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At the beginning of the
present century there were two living objects of curiosity at Windsor; the
one was the good old farmer king, George III,
who, till laid aside by mental and bodily ailments, used to walk along its
streets and converse on the Castle terrace regularly, to the great
delight of his subjects; and the other was one
of the Military Knights, or, as they were then called, the Poor Knights of
Windsor a certain
landless and almost penniless baronet, Sir John
Dineley, a man of eccentric dress and mien, who had found in the Lower
Ward, through the kindness of those who had known him in
better days, a refuge from the storms of life. Anchored in his
little two-roomed house, he was in
se ipso totus, teres, atque rotundas, and he
was the better able to keep the wolf from the door because
he had not a servant, or even a charwoman, to
wait upon him. He would go out early in the morning, after having
carefully locked his door, and walk down through the Castle gate into the
market-place, whence he would return laden with a penny roll, a pat of
butter, a small bundle of firewood, and possibly a herring, taking care to
return to his rooms and dress in time for the service in St. George s
Chapel which the ' Poor Knights' were bound, by
the statutes of the Order of the Garter, to
attend daily.
And who was Sir John
Dineley? He was a member-indeed, the last head and representative-of a
worthy and respectable family who long held landed estates in Herefordshire
and Worcestershire. His ancestor had been raised in 1707 to a baronetcy
for his political services, having
sat for many years in the House of Commons as
member, first for Evesham, and afterwards for Herefordshire; and the
family had passed through many generations
without a stain upon its escutcheon, when a sad event occurred which
destroyed it root and branch. Towards the end of January, 1741, the page
announced that a tragedy in high life bad occrured
at Bristol. On the 17th of that month. Sir John
Dineley Goodyere-Dineley, Baronet, of Burhope
and Charleton, happened to be staying
in the neighborhood, either at the' Hot Wells'
or at Clifton. He was on bad terms, owing some
family dispute about property, with his next
brother Samuel, who was in command of vessel named the Ruby,
then lying in the roads off the entrance of the
Avon.
A mutual acquaintance,
with the kindest, intentions but with the most
unfortunate results
brought these two brothers together; and it was
hoped that a meeting under his friendly mahogany might pave the way for a
reconciliationn. Apparently this hope
seemed likely to be realized, and the brothers parted with an interchange
of the usual kindly expressions, saying 'good-night,' while the baronet
went even so far as to say that he should be
'glad to see his brother again soon.'
He was taken at his word, a little more speedily than he had
imagined possible; for, having lingered a little longer at his friend's
table, quite late at night he found himself
crossing the large square under the shadow of the cathedral,
known to everybody in the West
of England as College Green. Here he was suddenly brought to a stand,
being confronted by six sturdy sailors, all armed with pistols
and cutlass, with his brother, the captain of the
Ruby, at their head. It was the work of less than a minute to seize and
gag the unsuspecting landsman and to carry him off to the
river-side, where a boat was waiting. As soon as he was on board, the men
rowed down the Avon to their ship. He was
speedily hoisted on board, and then strangled by two sailors named White
and Mahony, acting under the orders of Captain
Samuel Goodyere.
But the vengeance of
the law was both speedy and slue. The vessel was detained in the roads on
suspicion, and the instigator of the crime.
Captain Samuel Goodyere-Dineley, who of
course had succeeded his brother in the
baronetcy, was tried, with his two accomplices, at Bristol, in the
following month of March. A verdict of guilty was returned, and he was
sentenced to death within three months after the perpetration of the cruel
act which had made him at once a baronet and a murderer. There was nothing
to plead in his defense, nor was any influence used by titled personages,
as was so often the case in convictions for high treason, to beg George
II. to respite or pardon the criminal. His estates were forfeited to the
Crown, and his wife and two sons were reduced to beggary. The elder son,
Edward Dineley, died a lunatic in 176l, never
having married, and the younger son was the Sir John Dineley, whom I have
already introduced to my readers sixty years later as a `Poor Knight' of
Windsor, living in the dole of a set of room
in the Castle,
"and passing rich
on sixty pounds a year.'
But, poor as he was,
lie did not despair, even when sixty, seventy,
and eighty years of age of being able to retrieve his position, and once
more to become Sir .John Dineley of Burhope in reality. The way to
accomplish this was easy if he could only find the right and proper person
a lady both able and willing to rescue him from his painful situation as a
poor bachelor. In fact, like, his grace the sham Duc
de Roussillon, he felt that the one solution of his difficulties
was a well-endowed wife; and what he felt he avowed openly. With that
view, no sooner was the service over in St.
George's than be went back to his room, threw off his blue cloak and
'roquelaure,' and came
out like a butterfly, another creature, quite
captivating in appearance.
Wherever Royalty took its public walk, where
ever a crowd assembled, as often as the sounds of military music brought
together the fair ladies of Windsor and Eton on to the gay parade. there
was Sir John Dineley. Then was disclosed the gay
apparel of the old beau-the embroidered coat, the silk-flowered waistcoat,
the nether garments of tawdry and faded velvet carefully meeting the dirty
silk stockings, which in their turn terminated in the half-polished shoes,
fastened with silver buckles and clasps. 'On
great, occasions the old wig was newly powdered'-so writes Charles Knight,
who remembered him well, in his pleasant gossiping about Windsor
and the best cocked hat was brought forth, with a tarnished edging
of lace.'
And so Sir John stepped
proudly about the streets and terraces of
Windsor at the opening of the nineteenth
century, just as if he was one of the fops who hung about Kensington
Palace in the reign of George II. 'All other days were to him as nothing.
He had dreams of ancient genealogies, and of alliances still subsisting
between himself and the first families in the land, and of mansions
described in Nash's "History
of Worcestershire," with marble halls and " superb gates," and of
possessions that ought to be his own, and which would place him upon an
equality with the noblest and the wealthiest in tile land. A little money
to be expended in law would turn all those dreams into realities. 'That
money was to be obtained through a wife, to whom in exchange he world give
the title of my lady.'
Very naturally,
therefore, he devoted himself to that which he bad persuaded himself to be
the one great business of his existence. To be able to display himself
where the ladies congregated most thickly was the object of his daily
savings; to be constantly in the public eye was his hope and glory. And,
to do poor Sir John Dineley justice, there was not a particle of levity in
all his proceedings. They were terribly real-to
himself, at least. 'His face,' writes Charles
Knight, 'had a grave and intellectual character ; his deportment was staid
and dignified. He had a wonderful discrimination
in avoiding the twittering girls, with whose faces he was familiar. But
perchance some buxom matron or timid maiden, who
had seen him for the first time, gazed upon the apparition with surprise
and curiosity. In that case he would approach. With the air of one
bred in courts, he made his most profound bow, and, taking a piece of
paper from his pocket, he presented it, and withdrew' doubtless watching
the effect it produced.
I give an extract from one of these matrimonial
advertisements:
'For A Wife'
As the prospect of my marriage has
much increased lately, I am determined to take the best means to discover
the lady most liberal in her esteem, by giving her fourteen days to make
her quickest steps toward matrimony from the date of this paper until
eleven o'clock the next morning; and, as the contest will evidently be
the most superb, honorable, sacred, and
lawfully affectionate, pray, ladies, do not let false delicacy interrupt
you . . . An eminent attorney here is lately returned from a view of my
very superb gates before my capital house, built ill the form of the
Queen's house. I have ordered him, or the next eminent attorney here,
who can satisfy you of my possession in my
estate, and every desirable particular concerning it,
to make you the most liberal settlement you can desire, to the vast
extent of three hundred thousand pounds.'
And then follow some
comical verses, which conclude thus:
A beautiful page shall carefully hold
Your ladyship's train surrounded with gold.'
In
another of his handbills ho thus addresses the ladies with reference to
the alienation and loss of the family estates on account of his father's
crime: ' Pray, my young charmers, give me a. fair hearing; do not let your
avaricious guardians unjustly frighten you with a false
account of forfeiture.'
There is a quaint
portrait of Sir John Dineley in the
'Wonderful Characters' of Caulfeild; and John
Timbs tells us in his 'English Eccentrics' that he spent no less than
thirty years in this wild-goose chase after a partner. 'His figure,' he
adds, I was truly grotesque; in wet weather he was mounted on a high pair
of patens . . . He came to London twice or
thrice a year, and visited Vauxhall and the theatres. His fortune, if he
could recover it, he estimated at three hundred thousand pounds. He
invited the rich widow, as well as the blooming maiden of sixteen, and
addressed them in printed documents, bearing his signature, in which he
specified the sums that he expected the ladies to possess; he demanded
less property with youth than with age or widowhood, adding that few
ladies would be eligible who did not possess at least ten thousand pounds
a year, which, however, was as nothing compared with the hour which his
high birth and noble descent would confer, for he was descended in the
female line from the royal house of Plautagenet.
The incredulous he referred to "Nash's
Worcestershire." he addressed his advertisements
to the 'angelic fair " from his house in Windsor
Castle, and to the last he
cherished the expectation of forming a connubial connection with some lady
of property.'
But from these dreams he woke at last, somewhat suddenly. One
morning, in the year 1808, Sir John Dineley was
missed from his, place at the service in St. George's Chapel, and, on
inquiry, it was found that he had not been seen sallying out that day as
usual to buy his penny roll and farthing candle. His door, which was
fastened inside, was burst open ; his house, which he never had allowed a
creature to enter, was found to be almost destitute of furniture, except a
deal table, a couple of chairs, and a pallet bed. His sitting-room was
strewed with type from a printing-press, at which he used to 'set up' and
'work off' his matrimonial circulars. He lay in the inner room stretched
out on his bed, apparently in a dying state. He
lingered only a few days, and died-after all his projects and efforts
matrimonial-a bachelor; and with him died the baronetcy of Dineley.
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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