Des Caudeville and Heirs of Poulson v. Boyrenson,1854
A genealogist's nightmare, from The Comet of February 9, 1854.
For a similar case see Ozanne versus Peddle, 1837.
ROYAL COURT, Monday, February 6
(Before P. S. Carey, Esq., Bailiff; present—T. Le Retilley, W. P. Métivier, J. S. Dobree, and S Carey, Esqs., Jurats.)
This was an action on the part of Mr James Des Caudeville, the cousin-germain and next of kin to Henriette Chivret, widow of Thomas Poulson, against Peter Martin, Esq., the guardian of the deceased Henriette Chivret, and calling upon the said guardian to deliver up to him as her heir, the papers and effects belonging to that succession.
On the 23rd May, 1853, Mr. Stephen Martin, as guardian to Florence-Marianne Boyrenson, a minor, demanded to intervene in this suit, he claiming the succession of Henriette Chivret, who, he maintained, was Florence's grandmother,—Doctor Boyrenson,1 the minor's father, being no other person than Henriette Chivret's (the widow Poulson's) son,2 who had dropped the name of Thomas Poulson and assumed that of Thomas Adolphus Boyrenson, and under that name had married a lady of great personal attractions, considerable fortune, and connected with families of the highest distinction in England.
On the 23rd May, 1853, the parties were sent before Commissioners, for the purpose of setting forth their respective pretensions.
On the 1st July, 1853, all the parties having met before the Commissioners, Mr. Peter Martin, the late guardian, declared his readiness to deliver up the papers and effects in his possession to whomsoever the Court decreed to be entitled to them.
The title assumed by the plaintiff, James Des Caudeville, as cousin-germain of the late Mrs. Poulson (Henriette Chivret) was admitted—not so that of the defendant, Florence Boyrenson, who now pretended to assume that of Poulson. The defendant having produced her certificate of birth, proving her to be the daughter of Thomas-Adolphus Boyrenson, who had married and left a widow of that name, no guardian on behalf of the minor could be admitted to destroy the validity of her own certificate of birth, which declared her to be the daughter of Thomas Adolphus Boyrenson - the only name which she had hitherto borne, under which her father had been married and died, and were Dr. Boyrenson living would also make good by showing his own certificate of birth. No oral evidence was admissible to invalidate or diminish the natural results flowing from the evidence and contents set forth in public registers, particularly after the death of the parties whose rights were therby irrevocably settled, and who, if living, would be the most competent to throw light on the subject of such registries, and maintain their validity by producing extracts of their own registries of birth from the public records, or authentic sources, where they knew such acts to have been regularly kept and recorded.
Mr. Stephen Martin, as guardian of the minor, maintained that he was entitled to a decree of the Court, allowing him to give evidence of the identity of Dr. Thomas Boyrenson to Thomas Poulson, the son of Henriette Chivret; and on such identity being clearly made out, and it being shown that the minor Florence Boyrenson was the daughter of Thomas Poulson, who had been known under the assumed name of Boyrenson, and under that name had married Miss Swinfen,3 from which the minor, Florence, was issued, it would follow that the minor was entitled, as grand-daughter to Henriette Chivret, Thomas Poulson's mother, to her succession, - that the certificate of birth of Florence Boyrenson did not preclude her showing her parentage from the said Thomas Poulson, who was no other than Thomas Adolphus Boyrenson, under an assumed name,—that in point of fact Boyrenson, and not Poulson, was the original name of the family; and Dr. Boyrenson having found out that Poulson was not his real name, but that Boyrenson was, he assumed the latter name, and married under that name; but his having done so did not preclude his proving his identity to Thomas Poulson, Henriette Chivret's son; and on that proof being established, to claim her succession.
The Court decreed that Mr. Stephen Martin, as guardian of Florence Boyrenson, was entitled to show by the evidence of witnesses that Dr. Boyrenson, her father, was the identical son of Henriette Chivret, and had originally borne the name of Thomas Poulson; and so ordered that witnesses should be heard.
From this decision the plaintiff appealed to the Court of Judgments. Counsel for the plaintiff, MM. Jérémie and Gallienne; for the defendant, the Queen's Procureur.
1 DR. BOYRENSON.
This gentleman, a physician in the Hon. East India Company's Service, and attached to the Bombay army, may be remembered as having been instrumental, by his courage and energy, in saving many lives when the Great Liverpool was wrecked in March, 1846, off the coast of Corunna. Dr. Boyrenson died of jungle fever, at Kaira, Bombay, on the 6th Jan. last, much and deservedly regretted. From Burke's Heraldic Register, 1849-50.
2 Henriette Chivret was born in Câtel parish in 1777, the daughter of Hellier Chivret (b. 1735) and Susanne De Cotteville [Des Caudeville]. She married Thomas Poulson, 'a native of Norway' in the Town Church on the 19th April, 1806. Her son Thomas was born on 22nd January 1811. The godfathers were Thomas Poulson and Thomas Thomson, and the godmother Henriette Chivret. Cf. the Chivret Family File in the Library. See Sudden death of Mr Thomas de Caudeville (dit Cook), The Star, September 18 1916.
3 Augusta Swinfen was very young and had only been married three years when her husband Thomas Boyrenson died. She remarried a widower, a Civil Surgeon in the East India Company, Dr Frances-Wilmer Watkins (b. 1809). Dr Watkins' sister, Frances Maria Watkins (b. 1805) married Major-General Sir John Fitzmaurice (1793-1865). Florence Boyrenson married their son, her step-cousin John Gerald Fitzmaurice, a barrister. Major-General Sir John Fitzmaurice was a Peninsular War hero from County Kerry, and Florence Boyrenson's sons had illustrious naval careers, being Sir Maurice Swynfen Fitzmaurice, and Vice-Admiral Sir Raymond Fitzmaurice.