Was Mary A. Morter the half-sister of Queen Victoria?

[Sam Sloan]

Delivered-To: sl...@ishipress.com
From: Donna Ferguson <ferg...@oplin.lib.oh.us>
Reply-To: "ferg...@oplin.lib.oh.us" <ferg...@oplin.lib.oh.us>
To: "'sl...@ishipress.com'" <sl...@ishipress.com>
Subject: Victoria's sibling !!!!?????
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 19:13:21 -0500
Organization: Wilmington Public Library
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet E-mail/MAPI - 8.0.0.4211

I found something that you might find very interesting. In Ross
County,
Ohio in South Salem cemetery is buried a woman who claimed to be Queen

Victoria's half-sister.

The stone on the grave reportedly reads:

Mary A. Morter, wife of B.J. Morter, a native of England. Died April
16,
1852, aged 34 years, 1 mo. and 4 days. She was the daughter of George,
Duke
of Kent, and father of Queen Victoria.

We know that Victoria's father is named as Edward, Duke of Kent and
that
Victoria was born in 1819.

I can find no record of any half-siblings of Queen Victoria and I do
not
know who George is unless is was a part of Edward's full name.

What do you think? Did this woman lead the people of Ross County to
believe
that she was Victoria's half sister or was she really and truly a half

sister.

I love your website.

Donna

[Sutliff]

Unfortunately this is more than 200 years beyond the scope of this newsgroup
so should be posted elsewhere.

"Sam Sloan" <sl...@ishipress.com> wrote in message
news:3c85a865...@ca.news.verio.net...

[His Jadedness]

>I can find no record of any half-siblings of Queen Victoria and I do
>not
>know who George is unless is was a part of Edward's full name.

Victoria did have half-siblings, the children of her mother's first marriage to
Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen.

The children were:
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Emich, 3rd Prince of Leiningen
Princess Anna Feodorovna Auguste Charlotte Wilhemine of Leiningen
--
His Jadedness, Andy
"PK, High Priestess of Dianaism; like Carthage, MUST be destroyed."

[Gryphon801]

There was a rumor at one time that the Duke of Kent had an illegitimate
daughter in Canada when he was stationed there, but I doubt its substance.
Could this woman have claimed to be the Duke's daughter by his Canadian
mistress?

[Nicky]

> Mary A. Morter, wife of B.J. Morter, a native of England. Died April
> 16,
> 1852, aged 34 years, 1 mo. and 4 days. She was the daughter of George,
> Duke
> of Kent, and father of Queen Victoria.
> We know that Victoria's father is named as Edward, Duke of Kent and
> that
> Victoria was born in 1819.
> I can find no record of any half-siblings of Queen Victoria and I do
> not
> know who George is unless is was a part of Edward's full name.
> What do you think? Did this woman lead the people of Ross County to
> believe
> that she was Victoria's half sister or was she really and truly a half
> sister.

Well, the various pre-Victorian royals were certainly notorious for having
lots of mistresses and illegitimate children.
It was such a common thing that it probably wasn't considered worth
mentioning.

I suppose the obvious thing to check would be whether Mary Morter (or her
mother) received any kind of pension or annuity from England, and if so who
was paying it.

There are DNA tests which can be done, of course. The UK royals gave some
genetic samples so that bones allegedly belonging to the last Tsar of Russia
and his family could be tested.

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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[A Tsar Is Born]

sl...@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) wrote in message news:<3c85a865...@ca.news.verio.net>...

> I found something that you might find very interesting. In Ross
> County,
> Ohio in South Salem cemetery is buried a woman who claimed to be Queen
>
> Victoria's half-sister.
>
> The stone on the grave reportedly reads:
>
> Mary A. Morter, wife of B.J. Morter, a native of England. Died April
> 16,
> 1852, aged 34 years, 1 mo. and 4 days. She was the daughter of George,
> Duke
> of Kent, and father of Queen Victoria.
>
> We know that Victoria's father is named as Edward, Duke of Kent and
> that
> Victoria was born in 1819.
>
> I can find no record of any half-siblings of Queen Victoria and I do
> not
> know who George is unless is was a part of Edward's full name.
>
> What do you think? Did this woman lead the people of Ross County to
> believe
> that she was Victoria's half sister or was she really and truly a half
>
> sister.

Nothing could be less likely than that Edward, Duke of Kent, who was
not the screw-around type of guy (he had lived with the same mistress
for nearly 20 years before he married Victoria of Saxe-Coburg), would
have had an affair during his brief but happy marriage -- which would
cover the year of Mary's conception and birth. He had been stationed
in Canada for some years, but I believe went home in 1816 and
certainly never returned to the Americas.

Sounds like someone's wild imagination. Perhaps her mother wasn't
married and made up this tale to get her offspring to accept the fact.

Jean Coeur de Lapin
atsar...@hotmail.com

[shieldss...@gmail.com]

Birth: Mar. 12, 1818
London
City of London
Greater London, England
Death: Apr. 16, 1852
South Salem
Ross County
Ohio, USA

The stone at the grave of Queen Victoria's half-sister reads: "Mary A. MORTER, w/o B.J. MORTER. A native of England. Died April 16, 1852 aged 34 years, 1 mo and 4 days. She was d/o George, Duke of Kent, and father of Queen Victoria." (Info per Co. Gen. Soc.)


Final resting place for many veterans. Veterans of 9 wars in fact. Many of the oldest burials have large heavy slabs over them, this was to protect the graves from the wolves. This is considered to be one of the oldest and most historic graveyards in Ohio.
---------------------
The following info supplied by member #46804831 (though I made a few edits for spelling). Unsure what the source of this information is from.

From Kensington Palace in London, England to a small frame house in a hamlet in the Ohio Southland reflected quite a remarkable contrast in life styles, but one that was borne with dignity and grace by an older half sister of Queen Victoria. Her name was Mary, the daughter of the Duke of Kent and a granddaughter of King George III --during whose reign the American colonists revolted and successfully fought for their independence.

Following the death of King George III in 1820, his eldest son, George IV, succeeded to the throne and reigned as king for only ten short years before his death in 1830. Leaving no heirs, the throne passed to his younger brother, William IV, who then occupied the throne even less time, dying in 1837. He, too, had no heirs and the crown was then passed to the family of the next youngest brother, Edward, who had died in 1820. Edward had been twice married and by his first wife had fathered Mary. By all rights, upon the death of her uncle, King William IV, Mary would have ascended to the throne becoming Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India.

But, alas! Mary, who had been born in March of 1818, had committed the unforgivable sin of European royalty: she had married a commoner! And because she had joined in holy wedlock to one not of royal bloodlines, by the time of her uncle's death in 1837, she had already been disinherited and shunned by her royal relatives. And thus it occurred that the right to the throne fell to her younger sister-Victoria-who had been born less than two years after Mary to Edward and his second wife, Victoria Maria Louisa-a sister of King Leopold I of Belgium. Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 until her death in 1901 was the longest in British history and is chiefly remembered as one of -peace and prosperity.

"But this story is not about Victoria but her older sister, Mary, who followed her heart to a life of hard work and privation living her last days in a small town thousands of miles and an ocean away from her native land where she could have led a much pampered and luxurious existence. Although she was highly educated and primed for the role of queen, young Mary fell in love with Blythe Jagward Morter, a stonemason by trade. Details of their love story are now lost to memory, but it can be presumed the couple met when Morter was employed to work on the palace grounds where Mary lived. Bluebloods live secluded lives and it is hard to imagine how else Mary could have gotten to know a day laborer so well she could fall in love with him. Despite the chance she might someday fall heir to the throne, her love for B.J. Morter overcame any desires she might have harbored for power and fame.

When only eighteen years of age she disavowed her heir ship, received a small dowry from her family and was ostracized from the royal House of Hanover. Less than two years passed before her uncle William died and her sister Victoria was crowned queen.Just how long Mary and B.J. Morter remained in England is [--?--] but a few years after their marriage the decision was made to move to America.

Family tradition relates that B.J. left Mary (with their several children) and traveled to the United States to find a suitable home in their new country. What attracted Mr. Morter to the hamlet of South Salem in southern Ohio is yet another of those questions which family history and local folklore fail to answer today. But there is a good possibility that perhaps a relative or close friend had already settled in this part of southern Ohio and had written to Mary and B.J. about the fertile land, prospering cities and town and excellent job opportunities the region offered. Regardless, B. J. Morter found his way to South Salem and in 1850 bought a town in lot within a stone's throw of the village's large academy building that had been erected only eight years earlier. He then contracted with local carpenters to erect a modest frame house suitable for his wife and children. Once the home was under construction Morter wrote Mary she should leave for America and he would meet her in New York City.

But sometimes the best-laid plans go awry and B.J.'s family did not show up when expected. When this occurred he became alarmed and set sail for England. But Mary had received her husband's letter and had made the necessary preparations to leave her native land. It simply took longer than B.J. expected and in an ironic twist of circumstances, as he was sailing east across the Atlantic for the British Isles, Mary and their six children were sailing west to America. Upon disembarking in New York City and not finding her husband, the almost penniless Mary Morter exhibited courage and resourcefulness. During the several weeks she and the children were forced to wait for B.J.'s return, Mary managed to find work to pay for their room and board. She utilized her talents of making lace and crocheting-skills she had quite possibly learned as a young girl being raised in much refined royal society.

When B.J. Morter returned from England the family began their arduous overland Journey to Ohio, probably traveling by stagecoach and canal to their new home in Ross County. Upon arriving in South Salem the Morters discovered their house was still not completed, some of the windows were not yet installed and much of the fresh plaster inside the house was still wet. But having nowhere else to live, the family moved in and made the best of it. But the long trip across the sea, several weeks working in New York City, the rough inland travel to Ohio and finally moving into what had to be a damp, drafty house proved too much for the 33 year old mother of six. Not long after moving to South Salem, Mary developed a bad cold and in her already weakened condition she contracted tuberculosis. Living, in an age when TB was poorly understood and medical techniques were primitive at best, the young wife and mother was doomed.

The following spring on April 16,1852, Mary Morter died and was interred in the village cemetery within sight of her little home. She had surrendered her hope of becoming queen when she married a commoner and she consequently surrendered her life as she sought a happier existence for her family in a foreign land far from Kensington Palace in London. Skilled as a stonemason, B.J. Morter carved his wife's tombstone. It is a fairly small headstone with a simple design. However, close to the bottom of this sandstone tablet-near the grass line Morter carved an interesting one-word inscription: "Think". Precisely what he wanted passersby to contemplate after reading his inscription is not known but perhaps he was hoping they would reflect on his noble wife's momentous decision, which changed her life's course from one of luxury, power and fame to one of obscurity, hardship and a much shortened life span.




Family links:
Children:
William Isaac Morter (1841 - 1896)*
Emily Harriett Morter Mowbray (1849 - 1925)*

*Calculated relationship

Inscription:
34y1m4d, native of England, wife of B J

Note: Half sister to Queen Victoria

Burial:
South Salem Cemetery
South Salem
Ross County
Ohio, USA

I LIVED NEARBY IN LEESBURG, HIGHLAND CO., OHIO. TERRY

[Wjhonson]

It is complete nonsense.
There was no such named child of the Duke of Kent

-------------------------------
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[taf]

On Monday, October 23, 2017 at 2:00:47 PM UTC-7, shieldss...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> The stone at the grave of Queen Victoria's half-sister reads: "Mary A.
> MORTER, w/o B.J. MORTER. A native of England. Died April 16, 1852 aged
> 34 years, 1 mo and 4 days. She was d/o George, Duke of Kent, and father
> of Queen Victoria." (Info per Co. Gen. Soc.)
>

This was taken from Find-a-Grave, but curiously leaves out the maiden name given her there, Harrison. Likewise the images of the stone do not show the text about George, Duke of Kent, though there is no telling what might be buried.

taf

[Peter Stewart]

One imagines that a daughter of Queen Victoria's father would have known
that his name was Edward, not George .... But then I suppose she did not
compose her own epitaph in weird telegraphese ("w/o" and "d/o" within
quotation marks? seriously?).

Edward is supposed to have had a de facto wife who was a Catholic while
he was in Canada (where Prince Edward Island was named in honour of him,
not of someone called George). There are other claims as to offspring,
but the basis for this one seems preposterous.

Peter Stewart

[Wjhonson]

It's really bizarre how a story like this can appear when this "first wife" as find a grave states, the purported mother of Mary as they there say, was his cousin Caroline of Brunswick

After the birth (and death) of their *only* child in 1817 , they separated and never again slept together. In fact he went to considerable lengths to divorce her. It was the scandal of the times and was in all the papers.

That someone would try to cobble together a bizarre story of Mary's parentage which is so easily disproven is the mark of an amateur

-----Original Message-----
From: taf <taf.me...@gmail.com>
To: gen-medieval <gen-me...@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Mon, Oct 23, 2017 4:20 pm
Subject: Re: Was Mary A. Morter the half-sister of Queen Victoria?

[Peter Stewart]

On 24-Oct-17 10:44 AM, Wjhonson wrote:
> It's really bizarre how a story like this can appear when this "first wife" as find a grave states, the purported mother of Mary as they there say, was his cousin Caroline of Brunswick
>
> After the birth (and death) of their *only* child in 1817 , they separated and never again slept together. In fact he went to considerable lengths to divorce her. It was the scandal of the times and was in all the papers.
>
> That someone would try to cobble together a bizarre story of Mary's parentage which is so easily disproven is the mark of an amateur

Queen Victoria was a niece, not daughter, of George IV (who was in any
case not duke of Kent as stated in the blather that started this thread).

Anyone who didn't know that and yet believed she was his daughter was
probably not of sound mind. His actual daughter Charlotte, from his
marriage to his cousin, was by no means a congenital idiot - as Mary may
have been if this absurd claim was actually hers.

Peter Stewart

[Peter Stewart]

On 24-Oct-17 10:44 AM, Wjhonson wrote:
> It's really bizarre how a story like this can appear when this "first wife" as find a grave states, the purported mother of Mary as they there say, was his cousin Caroline of Brunswick
>
> After the birth (and death) of their *only* child in 1817 , they separated and never again slept together.

By the way, this sentence is ill-phrased as only the death of their
child Charlotte occurred in 1817 - she was born in 1796.

Elizabeth Longford in her ODNB article on Queen Victoria's father Edward
(a younger brother of George IV) wrote: "While at Gibraltar he imported
from Marseilles Thérèse-Bernardine Mongenet (1760-1830) to be his
‘chanteuse’ and long-term mistress. Known as Madame de Saint-Laurent,
she probably used the forename Julie. She was the daughter of Jean
Mongenet (b. 1726), a highway engineer from Besançon, and his wife,
Claudine, née Pussot (1734?-1805). She devoted herself to Edward for
nearly twenty-eight years before she was set aside. Although evidence
suggests that they had no children, many families in Canada have claimed
descent from the couple. Edward also had at least two illegitimate
children: Adelaide Victoire Auguste (b. 1789, d. in or after 1832),
whose mother was Adelaide Dubus (d. 1789), who died in childbirth, and
Edward Schencker Scheener (1789-1853), whose mother was Anne Gabrielle
Alexandrine Moré."

No mention of Mary Morter née Harrison.

Peter Stewart

[Wjhonson]

By the way, and touching on an issue I raised a month or so ago : If any of these purported descendants merely had an atDNA test, they could readily verify or disprove their alleged relationship to the royal family.

This time period 1800-1850 is seen easily in the results.

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Stewart <pss...@optusnet.com.au>
To: gen-medieval <gen-me...@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Mon, Oct 23, 2017 5:17 pm
Subject: Re: Was Mary A. Morter the half-sister of Queen Victoria?

On 24-Oct-17 10:44 AM, Wjhonson wrote:> It's really bizarre how a story like this can appear when this "first wife" as find a grave states, the purported mother of Mary as they there say, was his cousin Caroline of Brunswick>> After the birth (and death) of their *only* child in 1817 , they separated and never again slept together.By the way, this sentence is ill-phrased as only the death of their child Charlotte occurred in 1817 - she was born in 1796.Elizabeth Longford in her ODNB article on Queen Victoria's father Edward (a younger brother of George IV) wrote: "While at Gibraltar he imported from Marseilles Thérèse-Bernardine Mongenet (1760-1830) to be his ‘chanteuse’ and long-term mistress. Known as Madame de Saint-Laurent, she probably used the forename Julie. She was the daughter of Jean Mongenet (b. 1726), a highway engineer from Besançon, and his wife, Claudine, née Pussot (1734?-1805). She devoted herself to Edward for nearly twenty-eight years before she was set aside. Although evidence suggests that they had no children, many families in Canada have claimed descent from the couple. Edward also had at least two illegitimate children: Adelaide Victoire Auguste (b. 1789, d. in or after 1832), whose mother was Adelaide Dubus (d. 1789), who died in childbirth, and Edward Schencker Scheener (1789-1853), whose mother was Anne Gabrielle Alexandrine Moré."No mention of Mary Morter née Harrison.Peter Stewart -------------------------------To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GEN-MEDIEV...@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

[park...@outlook.com]

Victoria had two half siblings, Feodora and Carl. They were her mother's children from a previous marriage. No Mary exists in her genealogy for her generation.

Most likely, people were fascinated by her British accent and a folktale sprang up that she was related to the royal family.