Buncombe, Charles

Introduction:

CHARLES BUNCOMBE (1796-1829), the schoolmaster son of well-regarded profilist John Buncombe (ca.1758-1837), was never a commercial profilist himself. The erroneous reference that he was, first appeared as a poorly researched premise in a mid C.20th published history of Newport, Isle of Wight (where both father and son lived and died ) with most commentators and auction houses accepting the statement as fact for nearly 50 years.

Whether by chance or design, in 1795 Charles' profilist father arrived at and would spend the rest of his life in Newport. It was a canny move and with no professional competition he would craft a large number of profiles there over the next 30 years.

In April 1788 John Buncombe had wed Devon-born Sarah Mapledoram (1760-1799) at Sidmouth, Devon. Daughter Fanny was baptised at Tetbury, Glocestershire in August 1793, while sons Charles, Thomas and William were born in Newport in January 1796, April 1797 and November 1798 respectively. On 9th December 1797 Thomas died aged 8 months. A year and a half later a malignant malady scythed through the rest of the family. Aged 6, Fanny was buried 28th June 1799 and 5 days later Charles mother Sarah and 9-month-old brother William joined her in the grave. Charles and his profilist father alone cheated death. In April 1802 John Buncombe wed his widowed housekeeper Mary Salter (ca.1752-1819) at Alverstoke, then a village and short boat journey across the Solent. And perhaps before their marriage she was already a surrogate parent to the motherless Charles.

Evidenced by PIGOTS 1828 directory ' C J Buncombe' became schoolmaster of a Newport boys' day school, Charles having taken the additional name  'Joseph ' in August 1813 when, aged 18, he converted to Roman Catholicism and was baptised and confirmed at the Catholic chapel in Pyle St. where his father's 1st 'studio' was once located. It also appears he had antiquarian pretentions, as according to Davenport Adams' HISTORY,TOPOGRAPHY and ANTIQUITIES of the ISLE of WIGHT (1856), a large collection of Roman Coins were '...in the possession of Mr Buncombe, a schoolmaster at Newport, but since his death, were dispersed'.

June 1815 saw Charles Buncombe wed Jane James (ca.1793-1825) with Catholic and Established church ceremonies on alternate days. Probably Jane was the '...natural child of Elizabeth James', baptised on the Island at Freshwater in October 1794. Jane bore 2 sons and 3 daughters between September 1815 and May 1824, one of whom, Elizabeth Mary, born 1st January 1819 was buried 2nd January 1820.

Aged 32, Jane herself was buried in December 1825. In circumstances starkly similar to those of his father 26 years previously, Charles Buncombe, probably aided by his aging profilist father, was left ministering to the needs of 3 young children and an infant. Undoubtedly the stress was compounded when, for reasons unknown, in February 1829, John Buncombe was admitted to the Carisbrooke House of Industry, the Island's sole workhouse. Worse followed in June when Charles Buncombe died, aged 33. With his father remaining in the workhouse until his death in 1837 and with no other support, the orphaned siblings would have notably divergent fates.

By 1832 all 4 children were re-baptised into the Protestant church and in April 1830 the Isle of Wight-based Mann's Charity apprenticed John Buncombe 'a poor orphan' to hairdresser and perfumer George Mansfield of Jermyn St., Saint James's, London. A year later, 27th June 1831, John Buncombe 'of St. James's' was buried at St. Annes, Westminster where his age was incorrectly registered as 13 years.

Mary Ann Buncombe (1817-1868) listed a servant in the 1841 Census, was recorded at the Alverstoke abode of her future husband, grocer's porter Stephen John Holly (ca.1816-1874). Marrying in July 1841, Mary Ann bore 4 children between 1844-1860 and died at Portsea, Hampshire in 1868.

Charles Joseph Buncombe (1821-1879) was admitted to the London Orphan Asylum in 1830. Built in 1828 at Hackney, Middlesex, and housing approximately 400 orphans, it was a well-regarded institution. Evidenced by the 1841 Census,  20 year-old Charles Joseph became an 'assistant master' there, while the 1851 Census records him 'master' at a York training college for clergymen. Marrying the daughter of a Master Mariner in Stepney, London in July 1852, he took Holy Orders himself and spent the last 22 years of his life as Vicar of St. Mary, Bishopshill Junior, York, before dying without issue, in April 1879.

Jane Ellen Buncombe (1824-1898) was recorded servant to the Rector of Calbourne, Isle of Wight in the 1841 Census. In the summer of 1848 the birth of her daughter Mary Harriet Clough Swifte (ca. 1848-1883) was registered at St. Martin's London. The girl's father, evidenced by 1883 Paris Birth, Marriage and Death records, was Francis Yarmouth Swifte (born 1815), the 9th of 28 children born between 1804-1853 to the 4-times wed, impressively vigorous Keeper of the Crown Jewels, Edmund Lewis Lenthall Swifte (1777-1875). Appearing to remain unwed, the duration of Jane Ellen's liaison with Yarmouth Swifte is unresolved. However, someone at some point established her with rooms in Paris, City records stating that in January 1860 she bore a still-born son, father unknown. Her occupation was given as 'English Teacher'. In July 1872, her daughter marrried Engish commercial traveller Thomas Holland Gatehouse (born 1847). Bearing 2 daughters in 1874 and 1875, she died in Paris aged 35 in 1883. Jane Ellen herself died in Paris, 19th June 1898 aged 74.

Aged 33, Charles Buncombe was interred at St.Thomas's, Newport, Isle of Wight, 10th June 1829.

REVISED: 8 February 2026 (Brian Wellings)