William Chrystie

Kingston Jamaica merchant, partner in Simpson, Taylor (q.v.) and then Porteous Carson, from which he retired 30/12/1843, dying the following year at Clifton, Gloucestershire.

1. "Chrystie - Born to Alexr Esqr of Balchrystie and Margaret Robertson his Spouse a Son baptized and named - William." Dobson's Scots in the West Indies says that William was the youngest son of Alexander Chrystie of Balchrystie.

2. William Chrystie married Catherine Selina Wade 24/08/1830 at St Mary the Virgin Church, Great Dunmow, Essex. They had eight children. Records for the birthplaces of their children document the locations of the family in the 1830s and 1840s. Margaret and Catherine (born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1831 and 1832), William (born in Edinburgh, Scotland, c. 1835), Frances (Fanny, born in 1836 in Middlesex, parent's abode on baptism record given as 20 Clarence Terrace), Mary (born Middlesex c. 1838), Alexander (born Middlesex, c. 1839), George (born Great Dunmow, Essex, 1841) and Selina Jane (born Clifton, Gloucestershire, 1844). William, Mary, Alexander and George were baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Great Dunmow.

3. William Chrystie of 20 Chester Terrace, Regents Park, was insured by the Sun Fire Office 02/11/1836. British History Online records William Chrystie at 20 Chester Terrace from 1837. William Chrystie of 20 Chester Terrace, Regent's Park, Esq., subscribed £3,450 to the Portsmouth branch of the Southampton Railway in 1839. In the 1841 census, William Chrystie, age 46, Independent, born Scotland, was living at 20 Chester Terrace with Catherine (40), Margaret (9), Catherine (8), William (6), Fanny (5), Mary (3) and Alexander (2), 1 male servant and 4 female servants.

4. Will of William Chrystie 'of Clifton...and of Kingston in the Island of Jamaica' proved 15/08/1844. The will rehearsed that under a settlement with his wife Catherine Selina Wade, Chrystie had settled upon trust £6000 from which the income would support his wife after his death until her own death, whereupon the £6000 would go to the couple's children as his wife determined, and that he pledged two estates - Temple Hall and Kew - as security.

5. Catherine Selina Chrystie was living in Ealing, Middlesex in the census of 1851, age 49, "Household Property" and had moved to Church Street, Great Bookham by 1861, age 60, "West India Property". Still in Great Bookham in 1881, age 80; she died at Great Bookham 28/09/1889, effects £772 18s 7d.

6. William's eldest son, also called William, was described as a retired Colonel in Her Majesty's Army when he proved the will of his mother in 1889. The second son, Alexander, emigrated to Victoria, Australia c. 1860 where he died in 1916. The youngest son, George, became a Colonel in the Madras Army.

7. William's daughter Mary Chrystie married her cousin John Alexander Chrystie in Great Bookham, 15/02/1859. She was an ardent supporter of the Temperance movement. She died 18/05/1911 in Great Bookham.

8. William Chrystie's sister Jane was married to Lt. Col. Alexander Lamont, the brother of John Lamont (q.v.): Jane and Alexander Lamont's son Sir James Lamont inherited his uncle John Lamont's Trinidadian property.

London Gazette 20395 18/10/1844 p. 3574 shows the retirement of William Chrystie from Porteous Carson; among the signatories as of 16 August 1844 are the executors of William Chrystie.

Judith Witter, Mary Chrystie and Her Family (Leatherhead & District Local History Society, 2013), is an account of the life of William Chrystie's daughter Mary (1838-1911) and includes the family's background. (Accessed 10 Sept., 2013.)

1. General Register Office for Scotland OPR Births 451 020 278 Newburn, Fife. David Dobson, Scots in the West Indies 1707-1857 (2 vols., Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, 1998/2006), Vol. 1 p. 27.

2. Catherine Selina's maiden name from the death certificate of her son Alexander, Victoria, Australia, 17/12/1916 transcribed at http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=352164.80 [accessed 12/04/2013]. Births of Margaret and Catherine, www.familysearch.org batch nos. I03817-7 and I03863-0. Years and places of birth of younger children from the censuses of 1841 (20 Chester Terrace) and 1851 (Ealing, Middlesex). Birth of George from the India Office Records, http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/FullDisplay.aspx?RecordId=014-000056091 [accessed 12/04/2013]. Birth of Selina Jane Chrystie registered Q2 1844 at Clifton, Gloucestershire, FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Births, 1837-1983 [database online]. Parish records for Great Dunmow available with a subscription at www.seax.essexcc.gov.uk [accessed 23/04/2013].

3. "Insured: William Chrystie, 20 Chester Terrace Regents Park, the Commissioners of his Majesty's Woods Forests and Land Revenue and John Savory Brooking and James Burton" at London Metropolitan Archives MS 11936/556/1234758. Survey of London: volume 19: The parish of St Pancras part 2: Old St Pancras and Kentish Town at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64873&strquery=chester%20terrace [accessed 12/04/2013]. The Railway Times for 1839 (London, The Railway Times Office, 1839) p. 845. 1841 census online.

4. PROB 11/2003/115.

5. 1851, 1861 and 1881 censuses online. National Probate Calendar 1889.

6. National Probate Calendar 1889. Death certificate of Alexander in Victoria, Australia, 17/12/1916 transcribed at http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=352164.80 [accessed 12/04/2013]: this gives the names of his parents, his two wives, 3 children and states he had been in Victoria for 56 years. India Office Records, http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/FullDisplay.aspx?RecordId=014-000056091 [accessed 12/04/2013].

7. FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Marriages, 1837-1983 [database online]; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]; email from Judith Witter, 12/04/2013. Leatherhead and District Local History Society Newsletter August 2010 available at http://www.leatherheadlocalhistory.org.uk/LDLHS%20Newsletter%202010%20August.pdf [accessed 23/04/2013].

8. ODNB, A.G.E. Jones, 'Lamont, Sir James, first baronet (1828-1913), Arctic yachtsman.'

We are grateful for the help of Judith Witter and Diana Cooke in compiling this entry.