Ancestor #13 – Christopher Edinborough

Crossing the Atlantic to America, Ancestor #13 enlisted with the Union Army in the US Civil War.

As a 21-year-old, Christopher Edinborough enlisted at Scio, New York on 13 May 1861 for a term of three years and was mustered to the 65th New York Infantry Regiment. A physical description of Christopher is gleaned from his regimental Company Descriptive Book which states that he was 5 feet 5 inches tall, of dark complexion with brown eyes and black hair. Born in London, England, his occupation was given as shoemaker.

Initially mustered into C Company as a Corporal, Christopher was promoted to Sergeant on 15 Nov 1862 before being returned to ranks as a Private on 1 Feb 1863. On 15 April 1863 he was promoted back to Corporal.

A document recently found on Ancestry.com entitled New York, Town Clerks’ Registers of Men Who Served in the Civil War, ca 1861-1865 revealed three other male Edinboroughs also signed up. They were: Charles (enlisted 12 May 1861), Fergus (3 Apr 1865) and Luther (3 Apr 1865). The document was a good find as the four enlistees were in fact brothers, sons of Christopher and Sarah Edinborough, confirming they had emigrated from England as a family in 1855.

Returning to Christopher (of the 65th NY Regiment), while so far I haven’t located a marriage record for him I do know that he married an American woman named Carrie and presumably this was after his discharge from the 65th NY Regiment. The US Census reveals that by 1880 they were living at Wilton in Iowa with two children: a son, Arthur W (7yrs), and a daughter Jesse M (5yrs).

Christopher died in 1892 and is buried at Grand Junction Cemetery, Greene County, Iowa. Carrie survived her husband for a further 31 years and was buried at Grand Junction Cemetery in 1923.

 

 

Ancestor #12 – Edith Edenborough

Edith Edenborough was the second daughter, and fifth child, of Henry (Ancestor #4) and Margaret Edenborough (née Stedman) and was born 28 December 1846 at Wollogorang, New South Wales, Australia.

In 1854 she travelled to the United Kingdom when her parents returned to England with their six children after selling their large pastoral property, Wollogorang, to John Chisholm. The first census to be held upon Edith’s arrival in England was that of 1861 where Edith, then aged 14, was living with her widowed mother at Kensington, Middlesex – her father Henry having died one year after his return to England.

 

1861 UK Census

 

In 1870 Edith’s talent as an artist saw her being awarded a silver medal at the South Kensington District Art School where she would also be introduced to Prince Teck, a member of German nobility and father of Queen Mary, the wife of King George V.

 

Edith was twice married: firstly to artist Arthur Murch (in 1873) with whom she lived with in Rome while working with Giovanni Costa – the Italian landscape painter and patriotic revolutionary; then in 1891, as the Widow Murch, she married Matthew Ridley Corbet, another landscape artist of some note. By this time Edith was an acknowledged landscape painter herself, closely associated with the Etruscan group, and who had previously exhibited many works at the Grosvenor and New Galleries of London. Following her marriage to Corbet she exhibited primarily at the Royal Academy, visiting Italy but living in London for the rest of her life.

 

Cicero's Villa and the Bay of Baiae
painted by Edith Corbet in 1909 

 

Edith Corbet (née Edenborough) died in 1920 aged 72.