Discovered: a book owned by Mary Vial

A copy of Fordyce's Sermons to Young Women that was given to the young Mary Jane de Vial by her great-aunt has come to light. In it are handwritten notes on the dates of birth of Mary Jane, her sister Sophia, and a brother, Peter Andrew de Vial; her brother's departure for Cadiz; and the death of her mother.

In April of 2017, I was contacted by Mrs. Hazel Mills, a British lady residing in Denmark. Mrs Mills is a collector of Jane Austen’s books and a volunteer at the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation.

She wrote:

I have bought a copy of Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women that belonged to Mary Jane Vial. It was the gift of Elizabeth Nation. On the endpapers of Volume 2 are handwritten comments on the birth of Mary, Sophia and a brother Peter Andrew and his leaving Exeter for Cadiz in 1777.

Mrs. Mills kindly photocopied the cover and endpapers of this book for me, and gave permission for them to be reproduced here. I am of course extremely grateful to her for making contact and sharing this exciting find.

Elizabeth Nation nee Tremlett (1730-1818), who gave the book to the young Mary Jane de Vial, was Mary's great-aunt, sister of her maternal grandfather SamuelTremlett (1720-1755). Elizabeth married Kellow Nation (1720-1787), a merchant, on 19 March 1757 at St. David, Exeter, Devon.

Together with Elizabeth Tremlett’s brother Anthony (1725-1808), Kellow Nation was a Trustee of the Protestant Dissenters' Meeting House (Mint Meeting House) in Exeter. Anthony Tremlett and Kellow Nation were also both trustees of the bequest left to Mary Vial and her sister Sophia in their grandfather’s will).

It is tempting to think that the words inscribed in pencil in a childish hand are Mary’s own. However, if the birthdates are indeed correct, Mary Vial would have been 13 years old when she was presented with the book by her great-aunt Nation. It seems unlikely that the Mary Vial who presented in adult life as an educated woman of some literary skills would in her teens have written in such a childish and unformed hand. Possibly one of Mary’s children (Claire or Charles) wrote in the book as an exercise under the tutelage of their mother.

Whoever the author the inscription was, the details of the births, death and voyage to Cadiz are the nearest to being reliable first-hand information that we have found so far.

• It places Mary Vial's birth in 1768, and in the month of January

• Likewise, sister Sophia's birth is established as in March 1769

• The birth of a older brother in 1766 is recorded.

The last is of particular interest. Mary claimed to have travelled to the Continent (on her own) and to have been with her brother in Cadiz. St. Clair wrote:

Godwin knew too that Mary Jane had live in France while a girl. In one of his later letters he reminded her how courageous she had been in emigrating to the Continent at the age of 11 ... [She] had fled to her brother at Cadiz in order to escape [the French revolution].

-- St. Clair, Ch. 18, p.249

According to the inscription, Peter Andrew de Vial apparently departed Devon for Spain in 1778 when he was a mere 11 years old: significantly, the very age and time that Mary laid claim to for her own purported voyage to the Continent. (See Mary Jane Vial: Secrets and lies 1. Birth and parentage). Also notable is the coincidence of Mary's later claiming the name "Peter Andrew Deveraux" as her father.

I have been unable so far to find any further evidence of an older brother Peter Andrew, born in 1766. There were a further two sons named 'Peter' born to Peter/Pierre de Vial and his second wife Catherine Oak: Peter John Claud in 1788, and Peter in 1791. One of these may have survived to be the Peter Vial who resided at 10 Dalby Tce. Islington in 1837, mentioned in the House of Commons Papers for 1837 (Vol.48, p.xxiv) as having subscribed 3,000 pounds for 60 shares in the Westminster Bridge, Deptford and Greenwich Railway. Alternatively, this might have been Peter Andrew, who perhaps succeeded in making his fortune in Cadiz.

(See also: Mary Jane's mother: Mary Tremlett

Sources:

• Mrs Hazel Mills, Personal communication, including digital copies of the inscriptions in Mary Vial’s copy of Fordyce’s Sermons

• Various documents relating to the lease and trusteeship of land and buildings for the Mint Meeting House, Exeter, Devon. Anthony Tremlett and Kellow Nation are included as trustees:

- Devon Record Office 61/10/1/10 1 September 1760

- Devon Record Office 61/10/1/11 23 August 1765

- Devon Record Office 61/10/1/12 11 May 1774

- Devon Record Office 61/10/1/13a-b 27 and 28 July 1792

- Devon Record Office 61/10/1/14a-b 3 and 4 December 1811

• Vicki Parslow Stafford, Clairmont Family Tree at Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/tree/25149911

• William St. Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys: A Biography of a Family (1989)