Notes on Thomas Courtenay who witnessed the wedding of Sabina Jane Moore and Walter John Woodward in Dublin in 1877:
From the LDS site: Sergeant Thomas Courtenay, born St. Andrews, Dublin, on 26th March 1824, married Mary Browne in Dublin in 1859 (she was Catholic, so the wedding would have been R.C., therefore would not have been registered); Thomas Courtenay died at Royal Hospital, Kilmainhamm on March 20th 1895.
I wonder was this Thomas Courtenay the same man who was admitted to the Freemen of Dublin on 16th July 1863, being the grandson of Thomas Courtenay, Shearmen, who had been admitted in 1789, although the this man was named as Thomas Frederick Courtenay. This Thomas Frederick Courtenay was a yeoman of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham in 1863, and was named there on the Dublin Electoral Lists of 1865. Thomas is most likely a son of our direct ancestors, Frederick and Mary Courtenay of 27 Wellington Street. We descend, therefore, directly from his sister, Emily, who would marry John Lysaght Pennefather.
The Royal Hospital in Kilmainham had been founded as a home for retired military men, and military members of the Hospital staff were provided with apartments for themselves and their families.
Thomas Courtenay, married to Maria Browne, lived at the Royal Hospital and the christenings of his children are recorded on the Irish Genealogy website. The family were Catholic - if Thomas were another member of our Courtenay family, then he must have converted when he married Maria Browne. Their children were mostly baptised in the Church of St. James; the childrens' names mirror the names of the children of Mary Courtenay and Herbert Moore which makes me suspect a family link:
1) I haven't come across christening records for this child, but the records of Westminster School, London, show up Frederick William Courtenay, born 28th January 1859 to Thomas Courtenay of Dublin. He was admitted as an 'exhibitioner' on May 30th 1872, and then into St. Peters in 1873. He left the school in May 1876, and briefly attended Trinity College, Dublin, before dying at the age of 20 in April 1879.
2) William Courtenay was baptised in 1860 at St.Mary's, Haddington Road. William, who was Protestant later, married Emily Yorke in about 1886.
Emily Yorke had been born on 3rd January 1856 to a policeman, William Yorke, and to Eliza Courtney - her address at the time of her birth in 1856 was 27 Wellington St, the home of the Courtenay family, which seems to further link the family of Thomas Courtenay to the family of our direct ancestors, Frederick and Mary Courtenay. Eliza Courtney/Courtenay was most likely a daughter of Frederick and Mary Courtenay of 27 Wellington Street - if this is the case, then William Courtenay and Emily Yorke were first cousins.
William Courtenay and Emily Yorke had three children in Dublin - Robert William Henry Courtenay was born on 27th May 1892 at 2 Avondale Road. (William's sister, Adelaide, was living at 3 Avondale Road in 1900.) On 12th May 1894, at 45 Avondale Road, the couple had Dorothy Mary Elizabeth Courtenay. Finally, on 2nd December 1897, at 24 Hardwicke Street, they had Sylvia Eugenie Adelaide Courtenay.
William and his wife, Emily, were living at 12 Broadstone Avenue, Dublin, in 1911; William was an asylum attendant. Also in the house was his younger brother, the widowed Thomas Courtenay, a musician. Thomas was present with his 18 year old son, Thomas, who had been born in India. See below....
Emily Courtenay died at 2 Avondale Road, North Circular Rd., Dublin, on 10th November 1933.
3) Mary Ellen Courtney of the Royal Hospital, baptised 11th November 1861; the sponsors were Patrick and Mary Ellen Dwyer.
4) Thomas Courtenay was born 12th May 1865. Thomas was a musician with the military and was posted to Lucknow, Bengal, where he married in Chunar, on 4th November 1891, Ann McDonald, the daughter of Henry McDonald. The marriage record records that Thomas was the son of Thomas Courtenay, and that he had been born in 1865. Ann had been born in 1872. Their son, Thomas Courtenay, was born in Lucknow, Bengal, on 25th January 1894. Following Ann's death, Thomas and his son, Thomas Junior, returned to Dublin, where they were recorded living (or visiting) with Thomas' brother, William, in 1911. (See above.)
5) Robert Benjamin Courtenay, born 11th November 1866. Robert was a military man, and was posted to Fyzabad, Bengal, India where, on 21st November 1891, he married Edith Pant, the daughter of a John Pant.
The Indian Army Quarterly List of 1st January 1912, recorded Robert Benjamin Courtenay as a warrant officer in the barrack department in Allahabad, Bengal.
'The London Gazette' of 19th May 1916, recorded Robert Benjamin Courtenay under its heading for the Indian Army Departments as - "To be Assistant Commissary, with the honorary rank of Lieutenant. Conductor Robert Benjamin Courtenay. Dated 8th February 1916."
The widowed Edith Courtenay, who had been born circa 1878, died on 10th September 1936 in Lucknow, Bengal.
6) Emilia/Emily Courtney was born 10th December 1868, at Royal Hospital. The sponsors were Robert Courtney and Julia Doyle.
An Emilia Courtney, daughter of Thomas, married Thomas Gallagher, son of Terence, in 1889.
The sponsor, Robert Courtney, may well have been the Robert Courtenay Junior who was also admitted to the Freemen of Dublin in 1857 by virtue of being the grandson of the original Thomas Courtenay, Shearman, although this Robert Courtney would have had to be Catholic, since only Catholics were permitted to be sponsors in Catholic christenings.
7) Edward Courtenay of Royal Hospital, was baptised on 18th September 1872 and was sponsored by Elizabeth McCabe.
8) Adelaide Courtenay of Royal Hospital, was baptised on 26th December 1874 and was sponsored by Patrick and Maria McCabe.
On 19th September 1901, Adelaide Courtenay married the Co. Down widower, James Clifford, in Grangegorman Church of Ireland church. This was James' second marriage - the first had been to Charlotte Matilda Wright, the daughter of Frederick Wright, a caretaker who lived at 71 Rathmines Road. James, a policeman, was stationed at the time in Dundrum.
It seems that the Courtenay children, although baptised Catholic, were reared Protestant, since yet another of Thomas and Mary Courtenay's children had reverted to the Church of Ireland by adulthood. James was a sergeant with the Royal Irish Constabulary, and was living in Bray, Co. Wicklow at the time of his Church of Ireland marriage to Adelaide. His father was a farmer, William John Clifford. Adelaide's address was given as 3 Avondale Road, Phibsboro. Her father was a clerk, Thomas Courtenay, and the witnesses were a Meta Stringer and what seems to be James Smyth Mac Sighe. A few months later, the 1901 census picks the newly-weds up at Fairview Terrace in Bray, Co. Wicklow, where Adelaide was living with her husband and his five children.
A lady's maid named Sarah Courtenay, aged 22 (the age is wildly inaccurate however) and unmarried, was also in the household, and was stated to be a cousin of the head of the household, James Clifford. This must surely be Adelaide's younger sister, Sarah.
9) Sarah Courtenay of Royal Hospital was baptised on 27th November 1876 and was sponsored by Sarah Fulds. See above.
10) Sabina Courtenay was baptised on May 23rd 1879 and was sponsored by Michael and Maria Baxter. Sabina, a dressmaker, moved to England where she, in 1900 in Lambeth, married a civil servant, Frederick Temple Martin, who had been born in 1868 in Lambeth, London, to Temple Chevallier Martin and Elizabeth Mary Parkyn.
The couple had three children - Bina Elizabeth Martin, born 1900 in Lambeth and baptised in Lambeth All Saints Church on November 16th 1900 (the family were living then at 41 Jeffries Road), Alice Courtenay Martin, born 1906 in Surbiton, and Temple Chevallier Martin who had been born in 1909 in Lambeth.
In 1901, Sabina Martin was living with her 5-month old daughter, Bina E. Martin, in a flat at Herne Hill, Lambeth, while Frederick was at home with his father and brothers. He, oddly, stated on the census return that he was single, not married. Something fishy is going on here.
It seems that Sabina (sometimes spelt Subina) and Frederick separated, since the 1911 census showed Frederick living with the three children at 183 King's Avenue, Clapham, while Sabina was living at 164 Barcombe Avenue, Wandsworth, Streathem. She had filled the return out twice. The first entry was scribbled out, and read 'Subina Elizabeth Martin, aged 30, married 11 years, 4 children born alive, 3 surviving.' She filled out the second line as 'Subina Courtenay, single, dressmaking.' In actual fact, the first entry shows a slightly different handwriting from the second. Whoever filled the return out, Sabina Courtenay was listed on the electoral registers at this same address for the next few years. She died in Streathem in 1933, this according to the LDS website. I wonder were the couple covering up the marriage, or perhaps they never actually married in the first place?
Frederick Temple Martin married a second time in 1918. Wife Number Two was Minnie Sarah Boyd who had been born in 1891 in Lambeth. They had a son, Richard Temple Martin (1921 - 1979). Frederick Temple Martin died at 23 Cowdrag House, Dog Kennell Hill, East Dulwich, on 21st December 1933, and his widow, Minnie Sarah Martin, administered his estate.
Temple Chevallier Martin, the son of Frederick and Sabina Martin, died at 61 Casino Avenue, Herne Hill, Surrey on 15th September 1933 and the will was proved by his uncle, a municipal officer, Piers Temple Martin who was the younger brother of Temple's father, Frederick.
The LDS site provides information for the children of Sabina Courtenay and Frederick Chevallier Martin. Bina Elizabeth Martin, known as Chick Martin, died in South Africa in April 1985.
Her sister, Alice Courtenay Martin married Burton Murrell, and died in 1980 in Manapouri, Southland, New Zealand.
The fourth child, who didn't survive infancy, was Irene Clara Martin, who had been born in London in 1903, and who had died the following year.