Catherine Campbell Griffith (née Shakespear)

1. Catherine Campbell Shakespear, eldest child of David Shakespear (q.v.) and his wife Catharine Wagstaffe, was born 22/02/1774 and baptised 19/03/1774 at All Hallows, Staining, London. She married John William Spencer Griffith of Long Hill; the date and place of this marriage has not been established. With John William Spencer Griffith, she had (at least) nine children, all baptised in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, except Frances Sarah, baptised in Devon. They include:

• Catherine Ann (28/05/1795-1874?): married (i) James White (ii) Admiral John Erskine Douglas (1758-1847), with whom she had two daughters, Helen Catherine and Louisa.
• John Shakespear (1796-1798)
• Maria/Mary (1798-1877): known to have been in England from 1851.
• Smyth (1800-1870): joined Royal Navy in 1812, as ‘Third-cl[ass], Boy’; served in the Mediterranean and St - Helena; promoted Lieutenant 1819; operated in the Caribbean. Married Helen Galloway in 1834 and had four children. Died in the Naval Asylum, Great Yarmouth, in 1870.
• Eliza Down (1802-1874)
• William Shakespear (1807-1829): matriculated at Cambridge University 1822; died Long Hill, St Elizabeth 1829.
• Anna Maria (1810-?): married Andrew Cooke (q.v) and had five children; after his death in c. 1842 she migrated to Britain with all or some of her children.
• Frances Sarah (1811-1885): migrated to Britain probably with her mother, Catherine Campbell Griffith (q.v.) and sister Mary; died in Kent in 1885.
• Henry Downe (1813-1879); Army Officer, served in 77th and 46th Regiments of Foot; in 1861 living near Stroud, Gloucestershire; died Steyning, Sussex, 1879.

1. Catherine Campbell Griffith of St Helier, Jersey, was one of the executors of the will of her husband in 1841.
2. Catherine C. Griffith, age 77, widow, annuitant, born Middlesex, was living at 1 Newport Terrace, Bishops Tawton, Devon, England in the census of 1851 with her unmarried daughters Mary (age 53, born Jamaica) and Frances (age 40, born Bideford, Devon) and two female servants. The will of Catharine Campbell Griffith, Widow of Bishops Tawton, Devon was dated 05/01/1841, probate 25/06/1855. She was buried on 18/05/1855, aged 79, in Tawton, Devon.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings, Mary Hewitt, and David Barker for assistance in compiling this entry.

1. Email from Paul Hitchings 04/03/2019 sourced to Daily Gleaner 27/04/1931 p. 31; Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]. Westminster, London, England, C of E Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1558-1812, 6 July 1770; Jamaica, C of E Parish Record Transcripts, St Elizabeth, 1795-1813; Devon, England, C of E Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, Bideford 1812; London, England, C of E Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923, Westminster, St Marylebone, 1819; Census 1851, Leamington Priors; Census 1861 and 1871, Edinburgh; Edinburgh, Scotland, Cemetery Registers, 1777-1935, died 19 Dec 1874, Edinburgh Southern Cemetery; UK, British Naval Biographical Dictionary, 1849, Smyth Griffith; Censuses 1841-1861; Norfolk, England, Transcripts of C of E Registers, 1600-1935, Great Yarmouth Burials, Sept 1870; Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900, St John’s 1822; Census 1851, Barnstaple; 1861, Devon, Bishops Tawton; UK Burial and Cremation Index, 1574-2014, Burial 24 March 1885, Tunbridge Wells, Kent; East Sussex, England, C of E Deaths and Burials, 1813-1995, Hove, St Andrew, Sussex, 17 May 1879.
2. Findmypast.co.uk, Index To Death Duty Registers 1796-1903 [database online].
3. PROB 11/2214/348; burial archive ref 1469A/PR/1/16.