Who Do You Think You Are - Clare Balding 20th Jul

[kiterunner]

At 9 p.m. on BBC1, and repeated at midnight next late Mon / early Tue.

[kiterunner]

Well, that was a posh episode. I did get the feeling that she could easily have found all that out years ago if she was interested!

I would like to know whether she actually knew any of her grandparents? I don't think she said.

I'll type up the episode synopsis tomorrow.

[Olde Crone]

I agree, how on earth did she not already know that if she was remotely interested in her family history.

It was quite interesting but really felt more like a documentary than nitty gritty research.

OC

[Guinevere]

I really enjoyed it. A bit different from the military/criminal etc.

[Ann from Sussex]

I would like to know whether she actually knew any of her grandparents? I don't think she said.

She knew her maternal grandmother Priscilla, daughter of Lady Victoria Stanley and Capt. Bullock. I have Clare's autobiography "My Animals and Other Family" in which she says her grandmother died in 2010 aged ninety. I don't know if she knew her Balding grandparents. Given that she DID know that grandmother's maiden name, I found it hard to believe she wasn't aware of the family wealth and background history.Still...I wasn't so I found it interesting, especially as it featured turn-of-the-century Manhattan. At that time,, when CB's family were living in their Madison Avenue mansion, mine were living in a tenement on W42nd Street. It's good to see how the other half lived!

I did notice that whenever the family tree was shown this week the women were given their maiden names which, as we know, isn't the usual practice. Surely that can't only be because they were from posh families can it?

[Ann from Sussex]

I wondered exactly what the family background of the earlier Baldings was. All we were told was that they were generations of horse dealers. That didn't explain how Clare's grandfather Gerald and his two brothers came to be professional polo players. They must have been pretty wealthy I would think to have been able to practice what is and was a rich man's sport.

[kiterunner]

Episode summary:

Clare Balding lives in London with her wife Alice Arnold. Clare's maternal grandmother, Priscilla Bullock, came from a famous aristocratic line. Clare's great-grandfather, Sir Malcolm Bullock, was never discussed in the family apart from whispers that he was gay. Clare had a portrait, painted by John Lavery, of her great-grandmother, Sir Malcolm's wife, Lady Victoria Stanley, the daughter of the Earl of Derby, who died in her early thirties in a riding accident. Clare's grandmother supposedly burned Sir Malcolm's letters because of a scandal, perhaps connected with the artist Rex Whistler.

Clare went to Hampshire, to her grandmother's old house, to see her uncle Willie, elder brother of Clare's mother Emma. He showed her photos of Sir Malcolm, whom he remembered. Sir Malcolm was an MP for over 30 years and was active in Anglo-French relations. Willie showed Clare some letters written to Sir Malcolm by various famous people such as Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford, and Sir John Gielgud.
Clare went to Salisbury Museum, which hosts the Rex Whistler Archive, collected by his brother Laurence Whistler. A 1931 calendar showed that Whistler dined several times with Sir Malcolm, went to the opera with him, etc. and that they went to Paris together. A file classified by Laurence as "Love" contained a letter from Sir Malcolm about the Paris trip, but many other letters had been burned by Rex Whistler. There were some notes written by Edith Olivier, a friend of Whistler's, about the break-up between Whistler and Sir Malcolm later in 1931, although Whistler painted "Ulysses' Farewell" for Sir Malcolm in 1932-3.

Clare went to Port Lympne in Kent, the country seat of Sir Philip Sassoon, another friend of Sir Malcolm's. She saw a Whistler painting and a description of Sir Philip's famous parties. Some of the parties which Sir Malcolm attended there seemed to have been given for groups of gay or bisexual MP's etc.

Clare went to Liverpool, where Sir Malcolm was an MP, and where Lady Victoria grew up, as Knowsley was the Earl of Derby's seat. Sir Malcolm and Lady Victoria met in Paris in 1918 when Lady Victoria was a widow and her father (the 17th Earl) was ambassador to France, with Sir Malcolm being an embassy aide. The family returned to England two years after that. An archivist at Knowsley showed Clare a letter from Lady Victoria to Sir Malcolm, and various newspaper reports of her death from a hunting accident on the 26th Nov 1927. Clare read letters of condolence written to Sir Malcolm by Winston Churchill and Lord Derby.

Clare then went home to see her father, Ian Balding, and find out about his family, with the help of a family tree drawn up by Ian's cousin Judith Balding. His father, Gerald Matthews Balding, was a professional polo player who went to play polo in America, where he met Clare's grandmother, an American named Eleanor Hoagland. The family tree showed that the Baldings were a long line of horse dealers, going back from Gerald's father Albert, through his father William and his father William to Thomas. Gerald was a "10 goal polo player", so good that there has not been another 10 goal player since him. He went to America when he was 22.

Clare went to Rumson Polo Club in New Jersey, where she met up with her aunt Gail, her father's younger sister, who lives in the US. Gail showed Clare a polo trophy with the names of both Gerald Balding and his brother Ivor Balding on. There was a film of them playing polo in the US, and newspaper reports etc. about them. Gail told Clare the story of how Gerald and Eleanor met each other, when Eleanor was 18 and Gerald was 32, and Eleanor found Gerald's dog running around loose and took it to his house. Eleanor's father, Joseph C Hoagland, was very wealthy.
Clare looked Joseph up on the 1920 US census and found him, age 30, born New York, living on Madison Avenue, NY, with Eleanor age 4 among the family members. Clare also found Joseph's passport application from 1917 online, which gave his occupation as "Real Estate". She went to Madison Avenue in Manhattan to meet a local historian who showed her the apartment building which Joseph had built in 1920/1 at a cost of $1 million.

The 1920 US census also showed Joseph's father, Raymond Hoagland, at 817 Fifth Avenue. Clare went there but the building which is at that address now was built after 1920. She did see a photo of the house where Raymond lived, next to Central Park.
A news article from 1913 about Joseph's marriage to Eleanor Sheldon Prentice said that he was named after "his distinguished grandfather". Clare went to the New York Historical Society to find out about Joseph C Hoagland sr and saw him listed in the 1878/9 Brooklyn City Directory at 171 Duane Street, occupation "baking powder". Clare went to that address and met a culinary historian who showed her an old picture of the building in an advert for "Royal Baking Powder". On the 1860 US census, Joseph was aged 19, a student. Soon after that, he and his elder brother Claudius Hoagland, moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and ran a drug store and baking powder company called Biddle & Hoagland. Joseph and Cornelius bought out Mr Biddle's share of the baking powder company and took Royal Baking Powder to New York where they promoted it with a lot of marketing and advertising. Clare was shown an original Royal Baking Powder tin, with the slogan "absolutely pure". The Royal Baking Powder company was worth $25 million dollars in the late 19th century.

Clare met an historian who was an expert on wealthy New Yorkers, and was shown a picture of Joseph Hoagland sr from "King's Notable New Yorkers"; also a newspaper article about a dispute between Joseph and Cornelius. Joseph died in 1899. His death notice stated that he was born in 1841, of Dutch extraction, being descended from the first settlers of New Amsterdam.

Clare went to the Brooklyn Historical Society to meet a genealogist who showed her a book "History & Genealogy of the Hoagland Family of America", published by Cornelius Hoagland. The genealogist said that he had checked the information therein and that it was correct - the Hoaglands did indeed descend from the first Dutch settlers, with Clare's 10xg-grandmother Sarah Rapaje being the first European girl born in New York, her birthdate being 9 Jun 1625 and her year of death 1685.

[kiterunner]

I did like the fact that Clare didn't take the "descended from the first Dutch settlers" stuff as gospel, but had it checked by a genealogist. Too often on this programme they seem to take anything they are told, or read, as gospel, although I realise it is checked behind the scenes.

[kiterunner]

I wondered exactly what the family background of the earlier Baldings was. All we were told was that they were generations of horse dealers. That didn't explain how Clare's grandfather Gerald and his two brothers came to be professional polo players. They must have been pretty wealthy I would think to have been able to practice what is and was a rich man's sport.

This is Gerald's parents and siblings on the 1911 census:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/2352/rg14_18959_0073_03/22012893?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.u k%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fgst%3d-6&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults

Keyham Hall, Leicester (sixteen rooms)
Albert Charles Balding Head 34 married Horse Dealer New Cross, London
Florence Mabel Balding Wife 31 married 10 years, 5 children, 4 living, 1 died, Hendon, Middlesex
John Barnard Balding Son 4 East Langton, Leicestershire
Ivor Godfrey Balding Son 2 East Langton, Leicestershire
Humphrey Quinton Son 1 East Langton, Leicestershire
plus 2 servants.

So, pretty wealthy, though not compared to the Hoagland family!

[kiterunner]

Gerald Matthews Balding (Clare's grandfather) died 16 Sep 1957, aged 54. (From National Probate Calendar and FreeBMD).

Eleanor Sheldon Balding (Clare's grandmother), dob 5 Feb 1915, arrived in New York 16 Jan 1958:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/1277/42804_336001-03397/7618819?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk %2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fgst%3d-6&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults

Again in 1960 and again in 1962.

There is a public tree on ancestry which has her death Apr 1985 in Florida, as Eleanor Sheldon Quirk. So maybe she was back living in the US by the time Clare was born?

[Ann from Sussex]

This is Gerald's parents and siblings on the 1911 census:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/2352/rg14_18959_0073_03/22012893?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.u k%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fgst%3d-6&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults

Keyham Hall, Leicester (sixteen rooms)
Albert Charles Balding Head 34 married Horse Dealer New Cross, London
Florence Mabel Balding Wife 31 married 10 years, 5 children, 4 living, 1 died, Hendon, Middlesex
John Barnard Balding Son 4 East Langton, Leicestershire
Ivor Godfrey Balding Son 2 East Langton, Leicestershire
Humphrey Quinton Son 1 East Langton, Leicestershire
plus 2 servants.

So, pretty wealthy, though not compared to the Hoagland family!

Not quite what springs to mind when you hear "horse dealer"!

[anne fraser]

I read Claire's autobiography as well which is suprisingly well written. She does seem to be more interested in the pedigree of her horses than her family. I was given some family history which someone had worked out from a dog stud book so it might not be that unusual. I imagine the family all own copies of Burke's peerage so that part would have been easy enough.

I enjoyed the episode and was quite suprised to find it led back to the early Dutch settlers in New York which I think is a first for the series. I liked her enthusiasm.

[Ann from Sussex]

The Dutch settler connection interested me too as I also have them in my tree, thanks to my gt. gt. grandmother's family. Mine don't go back quite as far as Clare's - only to the early 1700s and to New Jersey, not New Amsterdam but they did eventually fetch up in Manhattan. Clare had an American grandmother, I had an American grandfather and I think that both of us, through our early settler connections (I also have early German settlers in my direct line) are more "American" in our ancestry than most present day Americans!

[Anstey Nomad]

Clare's wife is actually Alice Arnold :)

[kiterunner]

Thanks, AN.