The Bishop of Helston

by G.M.B Maynard

ISBN: 978-1-903908-86-0

MATRIX: The companion volume to A.N.Mathew: Dead Man Walking?
GMBM: Yes it is. Mary Bishop* is wife to Richard, half-uncle of Arnold Harris Mathew who relied to some limited extent on her information in making his claim to the title, Earl of Landaff.
MATRIX: Let's be clear here. This is the Mary Matthews who has been for so long "vilified" by genealogists - if that is not too strong a word?
GMBM: The very same Mary Bishop. Mary's mother, nee Mary Eleanor Bogle, is second cousin to Marianne Norris, the wife of Edward Archer Wilde, brother of Lord Truro...
MATRIX: Let me stop you here... This is Baron Truro of Bowes? who is married to Queen Victoria's first cousin.
GMBM: That is correct... Marianne's son, Edward Archer Wilde marries Mary Penelope Donnithorne, who is a relation of Mary Bishop's father, Nicholas Donnithorne Bishop. Mary Penelope's brother, Arthur Bampton Donnithorne is married to an Arundell of Wardour Castle in Witshire. I should add that Edward Archer Wilde's brother, James Wilde, Baron Penzance, is married to the Earl of Radnor's daughter....
MATRIX: I'm just trying to equate this with the accusation made that the Bishops supported A.H.M's claim, in 1896, in order to vicariously join the aristocracy.
GMBM: It's a joke. In doing research for The Bishop of Helston I found that the widow of William Bishop, Flora, nee Backhouse, re-married Henry Hyde, the son of Edward, Earl of Clarendon. His sister is queen.
MATRIX: What I don't understand is how your family, the Bishops got their reputation in the first place...
GMBM: For having suburban fantasies? In 1839 the Barclay-Allardice's suddenly, from our point view, laid claim to the Earldom of Menteith. Nicholas D. Bishop's wife, Mary Eleanor - nee Bogle - descended from Elizabeth Graham. Mary's father, James Bogle, in his Last Testament of 1809 informs his daughter/reader of a meeting he had with miniaturist John Bogle of Edinburgh. [John Bogle is recognised by the B-Allardices as a rival claimant; it was a question of which sister had been the elder]. James Bogle - who appears to have had no adult contact with his father, Andrew B., MD. of Jamaica - is told by John Bogle that he, James, is the true heir to the earldom of Menteith....
MATRIX: In chapter four, The Miniaturist, of your book, A.N.Mathew: Dead Man Walking, you go into this at some length. The long and the short of it is that Mrs Bishop, who is in poor health - her daughter is in India and none the wiser - succeeds in blocking the B-Allardice's claim.
GMBM: That's right. What I think she got wrong - I'm not a genealogist - was in having a Bogle father and son both marry Grahams....
MATRIX: You think Elizabeth Graham was the elder sister of Mary, the mother of John Bogle.
GMBM: It's a possibility.
MATRIX: I read somewhere that the 7th Earl of Menteith had claimed he had the "reddest blood" in the land.
GMBM: From what I gather, they, the Grahams of Menteith, had been earls of Strathearn....

* Mary Bishop's mother is the second cousin of Marianne Norris, who is married to the brother-in-law of Queen Victoria's first cousin. Mary Bishop's husband, Richard Matthews, is the eldest son of the de jure 2nd Earl of Landaff, Arnold Nesbitt Mathew/Matthews. Arnold Harris Mathew, in making his claim, risked exposing Richard Matthews, that he was half-Indian and related through his wife to the royal family....