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Fawcus Family Portrait 1860

What we know about this image :

The Fawcus family were a notable family in Seaton Carew from 1850s to 1870s. Robert Fawcus was the head of the family. He was born in Stepney in 1817, and his father died when he was a baby.  His mother then married her brother in law which meant that Robert’s uncle was also his step father!  Marrying your brother’s widow was illegal at this time. They declared on their marriage licence application that there was no impediment, despite knowing this was untrue. To avoid detection they married well outside of the area at St Dunstan’s Church, Stepney in Middlesex. 

The Fawcus house in Seaton Carew was on The Green to the west of North Road. This was later combined with the adjoining house and became the Haraap & Sterndale girls’ school. It is said that all the wooden panelling and other items in the house were from shipwrecks.

 

Robert Fawcus and his wife Anna Maria had a large family – 10 sons and 4 daughters. He was a timber and coal merchant

In this picture are Henry (born 1842), Thomas Powell (1843), Robert Speciall (1845), Arthur (1847), John (1848), Anna Maria (1851), William Albert (1851), Emily Josephine (1853), Evans (1855), Charles Octavius (1856), Frances Mary (1857), and Ernest Augustus (1859). There two children Lucy Beatrice Evelyn (1861), and Louis Edward (1864) were born after this picture was taken.

Date (of image) : 1860

Donor : Cliff Cordiner

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