Edward Moseley

Edward Moseley Perkins (1821–1871) married Octavia Shuter (1826-1861)

Edward Moseley married Octavia at Coulsdon in 1848. A fragment of his wedding shirt is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Octavia was the daughter of wealthy landowner Thomas Allen Shuter (1787-1860) and Sara Frances Valpy (1790-1870). Octavia’s sister, Fanny Valpy Shuter, married Alfred Perkins, Edward Moseley’s cousin.

Edward Moseley Perkins made a significant contribution to the development of the Birtley Iron Company. This company was formed in the 1820s operating the Birtley Iron Works and nearby collieries supplying coal. The business continued until 1935 when it was taken over by Daimler.

The Birtley Iron Company was very much a family business. In 1858 the partners were: Jane Hornby Perkins (Edward’s mother), Charles Frederick Perkins (Edward’s older brother), Edward Mosely Perkins, Augustus Henry Hunt (brother to John Hine Hunt, husband of Edward’s sister-in-law, Augusta Nona Shuter) and Eden Ibbetson (widow of Percival Perkins, Edward’s cousin). 

Edward and Octavia and their family moved into Birtley Hall after the death in 1857 of its previous occupant, Birtley Iron Works manager John Hine Hunt. In the 1860s Edward made many alterations and Birtley Hall was famous for his fine conservatory of ferns, described as being just like a hot jungle.

Colliery owners and factory managers during the period of the industrial revolution and beyond don’t necessarily have a great reputation. For the thousands of people work in the mines and the iron works must have been a dirty and dangerous business bringing small rewards while some members of the Perkins family became extremely wealthy. However, Edward Mosely Perkins seems to have had a public service ethos and to have been well regarded. He was a Councillor, Magistrate and, in 1864, Lord Mayor of Newcastle. He was also an officer in the Durham Rifle Corps. The Birtley Iron Company provided housing for its workers when it built the mining village of Perkinsville near Chester-le-Street in 1856.

Edward Moseley and Octavia had five children.

1. Augusta Maud Perkins (1849-1933), known as Maud, married Herbert Durrel Terry (1847-1911) at St James, Westminster in 1975. They had no children.

Herbert was the son of Col Thomas Henry Clarke Terry and Charlotte Fellowes. His family home was Burvale House, near Walton-on-Thames.

Maud and Herbert were living at Burvale House in 1881. At that time Herbert was a Captain in the Royal Scots. Ten years later Maud and Herbert were living in Northumberland where Herbert was Chief Constable of Northumberland Police. In 1899 Maud and Herbert returned to live in Surrey when Herbert was appointed as head of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary for England and Wales, a post he retained until his death in 1911.

2. Charles Perkins (1851-1905), known as Charlie P, married Edith Law Hunter (1854-1929) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1874.

Edith was the daughter of William Hunter, a coal owner, alderman and JP who lived at Moor Lodge, in the Spital Tongues area of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Charles furthered his father’s interests in coal and iron. He became a director of the Consett Iron Company and owned coal mines in Northumberland as well as being a partner in the Birtley Iron works. Charles and Edith moved from Birtley to live in fine country houses in Northumberland, Kirkley Hall near Ponteland, Gallowhill Hall near Bolam and Middleton Hall near Belford.  He was a keen sportsman, enjoying hunting, shooting, fishing and horse racing. He owned a number of racehorses and it was in August 1905 while returning from the stables of his trainer, Captain Bewicke, that Charles died following a motor accident.

On the afternoon of Monday 21st he was being driven to Meldon station from Foulmart Law by Captain Bewicke’s driver, Robert Platt, in the Argyll *. The driver had only been driving for five weeks and the car was fitted with a Govan gearbox, notorious for being difficult to use. At the sharp right hand part of the S bend before the station the driver lost control of the car which rolled over. The driver was thrown clear with no significant injuries but Mr Perkins suffered a compound fracture of the left forearm, bruises on the body and a head injury. He was taken back to Foulmart Law and seen by Dr Arthur Brummell, but he died at 2 am on Friday. He was buried in Bolam churchyard after a service for which a special train had been laid on by the North Eastern Railway Company from Birtley via Newcastle and Morpeth. The church was crowded to overflowing and the service was held by the vicars of Longhurst (Rev R Proctor), Bolam (Revd R E Thomas) and Whalton (Rev Canon Walker).

* Argyll cars were produced in Scotland from 1899 to 1932

Maud, Charles' sister, donated a memorial in Bolam Church.

Probate records show that when he died Charles Perkins was a very rich man indeed; his estate was valued at £489,480, over £53 million pounds in today’s money.

Charles and Edith had two daughters

2.1. Violet Edith Perkins (1874-1972) married Herbert George Fenwick, known as Bertie, (1870-1937) in Bolam, Northumberland in 1895. 

Herbert George Fenwick was the son of George Anthony Fenwick (1840-1912), a banker, and Mary Louisa Echalaz (1846-1872). The Fenwicks were an established family of bankers in Northumberland during the nineteenth century; Violet’s father and Mark Fenwick were both directors of the Consett Iron Works.

Violet and Bertie began their married life living in Birtley. Violet’s father’s will made it clear that he wanted his son-in-law to manage Birtley Iron Works and Pelaw Collieries after his death. However, by 1911 Violet and Bertie had moved to Temple Dinsley in the village of Preston, Hertfordshire where Edward Lutyens was engaged to add major extensions to their house.

http://www.prestonherts.co.uk/fenwicksattd.html

In 1917 Violet and Bertie divorced and in 1920 Violet married Robert Clayton Swan (1864-1929), son of Robert Swan and Lucy Clayton. He had filed for divorced from his first wife, Mildred Mary Elliot, naming Captain Percival Bewicke, Violet’s father’s racehorse trainer, as a co-respondent. Mildred died in 1917 in France, where she was working in Royal Army Service Corps canteens.

At the time of the 1939 census Violet was living at Barham Manor in Suffolk.

2.2. Nancy Perkins (1880-1967) married William Matthew Burrell (1876-1914), son of William John Burrell and Helena Elizabeth Browne, in Northumberland in 1903.

Major William Matthew Burrell served in the 2nd Boer War. He was on route to France in 1914 when he contacted pneumonia and died.

http://www.newmp.org.uk/article.php?categoryid=99&articleid=1432&displayorder=77

In 1924 Nancy married James Donald Cawley (1889-1967), son of Stephen Cawley and Harriet Plumbley. James Donald Cawley was a partner in the Birtley Iron Company as a trustee for Charles Perkins.

3. Ada Perkins (1853-1932) married Trevor Bruce Tyler (1841-1923) son of Rev. Roper Trevor Tyler, Rector of Llantrithyd, and Isabel Bruce Pryce in Chester-le-Street in 1873.

Major General Trevor Bruce Tyler was an army officer who served in Canada and India before retiring to settle in Llantrithyd, Glamorgan

Windows and Tablets in memory of Major General Trevor Bruce Tyler and his son can be found in St Nicholas Church, near Cardiff.

Ada and Trevor had two children.

3.1 Isobel Maud Tyler (1874-1951) married Reginald Copleston Bond (1866-1936), son of Rev. Frederick Hookey Bond, in Simla in 1897. They had no children.

Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Copleston Bond served on the North-West Frontier in 1890 and with the Tirah Expedionary Force.  He fought in the Second Boer War.  In the First World War he became a prisoner of war. His amusing sketches give an insight into life in a PoW camp.

Isabel and Reginald retired to Nethergate House in Clare, Suffolk when Reginald left the army in 1919. He spent much of his time painting as a member of the Ipswich Art Club. He also wrote a book, ‘Prisoners Grave and Gay’ (Blackwood, London, 1935).

3.2 Roper Maxwell Tyler (1878-1919)

Roper Maxwell Tyler followed in the footsteps of his father when he joined the army. A memorial plaque in St Nicholas Church tells his story:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

LIEUT.COL. ROPER MAXWELL TYLER DSO

CROIX DE GUERRE WITH PALM, OFFICER OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR

OF THE DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY

DIED AT BONN ON THE RHINE FEB 26th 1919, AGED 41, WAS BURIED

AT EUSKIRCHEN AND AFTERWARDS REMOVED TO COLOGNE CEMETERY

ONLY SON OF MAJ.GEN.TREVOR BRUCE TYLER

HE SERVED ON THE STAFF DURING THE GREAT WAR FROM JAN 1916 TILL

FEB 1919, WAS SIX TIMES MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES AND AT THE TIME

OF HIS DEATH HE HELD THE APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANT ADJUTANT

& QUARTER MASTER GENERAL TO THE 1st DIVISION OF THE 1st ARMY

4. Arthur Edward Perkins (1855-1855) died in infancy.

5. Claire Perkins (1856-1949) married George Hawkins Hext (1854-1929), son of Rev. John Hawkins Hext, Vicar of Kingsteignton, in Devon in 1879.

George Hawkins Hext was a solicitor practising in Devon.

Claire and George had two children.

5.1 John Edward Hext (1880-1921) married Catherine Gordon Macloud (born 1883), daughter of John Macloud, in Meerut in  1907.

John Edward Hext was a captain in the Indian Army. He died in the British Station Hospital, Rawalpindi.

John and Catherine’s only son, George Ramsey Hext (1908-1931), was an officer in the Indian Army. In 1931 he was murdered while travelling on a train. The story has been told in a privately published book, “The Punjab Mail Murder”, written by Roger Perkins.

5.2 George Trevor Barkley Hext (1881-1949) married Ellen Blanche Stratford (1867-1963), daughter of James Campbell Stratford, in Bombay in 1904. They had no children.

George Trevor Barkley Hext was a captain in the Indian Army.  He and his wife retired to Cornwall.