The haphazard life of Sir John Peshall, solider, debtor and possible baronet

John Pearsall was a cleric and sometime schoolmaster from Guildford. At some point about 1770 decided he was heir to the Peshall Baronetcy. He changed his name to Peshall and styled himself ‘Sir John Peshall Bart.’  Rev John married the daughter of the vicar of Thaxted. He died in 1778. [1]

Enter Sir John Peshall, the son and unfortunate heir. Born in 1759, in Guildford, he appears as an Ensign in the 85th Foot on 12th December 1780. [2]  This version of the 85th Foot, ‘The Westminster Volunteers’ were originally raised in 1777 as garrison troops for the West Indies. Apparently many died of disease and others during a storm on the way back to Britain in 1782. The regiment was disbanded in 1783. [3]

The Ville de Paris by Thomas Buttersworth.

She was being sailed to England as a prize, with members of the 85th on board when she sunk in a hurricane.

In 1786 Sir John was in Clent, Worcestershire, to marry Elizabeth Wakelam. Peshall, at some point, dwelt in Halesowen, which was, at the time, in Shropshire. He also owned land in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, which is why, presumably, he became one of the recruiters of the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry in the summer of 1794.

Sir John was about to disappear from the records of the Yeomanry Cavalry.  He later described himself as having lived in Milford, Hampshire and in the Liberty of Westminster. On 5th June 1795 he was confined in the King’s Bench Prison and on 21st July 1797 he was sent to the Fleet for debt.

The Birmingham Gazette [December 1799] reported the sale of Peshall’s lands in Halesowen and Rowley Regis, following a decree from the High Court of Chancery. [4]  The London Gazette, issue 15490 - 1802, also carried a notice of the sale of land in Halesowen.

Peshall appears in the newspapers occasionally.  He was deemed enough of a catch for Rev Dr Tusler to name drop him in an advert for Part 1 of ‘Memoirs of the Life of..’, his autobiography, selling at 14 shillings in 1806. [4]

Peshall reappears, in the Gazette, in 1809. Under the recent ‘Act for the Relief of certain insolvent Debtors in England’ it was possible for those with less than £2000 of debts to apply for release. The Gazette advert stated he was ‘ready to be delivered to my creditor of creditors’.  [5]

At some point Sir John was found apartments at the Royal Military Hospital, Chelsea. He also kept at least one dog because a notice appeared in the May 1820 that if he didn’t fetch away his bitch in 14 days from William Wllmott she was to be sold to defray the costs of keeping her.  [6]

Sir John died on 21st November 1820, aged 62, in apartments at the Chelsea Hospital. [7]

Rabbit holes don’t just end.  The baronetcy did not pass with Sir John.  His son, Charles, took on the title.   Charles had become a Lieutenant in 22nd Foot [without purchase] on 26th September 1801. [8]  By 1804 he was transferred to the 13th Light Dragoons as a lieutenant and, by 8th October 1804 he was promoted to a captaincy [without purchase]. [9]  Ever mobile Captain Charles was in the 88th regiment and on 1st May he married Miss Letitia Marin, the eldest daughter of Richard Martin, the MP for County Galway. [10]  Following the end of the French Wars [for the first time] in 1814, Charles purchased a cornetcy in the 19th Light Dragoons. Two years later he bought a lieutenancy in the same regiment from another officer [11]. At some point Sir Charles sold his half pay lieutenancy [12].  In 1834 he turns up in the death notices of the Norfolk Chronicle & Norwich Gazette, where he was listed as ‘lately, his Britannic Majesty’s Consul for the State of North Carolina’. [13]. The baronetcy does not seem to have been passed on.

And what of Lady Elizabeth Peshall.  She appears in the Hereford Journal in 1842, her death being recorded on 25th May. [14]

  

Sources

[1] p.102 ‘Complete Baronetage, George Cokayne 1900 Exeter

[2] British Army Lists & Commission Registers 1661-1826

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/85th_Regiment_of_Foot_(Westminster_Volunteers)#cite_note-2 

[4]  Page 1, 1st August 1806 The Sun

[5]   Issue 16291 London Gazette 1808

[6]  Page 1, 11th May 1820, Morning Advertiser

[7] Page 3 11th December 1820, he Hampshire Chronicle and Courier

    Page 4 7th December 1820, General Evening Post

[8]  Page 1, The Porcupine 30th September 1801

[9]  Page 4 Caledonian Mercury 8th October 1804

[10] Page 3 Kentish Gazette 20th May 1808 

[11] Page 1 Edinburgh Gazette 15th March 1816

[12] 2018 London Gazette 1826

[13]  16th August 1834 Norfolk Chronicle & Norwich Gazette

[14]  Page 3 Hereford Journal 8th June 1842.