Published at 05:27, Friday, 30 May 2008

On the flyleaf of a manuscript diary of a tour through Europe in 1846 and 1847 is the name “Jessie Maria Heward” and the address “73 Castle Street, Carlisle.”

In dispute: The Heward family home. On the left of this three-storey block, nearest the Cathedral, is 30 Castle Street which was bought by Sir Simon in 1838

But added in the margin in a different hand, in pencil, are a series of notes, one stating “This diary was purchased by me from a bookstall in the New Market, Aberdeen, 10 March 1926, Matthew Hay MD”.

The notes also explain that the tour was made by Jessie with her invalid sister, Jane (Ceta).

A card from Mr E Gore of the Blackfriar’s Bookshop, dated July 23, 1948, was enclosed with the diary to Tom Gray, the librarian at Carlisle library, saying: “This will be of use for you local collection,” where it remains today.

Also enclosed in the diary were three sheets of 20th-century notepaper giving more pencil notes from the Carlisle Journal obituary of Sir Simon Heward of Castle Street in 1846 and notes made from his will.

If this was not enough to authenticate the diary, the entry on November 17, 1846 confirms the Carlisle link.

The two sisters were then in Munich and were preparing to go out when a letter arrived from Mr McAlpin, “informing us of the sudden and melancholy death of our dearest lamented friend Simon Ewart of Carlisle”, wrote Jessie.

He was a valued friend and neighbour, “who has scarcely survived seven short months after the demise of my own dear and affectionate father”.

The importance of Mr Ewart to the two girls, who were the main beneficiaries of their father’s will, was, said Jessie, that he “was the most active of my own dear father’s executors and always took a warm interest in my sister and myself”.

Nothing further was heard until 1879 when both sisters had died and a series of court cases ensued.

The first was in the Probate Division of the High Court of Justice and the Journal carried a report sent by telegraph from their London reporter, headlined “Important Local Legitimacy Case.”

The reporter explained that Ceta Ellen Jane Heward had died unmarried and intestate in 1872. The sisters had fallen out when Jessie married Lieutenant Knipe in 1847.

This left Mrs Knipe, a widow, since 1853, to take out letters of administration and she became entitled to the property which had been left to her sister,

When Mrs Knipe died in 1877 a claim was made by Mrs Fitzgerald, a great niece of Sir Simon, who gave “the real state of facts in regard to Sir Simon and his family”.

In court Mrs Fitzgerald said: “I have often heard my mother reproach Mrs Knipe for her colour, she being of a particularly dark complexion and speak of her as an illegitimate person.”

While Mrs Knipe was angry at such blatant prejudice, “she never denied it”.

Sir Simon Heward had been born into a Cumberland family, and qualified as a surgeon in 1793.

He went to Madras as an assistant surgeon in 1796 and served for more than 30 years, retiring as First Member of the Medical Board there.

“He acquired considerable celebrity and he stayed in India until 1831,” stated the Journal.

For his services, he was knighted on June 25, 1836.

Continuing the evidence, St John Holker QC said “while in India he formed a connection with a native woman,” and although no marriage ever took place between them, there was no doubt that he had two children by her.

A register showed that the eldest daughter, Ceta Ellen Jane, was baptised at Fort George in 1897. It acknowledged she was “the natural daughter of Simon Heward”.

Quoted in the Journal was a Daily News report stating that Sir Simon “had peculiar views on the subject of marriage, considering that those who lived together were married in the sight of God”.

“Prior to 1820,” it was stated, Ceta left for Carlisle where she was joined by Jessie, whose certificate of baptism in Madras was also produced in court.

“The mother did not come with them,” said the Journal. She remained in India and died in 1833.

Meanwhile, Sir Simon followed the girls in 1831 and also went to live Carlisle.

There, Sir John Holker said, “he possessed some landed property of which he seemed to have been very proud”.

Sir Simon also bought 73 Castle Street in 1838 and this became their family home, latterly occupied by Ceta until her death.

With the renumbering of Carlisle streets in the mid-19th century, 73 became 30. Because of the proof of illegitimacy, letters of administration were withdrawn and 30 Castle Street reverted to the Crown.

This then led to a counter-claim by Carlisle Corporation who believed that, as lords of the manor, they had the right to the property under ancient royal charters.

Believing they had a good case the city took this to the Queen’s Bench Division, the newspaper headline this time being “The Escheat Case.”

On the second day of these 1888 proceedings it was decided the city had wholly failed to establish their case and that the decision of the Commission of 1884 that the house in question belonged to the Queen was correct.

An editorial in the Journal in July 1888 deduced “that the action was not one which any corporation would have undertaken that did not happen to have a learned archaeologist for a Town Clerk”, referring to Mr Nanson.

The report continued: “As the Crown costs have now been ascertained to amount to between £3,000 and £4,000 the total bill for this piece of archaeological litigation will be between £5,000 and £6,000.”

One of the places where Sir Simon had land was Crosby-on-Eden and he was buried in the churchyard there.

On the chest tomb is the inscription “much distinguished by his zealous service in Bhurtpore, Ava and other parts of India, who died at Carlisle April 14, 1846 aged 76.”

Also recorded on the stone is “Jessie Maria Knipe, daughter, widow of Major Knipe of Monkstown, County Dublin, who died at Rome, April, 16 1877 and buried there.”

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk