Middlemore Family Genealogy

Middlemore's of Birmingham

68. William Middlemore of Edgbaston, and of Hawkesley in 1869, by purchase from his cousins Ann and Martha Middlemore, Justice of the Peace for Birmingham; born 20 April, 1802, and baptized 30 September, 1802, as son of Richard and Mary Middlemore, at St. Martin's, Birmingham; died 15 January, 1887, and was buried in Birmingham General Cemetery, aged eighty-four, m. i.

Figure 42  Signature of William Middlemore

Will dated 15 February, 1884, with codicil dated 16 January, 1886, was proved at Birmingham, 26 February, 1887, by the executors Thomas Avery, of Church Road, Edgbaston, and Joseph Beattie, of Temple Row West, Birmingham.

Married 2 August, 1832, at Edgbaston, Mary, second daughter of Thomas Groom, of Edgbaston.  She was born 31 January, 1808, in the Bull Ring, Birmingham,

Figure 43  Signature of Mary Middlemore

 

Groom.-This family was of Shropshire origin. Mr. Thomas Groom's eldest child, Mrs. James Middlemore, was born at Shrewsbury in 1806, though soon after he moved to Birmingham. By his first wife, Sara Burton, whom he married in London in 1805, he had, besides a son, who died in infancy, Sarah, who became Mrs. James Middlemore; Mary, who became Mrs. William Middlemore; Thomas Groom, born 1811, died 1888, in Boston, U.S. America, where he had settled and thriven; John Groom, born 1812, died 1895. He had also a family by his second wife, a Miss Callender. Mr. Thomas Groom, sen., died 1842. The Groom were settled in North Shropshire as early as the sixteenth century.

and was baptized at Cannon Street Chapel. She died 28, buried 30, July, 1892, aged eighty-four, in the General Cemetery, Birmingham, m. i.

Her will, dated 21 August, 1891, was proved at Birmingham, 12 August, 1891, by Sarah Middlemore the daughter and executrix.

William Middlemore was educated at Mr. Powell's school, Solihull, where many were trained who afterwards filled prominent positions in Birmingham.  In the room where the boys were confined for punishment were a few books.  With these and some others, as Fielding's " Tom Jones," Foxe's "Book of Martyrs," and Cobbett's "Weekly Register," was fostered a natural taste for literature, and indeed he courted punishment for their sake. A style that was at once clear and concise was formed, and the seeds of political principles, which ultimately became radical, were sown.  He left school at twelve to help his father.    With his first savings he bought "The Spectator," Young's " Night Thoughts," and Burns's " Poems," from which he was ever ready with apt quotations. He further equipped himself with suitable apparatus, and followed Fara­day's "Chemical Manipulations."  It is sufficient to add to the excursus on the business, that he accumulated a considerable fortune. He was further a Director of Muntz's Metal Company, Deputy Chairman of the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank, now Lloyd's Bank, Ltd., Temple Row, and Chairman of the Birmingham Wagon Company.  In the public life of the town he filled the position of Low Bailiff, and was Town Councillor for St. Thomas's Ward for six years, from 1839, when the first Town Council was formed.  In 1856 he was made a magistrate for the borough.  In politics he was a radical, and was one of the founders of the Birmingham Liberal Association in 1865, and of the Education League in 1869.  Notwithstanding the religious associations of his family, anciently Roman Catholic, and for the last hundred and fifty years chiefly Anglican, he joined the denomination of Baptists, and gave largely to the building of chapels, and to other objects of that religious body.  With his brothers Richard and James he rebuilt the chancel of Edgbaston Parish Church (p. 65 ante).  His munificence was as unstinted as it was catholic ; it was bestowed, always with modesty often under the condition of secrecy.  As an illustration may be cited the recreation ground in Burbury Street, which he presented to Birmingham, the cost of which after his death was ascertained to have been £14,000.

William Middlemore and Mary Groom had issue:

  1. Mary, born 26 June, 1833, died 9 April, buried 15 April, 1844, in the General Cemetery, Birmingham.
  2. Elizabeth, born 27 August, 1834, baptized 24 November, 1850, at the Circus Chapel, Birmingham. Married 2 August, 1865, at Wycliffe Chapel, Bristol Road, Birmingham, Thomas Saunders Bartleet, of Birmingham and Edgbaston, iron master, son of William Bartleet, of "The Shrubbery," Redditch, born there, 2 March, 1829, died at his residence 138, Hagley Road, Edgbaston, 16, buried 18 October, 1890, aged sixty-one, at Edgbaston.

    3. They had issue

    1. Arthur Middlemore Bartleet, born 13 November, 1866, at Edgbaston; baptized 24 April, 1879, at St. Margaret's, Birmingham; educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, M.A., LL.B., 1895, barrister of the Inner Temple, 1896.
    2. Hubert Humphrey Middlemore Bartleet, born 29 June, 1869, at Edgbaston; baptized 24 April,1879, at St. Margaret's, Birmingham, educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, M.A., 1895, deacon, 1893, priest, 1894, curate of St. Martin on the Hill, Scarborough, and, since 1896, of the Priory Church Great Malvern.
    Bartleet.-This family, of which the last six generations are entered at the College of Arms, has lived at Tardebigge, co. Worcester, or its neighbourhood for two hundred years. The first name on the official pedigree is that of William, born 1724, buried 1795, of whom, as also of his two wives, Mary Millard and Elizabeth Moore, there is a monumental inscription in Tardebigge churchyard. His eldest son, William, was born in 1753, and died in 1824 ; he also has a monumental inscription there. His eldest son, Thomas Moore Bartleet, who died in 1875, aged eighty seven, has descendants still living in Redditch, adjoining Tardebigge, but the second son, William, born at Redditch in 1790, lived at the chief house of the family, the Shrubbery, to which his son, Mr. Robert Smith Bartleet, J.P., D.L., succeeded in 186o. Mr. Thomas Saunders Bartleet was a younger brother of the last named. There is a strong probability that the names found in the Tardebigge Registers from the sixteenth century under somewhat different spellings, are those of ancestors of William Bartleet, born 1724, whose family, should this conjecture be right, would thus be traced back four generations earlier.
  3. William Middlemore, born 13 November, 1835, died 2 January, 1841, buried in the General Cemetery, Birmingham, 6 January.
  4. Sarah, born 7 January, 1837, baptized 24 November, 1850, at Circus Chapel, Birmingham, residing, 1900, at Elvetham Road, Edgbaston.

    Figure 44  Signature of Sarah Middlemore

    Miss Middlemore has printed the following: (1) "Fragments and Comments; " (2) " Christian Socialism, a review of `Stephen Remarx,' and `The New Floreat ; "' (3) "Socialism considered in the light of the Sermon on the Mount;" (4) "Dr. Chalmers' Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns;" (5) "Heavenly Rights, and other papers," 1898 ; (6) "In His Steps, a criticism."  All are anonymous and privately circulated, and are, with one exception, undated. The opinions expressed controvert the various socialistic and bureaucratic tendencies of the present day.

  5. Agnes, born 13 February, 1838, baptized 24 November, 1850, at Circus Chapel, Birmingham, died 28 September, buried 3 October, 1855, in the General Cemetery, Birmingham.

  6. Richard Middlemore, born at Edgbaston, 1 July, 1839.  Ma­triculated at London University, 1856.  Died in London 1, and buried 4 January, 1890, in Kensal Green Cemetery. Administration granted in the Principal Registry, 3 May, 1890 to Thomas Middlemore, the brother.
  7. James Middlemore, born at Edgbaston 7 December, 1840, baptized at Llanfair Ynghornwy, Anglesey.

    8. Figure 45  Signature of James Middlemore

    Mr. Middlemore was educated at the Edgbaston Proprietary School under Dr. Badham, and matriculated at London University, 1858. For a short time he entered his father's counting-house, but commercial life proving distasteful, he has contented himself with following his literary inclinations, and has preferred to lead a retired life.

  8. Thomas Middlemore, 0f Hawkesley, of whom next (69).
  9. Emily Anne, born 19 April, 1843, died 12 August, 1856, buried, 16 August, in the General Cemetery, Birmingham.
  10. John Throgmorton Middlemore, of whom hereafter (70).
  11. Alice, born 24 December, 1845, died 12 April following, buried in the General Cemetery, Birmingham, 15 April, 1846.
  12. Robert Littleton Middlemore, born 13 May, 1847, died 24 December, 1851, and buried 29 December in the General Cemetery, Birmingham.
  13. Samuel George Chetwynd Middlemore, of Sunnyside, Great Malvern, co. Worcester, born at Edgbaston, 16 November, 1848, baptized privately at Chelsea, London, 6 December, 1886, died s .p. at the Hotel Bristol, Rome, aged forty-one, on Monday, 27 January, 1890, and was buried as a Roman Catholic in San Lorenzo Cemetery, Rome. Will dated 19 July, 1889, and proved at Worcester, 30 April, 1 890, by Osmund Airy, of "The Laurels," Solihull, and Thomas Horton, of Birmingham, the executors.

    14. Figure 46  Signature of S.G.C. Middlemore

    He was married at the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy, on 18 April, 1881, and afterwards, by the Rev. Gavin Langmuir, at the American church, to Maria Trinidad Howard, daughter 0f Henry Parkman Sturgh, consul for the United States at Manila. She died at Sunnyside, Malvern, 11 February, 1890, aged forty-three, and was interred as a Roman Catholic in Malvern Cemetery, m. i. Administration was granted at Worcester, 9 October, 1890, to Thomas Horton, of Birmingham, attorney of Frederic Russell Sturgis, M.D., the brother and only next of kin.

    S. G. C. Middlemore was educated at Edgbaston Pro­prietary School, under the Rev. Charles Badham, D.D. He matriculated, aged seventeen, at Merton College, Oxford, 13 October, 1866, and also at London University, 1868. Owing to ill health he removed his name from the books of Merton, but subsequently studied at Heidelburg, Zurich, and Dresden.  In Easter term, 1871, he entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, where, in the succeeding year, he gained a scholarship; but, after keeping six terms, in Sep­tember, 1873, left through ill health.  Thenceforward his life was spent in literature and travel.  He had a perfect knowledge of German and Italian, spoke and wrote French fluently, and had a fair literary knowledge of Spanish, besides being acquainted with some of the Swiss and Italian patois. His early married life was spent at Chelsea, where he and his wife helped one another in their literary work.

    For several years he was on the staff of "The Saturday Review," while he also acted as foreign correspondent for several continental journals. In 1878 he published in two volumes a translation of Burckhardt's "Civilization of the Period of the Renaissance in Italy," and in 1889, "The Great Age of Italian Painting."'

    In 1886 he removed to Malvern, and in 1890 he travelled to Rome in a state of weak health, and died there of pneu­monia, 27 January, at the early age of forty-one, and, as above stated, was interred as a Roman Catholic at San Lorenzo.

    His wife, Maria Trinidad Howard Sturgis, was born at Manila, in the Philippine Islands, 26 July, 1846, and she was educated there as a Roman Catholic. Like him she was an accomplished linguist, speaking with fluency besides English, Spanish, and Italian, French and German. Her published works were, "Round a Posada Fire," "Spanish Legendary Tales," and " Spanish Songs."

    She survived her husband only afortnight, and died at Malvern, where she was interred.

Sturgis. - The family of Sturgis has been well known in Boston, Massachusetts, for several generations, and emigrated from England to New England in the Seventeenth century. The Sturgises were connected with various notable New England families as Russell, Forbes, Parkman, and Perkin. Henry Parkman Sturgis for a time was partner in Manila with his elder brother, Russell Sturgis, who ultimately became a senior member of Baring Bros. and Co. He married Mary Georgiana Howard, and his only surviving son, Dr. F. R. Sturgis is now resident at New York.