Fremlin-Key / BARING engagement

[Richard R]

From the Times of 19 Dec 2020: MR E. J. FREMLIN-KEY AND THE HON V. H. A. BARING The engagement is announced between Edward, younger son of Mr Jeremy Fremlin-Key of Wiltshire and Mrs Virginia Fremlin-Key of London, and Venetia, younger daughter of Lord Northbrook of Hampshire and Mrs Andrew Christie-Miller of London.

Edward James (b c1989 reg Q1 London) s of Jeremy John FREMLIN-KEY (b July 1953) by his 1983 m (reg Q2 London) to Virginia M NECKAR

Hon Venetia Harriet Anne BARING (b 1991) d of 6th Baron NORTHBROOK (b 1954) and Amelia Sarah Elizabeth (b 1960 reg Q2 Devon) d of Reginald David TAYLOR [by his 1958 m (reg Q4 Yorks) to Margaret J HILL]

[G. Willis]

I suspect a Fremlin-Key connection with the Wolseley baronets (as well as, through them, the de Trafford baronets,  Earls of Denbigh etc); some notes- inconclusive- follow:

1)

Jeremy John Fremlin-Key (I couldn't locate birth record) is- per his parents' death notices which list their children and grandchildren- son of William [Fremlin-] Key [the announcement being under "Fremlin-Key" but, after his name, noting "see Key"; sources seem to vary regarding whether or not "Fremlin" was a middle name or part of a compound surname] (1926-2010) and (m. 1947) Hermyone (d. 2013), dau. of Lt-Col George Malcolm Stewart McAlister, North Staffordshire Regiment.

2)

Basil Charles Daniel Rudolph Wolseley (1921-2018), of 29, Court Road, Newent, Glos., Flt Lt, R.A.F. (WWII) [s. of Sir Edric Charles Joseph Wolseley, 10th Bt] m. 1950, Ruth Key (1922-2020), dau. of Lt-Col William Tom Carter (1886-1956), O.B.E., of The Old Forge, West Malling, Kent; their daughter, (Theresa) Ann Margaret, married Robert William Hext-Fremlin (1950-), s. of Douglas Frederick J. Hext-Fremlin ["Hext" per birth record; per probate record, "or Hext", he being s. of William Alfred James Hext, of Fulham, railway clerk; I've never managed to establish the source of the "Fremlin", which appears nowhere evident in previous generations], of Southborough, Kent. Their children have used the name Hext-Fremlin and Wolseley-Hext. Ruth Key Carter's mother was Georgina Margaret (1899-1986), dau. of (per census records etc) George Key (1864-1922), of Rugeley, Staffs., clothier, and (m. 1893) Georgina (1867-), dau. of - M[a]ckenzie, sometime of Danzig (Georgina being, per census records, "Dantzig British Subject Germany"). A Geni source- https://www.geni.com/people/Georgina-Key/6000000019187296296- notes her birth at "Gdansk, Gdańsk, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland", and states her to be "biological daughter of Catherine Emma Nisbet and adopted daughter of Alexander Sharpe Nisbet". Usual caveats apply, of course.

The combination of names could of course be coincidental, but the possibility bears acknowledgement. In 1861, as recorded in "The Monthly Record of Births, Deaths and Marriages" there took place a marriage that would seem likely to be connected: "FREMLIN - KEY. May 22, at St Margaret's, Lee, Ralph James, son of Mr James Fremlin, of Wateringbury, to Mary Brooker, daughter of the late William Key, Esq.,  of Lee Terrace, Blackheath" [per other sources, "of the Stock Exchange, London"; he m. 1837, Elizabeth (1796-1872), dau. of Joseph Brooker, of Chelsfield] R. J. Fremlin's brother, William Arthur, married a Mary Ann Key in 1865, and their sister, Ann Durrant Fremlin, m. 1866 an Arthur William Key (b. London, 1840). It seems not unlikely that these Keys were related. Ralph James Fremlin (1833-1910) founded Fremlin's Brewery in Maidstone in the year of his marriage; the family is in BLG 1952 as "of Kemsing and Maidstone". Per that pedigree, R. J. Fremlin and his wife had one child, a dau.; William Arthur Fremlin and "Marianne", dau. of Joseph Key, of Brook Street, London W., three sons and four daughters, the youngest of whom, Ruth, married Dr Herbert Wolseley-Lewis, "grandson of Rev. Thomas Lewis, of Managon, Mont., and his wife Mary Anne Wolseley (see Burke's Peerage, Wolseley of Mount Wolseley Bt)", this being the 1745 creation made for the younger brother of the 5th Baronet, predecessor of Sir Edric, 10th Bt, mentioned above. This Wolseley connection might be coincidental or corroborative, but I would need to research further.

The above are at any rate just notes; the missing piece of the puzzle is why the Hexts became "Hext-Fremlin", something I hope to eventually establish but which has eluded me for some time. Per the research of David Fremlin- http://david.fremlin.de/tree.htm - all Fremlins are of the same Kent family, which I feel does not decrease the likelihood of a Key link also.