Bridget Greentree

Bridget Greentree was born on St. Helena on April 18, 1755, the fourth daughter and seventh child of James Greentree and Margaret Bates.

On October 1, 1773, the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (and a number of other newspapers) announced that:

The Court of Directors of the East India Company have appointed the Rev. Robartes Carr, B.A. and fellow of Worcester College, Oxon, Chaplain to their settlement at Saint Helena, in the room of the Rev. Mr. Bearcroft, who is returning to England.

Robartes Carr was the fifth son of the Reverend Robert Carr and his wife, Elizabeth, was baptized in Twickenham in the county of Middlesex, England on October 2, 1748.[1] He had applied for the position on St. Helena from his position as Curate at St. Nicholas in Deptford.[2]

It is not clear when Carr actually arrived on the island, but on August 3, 1775, Daniel Corneille, the Lieutenant Governor of St. Helena married Robartes Carr to the 20-year-old Bridget Greentree.[3] They would have three children before leaving the island in October 1781.

John Frederick born November 30, 1776 and baptised 19 March, 1777, St. Helena
John joined the East India Company as a Cadet on the Bengal Establishment in 1795, arriving in India as an Ensign in 1797. He became a Lieutenant in the 11^th N.I. and transferred to the newly-raised 24^th N.I. in 1805, where he was promoted to Captain in 1806. Hodson lists no record of active service. He was placed on the invalids’ pension list on August 28, 1806 and died, still in India, on October 2, 1812.[4] He is listed as being buried at Fort William, Bengal.[5]

James baptised 26 August, 1778, St. Helena. Died sometime after 1787 (mentioned in father’s will at that date).

Elizabeth born February 29, 1780, St.  Helena.
Elizabeth cannot be found in the 1841 or 1851 censuses of England and Wales, but does appear in 1861 living at 4 Rich Terrace West in Kensington, London, unmarried, with one domestic servant and described as a landed proprietor. She died, the last living Carr child, at 28 Rich Terrace on 12 December, 1867 and was buried on the 18^th at Brompton Cemetery with her mother and her brother, Gabriel, and his wife.

Ann born 4 September, 1781 and baptised 10 September of the same year, St. Helena. But buried shortly thereafter on 26 September.

In October, 1781, the Carr family left St. Helena for England; all the baptisms of their last three children are recorded in Twickenham.[6]

Margaretta Britannia baptized July 28 1783, Twickenham. Buried December 14, 1783, Twickenham.

Robartes baptized June 22, 1785, Twickenham.
December 1807 appointed an Ensign, without purchase, in the 44^th Regiment of Foot.[7] Died in Portugal in 1811.[8]

Gabriel baptized November 30, 1786, Twickenham.
Gabriel is the child about whom most is known. In 1828, the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers details the following pension being paid as part of its listing of the Account of Superannuation Allowances in Public Departments. The Victualling Office was part of the Navy Board of Great Britain and, as it sounds, responsible for the providing of food and other stores for Navy ships. The dates below suggest he began his service there about 1802, at the age of 16.

Gabriel Carr, Clerk in the Victualling Office; Salary: £360; age on retirement: 42; years of service: 26; Pension commenced: 1 Jan. 1828; Amount per annum: £204 13s 4d.

Gabriel married Anna Doveton on January 31, 1833 – after his retirement – in St. Marylebone Church, London. This marriage continued the connection to St. Helena, as Anna was the daughter of Frederick Doveton, who had been born on the island, and was a member of that long-established family there. Anna herself was born February 25, 1794 in London.[9]. There appears to have been no children of the marriage, perhaps because Anna was 39 by this time.

In the 1841 census of England and Wales, the couple is living in Rectory Cottage in Hanwell, Middlesex. In 1851, they are on Elm Grove in Ealing Middlesex.  Four years later, Gabriel died in Bognor, Wales. Anna had already died on March 21, 1852, in London.[10]

1855 Dec 12. At Bognor, Gabriel Carr, esq. of West Brompton. (Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 44, 1856.)

Gabriel and Anna are both buried in Brompton Cemetery.

In 1787, Robartes, left for India, leaving his wife and children behind. He joined the Fourth European Batallion at Fategarh as Chaplain.[11] He died at Bankpore, India on 21 November, 1795.[12]

Bridget was awarded a pension from the Lord Clive Fund on October 5, 1796, which had been set up to help European officers and soldiers in the East India Company and their widows; chaplains were also eligible. She returned to London and 1798 has her contribution to a defence fund recorded in a London newspaper.

Voluntary contributions at the Bank, for the defence of this country: Mrs. Robartes Carr, 1.1.0. (Sun, Friday, May 4, 1798)

Nothing more is heard of her and she has not yet been located in the 1841 census. But she survived until the age of 91, dying on December 3, 1847 in London, of old age. The informant was her only surviving, child, Gabriel.[13] Interestingly, her death notice in the Gentleman’s Magazine gives no mention of her and her husband’s connection to the island of St. Helena. She, too, is buried in Brompton Cemetery.

Dec 3 at Hamilton-terr, St. John’s Wood, aged 90, [her death certificate gives her age as 91] Bridget, relict of the Rev. Robartes Carr, formerly minister of Twickenham. (Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 27, 1847, p. 103.