. Go to the section titled “Royal Bounty.

This is a quote from another website, which has stopped working!

“"......Viscount Kingsland (a peerage which became dormant when its holder died in the Southwark Workhouse having married 'a woman'; when the woman died a public subscription was raised to provide a suitable monument to her in St Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, because she was a Viscountess)."