Letitia Jane Dorothea Baker

29 February 1852 to 30 November 1930

BAK00309

The Bakers Home Page Return to the Home Page of the Bakers Family part of the website

The Bakers of Highfields Story The Story of the Dods and Bakers and of Highfields, Fenton House and Hasfield Court. A journey through the history of Cheshire and Staffordshire, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who retained his lands after the Conquest, pottery at Stoke on Trent, an encounter with Elgar, and the history of an Elizabethan manor house at Audlem

The Bakers of Highfields The family tree of the Bakers of Highfields

The Dod Family The Family Tree of the Dods, predecessors to the Bakers of Highfields

The Bakers of Fenton House and Hasfield Court The Family Tree of the pottery Bakers of Stoke on Trent

The Bellyse Family The Family Tree of the Bellyse Family

The Farndale Story The main part of this website tells the story of the Farndale family from Yorkshire Descendants of Arthur Baker, the story of the Farndale ancestry is told through the main part of this website You can also return to the Farndale website home page

The Hall Family The genealogy of the family of James Hall, linked to the Baker family through marriage to Arthur Baker

Headlines of Letitia Baker’s life are in brown.

Dates are in red.

Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.

References and citations are in turquoise.

Context and local history are in purple.

1852

Letitia Baker was the daughter of Rev Ralph B and Frances (nee Singer) Baker (FAR00302). Letitia Baker was born on 29 February 1852. Census records suggest she was born in Ireland, but she was baptised at Christ Church, Hilderstone on 29 April 1852 (Christ Church, Hilderstone Parish Records).

1861

1861 Census - 22, Porchester Square, Paddington

Ralph B Baker, Head , Married, Male, 58, 1803, Clergyman church England without cure of souls, Kenton, Staffordshire

Frances C Baker, Wife, Married, Female, 38 , 1823, Ireland

Mary F Baker, Daughter, Female, 12, 1849, Scholar, Ireland

Letitia J D Baker, Daughter, Female, 9, 1852, Scholar, Ireland

William M Baker, Son, Male, 3, 1858, Hilderstone, Staffordshire

Jessie Goward, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 25, 1836, Housemaid, Scotland

Sarah Death, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 22, 1839, Cook, Kentish Town, Middlesex

Sarah Addison, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 22, 1839, Nurse, Staffordshire

1871

1871 Census – Hasfield Court, Hasfield, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Ralph Bourne Baker, Head, Male, 68, 1803, Staffordshire

Frances Crofton Baker, Wife, Female, 48, 1823, Ireland

Mary Frances Baker, Daughter, Female, 22, 1849, Ireland

Letitia Jane Dowthen Baker, Daughter, Female, 19, 1852, Ireland

Sarah Hitchman, Sister, Female, 60, 1811, Staffordshire

John Belmore, Servant, Male, 56, 1815, Devon

John George Westlake, Servant, Male, 16, 1855, Somerset

Louisa Field, Servant, Female, 34, 1837, Somerset

Jane Welch, Servant, Female, 36, 1835, Somerset

Mary Heywood, Servant, Female, 33, 1838, Devon

Elizabeth Ann Redding, Servant, Female, 18, 1853, Gloucestershire

1881

1881 Census – Hasfield Court, Hasfield, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Frances Crofton Baker, Head, Widow, Female, 57, 1824, Householder, Ireland

Mary Frances Baker, Daughter, Single, Female, 32 , 1849, Householder’s daughter, Ireland

Letitia Jane Baker, Daughter, Single, Female, 28, 1853, House holders daughter, Ireland

William Meath Baker, Son, Single, Male, 23, 1858, Landowner, b a Stafford, Staffordshire, England

Alice Frances Crofton, Visitor, Single, Female, 32, 1849, Ireland

Helen Julianna Jenkins, Visitor, Single, Female, 36, 1845, Bond holder, Ireland

John Belmont, Servant, Widower, Male, 59, 1822, Domestic servant butler, Marwood, Devon, England

Thomas Smith , Servant, Single, Male, 18, 1863, Domestic servant footman, Aston, Gloucestershire, England

Elizabeth An Bedding, Servant, Single, Female, 28, 1853, Domestic servant housemaid, Forthampton, Gloucestershire, England

Laura Box, Servant, Single, Female , 27, 1854, Domestic servant cook, Monmouthshire, Wales

Clara Louisa James, Servant, Single, Female, 32, 1849, Domestic servant ladies maid, Tipton, Staffordshire, England

Kate Lake, Servant, Single, Female, 16, 1865, Domestic servant kitchen maid, Ashleworth, Gloucestershire, England

Rose Emme Colebrook, Servant, Single, Female, 19, 1862, Domestic servant house maid, Carmarthenshire, Wales

Louisa Westlake, Servant, Married, Female, 39, 1842, Domestic servant housekeeper, Somerset, England

Letitia married Richard Baxter Townshend in July 1881 at Hasfield, Gloucestershire.

FASHIONABLE MARRIAGE AT HASFIELD. Marriage of Mr Richard Baxter Townshend, of Bath, to Miss Letitia Jane Dorothea Baker, younger daughter of the late Rev R Bourne Baker, was solemnised on Thursday at Hatfield parish church. The event was of course an important one in “the simple annals of the village poor” of Hasfield; the interest felt in it being all the greater on account of the popularity which the fair bride herself, together with the rest of the family, had won by their active interest in the well-being of the inhabitants of the locality. The ancient parish church, which has recently undergone a restoration, is not a large one, and all the available space was crowded to excess for some time before the wedding party arrived, many persons being compelled to stand. Floral decorations had been tastefully and effectively disposed throughout the edifice. The window sills were filled with moss and wild flowers, surmounted with white cross designs. The font and pulpit were also prettily set off, and chaplets of roses and other flowers were hung from the carvings of the choir seat fronts. The old tomb on the north side of the altar was covered with flowers. The church stands at a very short distance from Hasfield court, the residence of the bride, so that no carriages were required. The path from the residence to the church was carpeted, and one or two arches were erected at intervals. At the appointed hour the bridal party issued from the Court and walked to the church where, at the curious old south door, more than 400 years old, it was remarked, the bridegroom was in waiting, accompanied by Mr Clayton, of Bath, as best man. A hymn was sung as the procession moved up the church. The bride was attired in an ivory shaded satin costume, trimmed with white lace, and she wore a gold necklace, studded with pearls, the gift of her brother, gold earrings, gift of her aunt, and a gold bracelet, presented by the servants of the Court. She was followed by four bridesmaids, attired in uniform costumes of the terra cotta shade and wearing silver bracelets, the gifts of the bridegroom. The service was conducted by the Rev Canon Stavely, BD, of Killarney, County Dublin, assisted by the Revs JF Hone, MA, vicar of Tirley and the Rev C M Read BA, rector of Hasfield. The bride was given away by her brother, Mr William Baker. At the conclusion of the service Mrs Ford, cousin of the bride, who presided at the harmonium, played Mendelssohn’s wedding March as the party left the church. A band of village maidens strewed flowers along the path before the bride and bridegroom, and merry wedding peels were wrung out from the old church tower. Crowds of villagers visited the church and remained for some time to inspect the decorations. They were lavish in the encomiums of the scene, and the aged sexton, who might have been taken by Crabbe as a model for his “old Dibble”, was heard to declare that he had not seen a prettier wedding during his 50 years experience at the church. Between 3three and fourt o’clock the bride and bridegroom started for Clifton, which was the first stage of their wedding tour. They will afterwards visit Ilfracombe, and other beautiful spots on the Devon and Cornish coasts. The weather, which had hitherto been all that could be desired now became overcast , and a somewhat heavy shower fell, threatening seriously to interfere with a garden party which was given in the beautiful grounds surrounding Hasfield court. In about an hours’ time, however, the weather cleared and it continued fine during the remainder of the day. The villagers were liberally entertained on the following day.

The following presence were given to by to the bride and bridegroom: cedar table and table glass, Mrs Bourne Baker; Crown Derby tea service and Algerian brass tray, Miss Baker, ebony Devonport and golden Pearl necklace, Mr WM Baker; chased Indian silver tea and coffee service, pearl earrings and inlaid tea caddy, Mrs Hitchman; cut glass claret jug with silver top, Mrs ford; glass and silver biscuit box, Mr ford and Mr H ford; crewel work, Miss Emily Ford; set of silver desert knives and forks, Captains Singer RN and Mrs Singer; set of silver pepper casters, the Misses Singer; oak and silver butter cooler and knife, Mr R B Singer; Genevese silver bracelet and locket, Rev P and Mrs Singer; The Waverley Novels, Mrs Townshend; liquor set, Mr Payne Townshend; sideboard, Mr Chambry Townshend; Moore’s works, Mrs J Townshend; Neapolitan inlaid table, glove box and tea caddy, Miss Townshend,; set of Munich table glasses, Miss B Townshend; embroidered Roman portiere, Mrs Edward Morgan; Buhl drawing room clock, Mr and Mrs Hodgson; Silver egg cups, stand and spoons, Cannon and Mrs Staveley; egg boiler, Mr and Mrs Jamison; antique silver sauce ladles, General and Mrs Crofton; set of silver teaspoons, Mrs S and the Mrs Crofton; oxidised silver work casket, Dr and Mrs Crofton; drawing room writing sets, H Keating; pair of floral China lamps and vases, Mrs H Keating; Painting, Mrs W E Gabbert; China jar, Mr and Mrs Stone; tea service, Captain and Mrs Stone; revolving dish, Mrs Ellicott Clifton; ebony dining clock, Misses and the Mrs Jenkins Erica; long book slide, Mr Robert and Mrs Singer; Russian leather album, the Rev and Mrs Butterworth; cashmere silver salt Cellars, Lady and Mrs Roberts and Miss Roberts and Major Roberts, RA; press writing table sets, Rev JF Home; Indian water bottle and silver, Miss Edith Hone; set of Indian d’oyleys, Mrs J stone; glass jugs and goblets, Mr and Mrs W Rakes; fish knives and forks, Canon Linton; satsuma pot and afternoon tea set, Mr Gibson; Dresden China Miller, Rev CM Reid and Lady Warren Vernon; Painted table, Mrs and Miss Harrison; set of d’oyleys, Mrs H Ford; Dalton egg cups and stemmed, pepper casters and master pot mustard pot, Mr and Mrs Smith; Silver vegetable dish, Mr and Mrs Colbeck; Roman silk scarf, Miss Lillian Jones; bead baskets, Mrs Hatch; “lyra Angelcana”, Miss B Hobson; tea cloth, Rev SH Owen; flower vase, M Homer; silver mounted flask Rev Sherwood and Mrs Clayton; Scott’s poems, Rev R M Herdman; silver tea spoons and sugar tongs, Mr and Mrs Dunn; Silver melon like knife, Mr Willan; silver knife rests, Mr Holts and Mrs Wells; Set of d’oyleys, Miss H Singer; Turkish pin tray, Mrs Fulljames; twine barrel, Mr H Burnham; work basket Miss Allen; patchwork, Mr. Jame; Tennyson’s Works in Morocco case, Mrs Westlake; wardian case, Mr Alpin; Indian China water table and tray, Mr and Mrs Chambray Townshend; “Malvern chase” Rev FWS Symonds; goblet, Mrs Simons; Heber's poems, Miss dudgeon; paper cutter, Mrs and Miss Jones; Lowestoft China, Miss H Somerville; Roman etchings, Miss A Townshend; glass flower vase, Mary Williams; silver salver, the tenant farmers of Hasfield; pair of antique mirrors, inhabitants of Hasfield; Brass date rack, cottage tenants in Tirley and Ashleworth; patchwork quilt, worked by the children of Hasfield schools; Doulton China preserve jar, mistress and children of Hasfield schools; Gold bracelet, servants at Hatfield court; Silver thimble in case, William Hamblin and Thomas Wilcox; afternoon tea set, class of farmers daughters; silver mounted oak salad salad bowl etc, filigree silver cross, and Ruby ring. (The Citizen, 30 July 1881).

MARRIAGE OF MISS L J D BAKER AND MR R B TOWNSHEND. The village of Hasfield, near Gloucester, was the scene of a fashionable wedding on Thursday, the nuptials of Miss Letitia Jane Dorothea Baker, youngest daughter of the late Rev R Bourne Baker, of Hasfield Court, and Mr Richard Baxter Townshend, youngest son of the late Rev Chambray Townshend, of Derry, County Cork, being celebrated at Hasfield church, which was prettily decorated for the occasion. The contiguity of the court and church rendered carriages unnecessary, and the bridal party accordingly walked to the sacred edifice, the path being carpeted; The advent of the bride, leaning on the arm of her brother, Mr W M Baker, who gave her away, was the signal for the school children, who boarded the walk, to strew flowers before her. The bride was attired in ivory satin and Brussels lace, with a wreath of natural orange blossoms, and tulle veil, and wore pearl ornaments. She was attended by four bridesmaids: Miss Baker, her sister, Miss Crofton and Miss Singer, her cousins, and Miss A C Roberts of Haseldine, Redmarley, all of whom were dressed in Surah silk of two shades of terra cotta, trimmed with cream lace, and had hats of cream lace with ostrich feathers and roses. They wore silver bracelets, the gift of the bridegroom. The bride was met at the altar by the bridegroom, whose best man was Mr Clayton. The marriage ceremony was performed by Rev Canon Staveley, uncle of the bride, assisted by the Rev J F Home, vicar of Tirley, and Rev C M Reid, rector of Hasfield. Mrs Ford, cousin of the bride, played the wedding March as the bridal party left the church, and the ringers in the belfry set up a marriage peel. An elegant breakfast was partaken off at Hasfield court by a number of guests, after which the happy pair left, amidst the salutations and best wishes of their relatives and friends to spend the honeymoon in Cornwall. In the afternoon Mrs Bourne Baker gave a grand garden party at Hasfield Court, which was attended by the gentry of the neighbourhood. Yesterday the inhabitants of Hasfield were entertained in honour of the marriage....(Gloucestershire Chronicle, 30 July 1881).

Townshend-Baker, July 28, at Hasfield Church, Gloucestershire, by the Rev Canon Staveley BD, uncle of the Bride, assisted by the Rev J F Hone, Vicar of Tirley, and the Rev C M Reed, Rector of the Parish, Richard Baxcter Townshend, youngest son ofg the late Rev Chambre C Townshend, of Derry, County Cork, to Letitia Jane Doothea, younger daughter of the late Rev R Bourne Baker, of Hasfield Court, and grand daughter of the late Most Rev and Right Honourable J H Singer, Lord Bishop of Meath (The Belfast Newsletter, 2 August 1737, Cheltenham Examiner, 3 August 1881, Leamington Spa Courier, 6 August 1881, Monmouthshire Beacon 6 August 1881).

Richard Baxter Townshend and Edward Elgar

Regular house parties were held at Hasfield. On one occasion there was a call for someone to play the part of an old man. WMB’s brother in law, Richard Baxter Townshend, Letitia Baker’s husband was persuaded to take the part. His voice was too high falsetto and soft for the role and he attempted a deeper voice, but was unable to keep it up and the audience were in tears with laughter. Townshend had been a cattle rancher and gold prospector and was a good shot. He had a weather-beaten face and was known to ride about Oxford on a tricyle. As he was somewhat deaf, he invented a bicycle bell that sounded continuously.

R B Townshend, Dora Penny and WMB would be immortalised in consequence of Edward Elgar’s visits to Hasfield. In October 1898, Edward Elgar was at his piano one evening and his wife liked a new theme and asked what it was. He replied, ‘nothing, but something might be made of it.” He played some more and asked Alice who it was like. Alice replied that “it is exactly the way WMB goes out of the room.”. She added “surely you are doing something that has never been done before.” This was the origin of the Enigma Variations, one of the greatest orchestral works written by a British composer. Were it not for Alice Elgar’s interruption, we might never have had one of the greatest of all English orchestral works. Elgar called the tune, which he had not recognised as anything worthwhile, “Enigma”, not in the sense of a riddle to be solved, but, he said, a “dark saying [that] must be left unguessed”, expressing the “nothingness” from which it came.

Elgar dedicated the variations to ‘my friends pictured within’.

Each section was headed by the initials of the friend portrayed, beginning with “CAE” or Caroline Alice Baker, who he lovingly portrayed.

He called the third variation “RBT” and his funny voice and his bicycle bell can be heard in the music. The piece remembered Richard Baxter Townshend, a friend whose caricature of an old man in an amateur theatre production is captured in the variation.

He called the third variation RBT and his funny voice and his bicycle bell can be heard in the music. The piece remembered Richard Baxter Townshend, husband of Letitia Jane Dorothea Baker, a friend whose caricature of an old man in an amateur theatre production is captured in the variation. The variation depicts an amateur actor and mimic, capable of extreme changes to the pitch of his voice, a characteristic which the music imitates.

Then he turned over 2 pages and I saw No 3, RBT, the initials of a connection of mine. This was amusing! Before he had played many bars I began to laugh, which rather annoyed me. You don't generally laugh when you hear a piece of music for the first time dedicated to someone you know, but I just couldn't help it, and when it was over we both roared with laughter! “But you’ve made it so like him! How on earth have you done it?” (Powell, R (1937), Edward Elgar, Memories of a Variation, page 12).

The ‘story’ of the RBT variation goes back to about 1895, before I had any connection with the family. They were doing some amateur of theatricals that Hasfield Court, the home of W M Baker, and someone was wanted to take the part of an old man. No one could be found who was really suitable so they ran in RBT, who was staying there to act, much against his will. He had never taken part in anything of the sort before and, I was assured, never did so again. The difficulty was in what sort of voice should he speak? His voice sounded as though it had never broken. He spoke in the sort of high falsetto, rather a soft voice, and one which was eminently suitable for the telling stories of his travels and life in Colorado and for the same reason he was a capital reader of Uncle Remus. He decided to put on a deep bass voice for the old man's part, but he couldn't keep it up and his occasional lapses into his ordinary voice convulsed the audience! Richard Baxter Townsend was rather an eccentric looking person with his brick red, weather-beaten face, bright blue eyes and shock of grey hair. And he rode about Oxford on a tricycle. Being slightly deaf he invented the idea of a bell which could be set to ring continuously like an alarm clock. It was dreadful! Cycling with him one day I called out “Why do you let that bell ring all the time?” “So that people can hear me coming. I can't hear them!” I've called this variation a caricature, but it requires special explanation. RBT was, by any reckoning, a very unusual person. He was a classical scholar of Cambridge, a first-class rifle shot, had been a cattle rancher, gold prospector, and had written books and stories about it. His two books, A Tenderfoot in Colorado and The Tenderfoot in New Mexico (the Bodley Head), are interesting and amusing. He also wrote a novel, Lone Pine, which achieved the distinction of being reprinted in 1913 as a “Sevrenpenny” (Messrs Methuen and Co). His brother-in-law, WMB, called him a wild Irishman and objected strongly to the strange clothes he generally wore. He had a curious didactic way of speaking, the first few bars of the variation give it to you, and he had a trick of finishing up a rather tall sounding story with an impressive “I'm telling you”, to convince you of the truth of it. Retailing more lurid stories of his life in New Mexico to men friends, I have been told that RBT’s blue eyes blazed with exasperation and excitement when the audience did not seem sufficiently impressed. “Damn and blast it, man! Can't you understand what I'm telling you?” It is amusing to note what may be a suggestion of this in the four bars before No 10 in the full score. So this variation can be truly called a portrait after all: Elgar has got him with his funny voice and manner, and the tricycle! It is all there and is just a huge joke to anyone who knew him well. No wonder that WMB burst out laughing when he first heard it. (Powell, R (1937), Edward Elgar, Memories of a Variation, page 124).

Elgar’s Enigma Variations III, RBT

The music immortalising Richard Baxter Townsend

Edward Elgar’s Third Variation, marked Allegretto, from the Enigma Variations, Opus 36 portrays his friend Richard Baxter Townshend, RBT. It humorously captures Townshend's comical stage caricature of an old man with shaky, alternating high and low register leaps in the woodwinds and strings.

He called his fourth variation “WMB” and the variation is highly energetic and includes a sharp bang of the door. The piece recalled William Meath Baker, 'country squire, gentleman and scholar', informing his guests of the day's arrangements.

He called the tenth variation “Dorabella” after Dora Penny, which was her nickname from Cosi Fan Tutte and the music parodies her youthful stammer. The piece depicted Dora Penny, daughter of the Rector of Wolverhampton and a close friend of the Elgars.

But for the Bakers and Hasfield Court, the Enigma Variations would not have been what they were.

1888

Letitia arrived in Boston on 2 July 1888 with her husband (Incoming Passenger Records).

1901

1901 Census – Hasfield Court

William Baker, 43, magistrate living on own means

Letitia J D Townshend, sister, living on own means

Butler, footman, cook, three housemaids, scullery maid

1909

On 25 November I went to Oxford to stay with Mr and Mrs R B Townsend. There was an orchestral concert at which the Variations were to be done and RBT wanted to go to it with me. Poor thing! I'm afraid he was rather bored, he was entirely unmusical, but he was entertained by what I could tell him of the other Variations and amused by my explanatory notes on the subject of his brother-in-law, WMB. “EE called you the delight maker, didn't he?” “Yes that was after those theatricals when I did the old man. Those were the days!” He wanted to know why WMB was amused and why he said what he did at Worcester after the RBT Variation, and in what way I thought it was like him. This was a little awkward for me as I could not very well tell him how wickedly like him it was, with all his funny little eccentricities and ways of speaking. However I told him what I could. “That's no end interesting”, he said, “but I wish I could see it just as you do!” (Powell, R (1937), Edward Elgar, Memories of a Variation, page 108).

1911

1911 Census – Lynton Hotel, Poole, Dorset

Richard Baxter Townshend, boarder, author

Letitia Jane Dorothea Towneshend, boarder, author

Richard Baxter Townshend wrote several works of fiction and non-fiction during the early twentieth century, often drawing on his adventurous experiences in the American West. The Bride of a Day (1905) was co-written with his wife, Dorothea Townshend. The Complete Air-Gunner (1907) was an instructional and practical guide detailing military air rifles and shooting. A Girl from Mexico (1914) was a novel reflecting his familiarity with North American settings and vernacular. Inspired Golf (1921) was an instructional book on golf reflecting his sporting pursuits at Oxford. A Tenderfoot in Colorado (1923), published shortly before his death, was his classic autobiographical account compiled his experiences as a young Englishman on the American frontier.

Richard Baxter Townshend

The opening chapter of Richard Baxter Townshend’s A Tenderfoot in Colorado will remind many readers of the first pages of Owen Wister’s Virginian. Each book begins with a description of the author’s experiences when he went Out West after graduating from college. Oddly enough, several chapters of each book appeared first as magazine articles during the 1890’s—the decade that established the present pattern for “westerns.” Wister’s articles were published in American periodicals and Townshend’s in British. As a writer of “westerns” the latter might even be called England’s Owen Wister.

Both young men came from families of moderate wealth. Richard Townshend’s parents were landed gentry with a home in Bristol, England, and a seat in Cork County, Ireland, where Richard was born on March 8, 1846. As a boy he was sent to Repton “public school,” an exclusive private school founded in 1557. Here he earned a minor scholarship to Cambridge. At Trinity College he received a B.A. degree, along with the name of “cherub” because of his curly hair, blue eyes, and pink cheeks. Townshend completed his studies at a time when the Chisholm Trail in the American West had become one of the famous bonanzas of the century. Summer after summer, men with cash doubled and tripled their investments by buying cattle in Texas and selling them Up North. In Great Britain the industrial revolution had produced excess capital and many Englishmen flocked to American ranching country. Richard, a younger son, was not one of the wealthy speculators, but he did have some money to invest when he stepped off a Union Pacific Railroad train into the exciting drama of the West in 1869.

This book describes the twenty-three-year-old man’s first association with gun-packing gamblers, half- wild Indians, and eager promoters. Being an educated Britisher schooled in the grammatical precision of Latin, French, and Cambridge English, he especially enjoyed the ungrammatical Western idiom, and his narrative reproduces it to perfection. This alone gives the volume unusual distinction because too many writers of Western Americana have overplayed the idiosyncrasies of Western speech, inventing a spurious lingo typical only of drug-store cowboys.

For five years Townshend prowled along the eastern slope of the Rockies and the upper reaches of the Arkansas. As a tenderfoot he knew, and in this book describes, early-day Julesburg, Denver, Central City and Colorado Springs. Interested always in guns, he met many men who considered a gun part of their everyday wearing apparel. He also became acquainted with three early governors of the Territory: A. C. Hunt, a United States marshal appointed by resident Andrew Johnson; Edward McCook, a political general appointed by Grant; and that Quaker graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, William Gilpin, who was a successful professional soldier before assuming the governorship.

During Townshend’s first year in the West, gold was discovered on Ute Indian lands in south western Colorado. Prospectors ignored the reservation boundaries and swarmed over the red men’s hunting ground. The Utes threatened war, and Townshend accompanied the federal commission which went to the reservation to preserve peace—an exciting event that has never been recorded with such vivid details by any other writer. Later, Townshend bought a cattle ranch on the Plains some twenty-five miles east of the site of Colorado Springs. Out there, Cheyennes and Arapahos were still uncertain characters and he endured as well as enjoyed the vicissitudes of life on the open range until 1874 when he sold out for “time payments,” using the first instalment to buy wagons and goods he believed saleable in New Mexico.

With this venture Townshend concludes his book, but this was not the end of his Colorado experiences. Hauling his trade goods, Townshend stopped at Jemez, New Mexico, a village west of Santa Fe. He planned to sell his supplies here to the Mexican residents, also to the Navahos who came to trade, and to the Jemez Indians in their nearby pueblo. Townshend learned Spanish quickly, thanks to his early schooling in Latin. He was granted a room in the pueblo where his blue eyes and rosy English cheeks earned him the name of Poshizmo, or Dawn God. However, with nothing to do except wait for customers and watch the shadows of ladders to the flat roofs creep along the smooth walls, Townshend

became restless. Hearing rumours of new gold discoveries back in Colorado, he decided to return to that country.

Richard Townshend demonstrating the lasso

Townshend packed camp equipment on burros and, accompanied by two companions, rode away in the late summer of 1876. While travelling across the Navaho lands, he noticed that these Indians had already heard about Custer’s defeat in Montana. Although they did not hinder him he felt safer when his little party left their semi barren country, entered Colorado, and climbed the San Juan Mountains where tall grass grew beneath the red-stemmed pines.

Townshend prospected as far west as Silverton, then swung southeast toward the reservation of the Jicarilla Apaches (called “Hickories” by the natives). Winter overtook him near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. At an altitude of 7,000 feet he and a fellow prospector built a shelter of pine boughs and “holed up” in deep snow. When spring came, they rode south through the melting drifts into New Mexico. At Tierra Amarilla, a colonial Spanish settlement still in existence, Townshend received the first mail to reach him since the previous autumn. Letters from England convinced him that after an eight-year absence he should go home to his widowed mother, but he realized he must first clip the

Wild-West, curly locks hanging to his shoulders. A second payment on his ranch supplied the necessary funds for the trip. However, he was not sufficiently wealthy to sail in style on the regular Cunard steamship for Liverpool. Instead he boarded a cheaper vessel bound for London, a city much closer to his mother’s home at Wimbledon.

Arriving in the late summer of 1877, Townshend found the English climate muggy, misty, steamy hot, and very different from the Rockies’ bracing air. Moreover, he felt like a stranger in his native land. Thirty- one years old now, he noticed that other men of his age were well established in “situations.” That old friend of the family, Sir Francis Bond Head, whose North American travels had influenced Richard to go Out West, was dead. Richard’s mother knew only elderly ladies and they had no work for a cowboy! He was introduced to a minister’s daughter, Letitia Jane Dorothea Baker, who wrote poetry and read English history. Richard fell in love at once and wanted to marry her, but without a job this was impossible. He learned that Sir Francis’ son, Jim Head, was in Colorado. Richard decided to join Jim, “make a quick stake,” come back, and marry Dorothea.

When he returned to Colorado Springs in 1878, he scarcely recognized the place. The town had been established as a health resort in 1871 by intelligent and art-minded people from Philadelphia. “High-toned” easterners afflicted with tuberculosis were settling here. The model city already possessed a fine high school and Colorado College. No saloons were allowed, but outside the city limits - where liquor was sold - Townshend met Jim Head, who was “bumming around” with Oswald Petre, son of Lord Petre. The three young men wanted to make some money. They discussed the new silver mines at Leadville - up on top of the world. Townshend had been there when the area was a worked-out gold camp. All agreed to load two wagons with bottled beer and drive up to the booming camp and sell it. Like most of Townshend’s investments this one proved fairly successful. At Leadville he found many opportunities to reinvest his profits in mining claims but such speculations were too hazardous for him. He did notice, however, that the day of the plodding ox team had passed. Speed was now so important in delivering freight that horses and mules fetched fantastic prices. Prospectors were paying $100 for ordinary saddle mounts. Two years earlier, when in New Mexico, he had heard that such animals could be bought in Texas for $10.00. A profit like that on a couple of hundred head would make the stake he needed to marry Dorothea.

In the fall of 1878, after snow had blanketed Colorado’s mountains and plains, Townshend boarded the train for sunny San Antonio. Here he bought a span of mules and a roundup mess-wagon. With whip in hand and foot on the brake, he drove into the brush country between San Antonio and San Diego, Texas, a town of Mexicans sixty miles west of Corpus Christi. He soon learned that the $10.00 horses he had hoped to buy would cost him $15.00 to $25.00. Even at these prices his profit promised to be good, so he bought some two hundred horses and mules from various ranchmen. One sinister fellow living on the outlaw strip between the Nueces and the Rio Grande offered him “wet” horses at $5.00 per head. Townshend understood “wet” horses to be animals stolen in Mexico. Tempting as the price seemed, he did not buy because he believed that the Texas brand-inspector would not permit him to

leave the state with such animals. He regretted his decision later when he learned that the inspector’s chief interest was his fee. In the spring of 1879, with ten riders, a cook, and mess-wagon, Townshend pointed his horses northwest through the brush country. In this jungle of cactus and mesquite the drag and swing men could not see the bell mare being led at the head of the column. Finally, they emerged on the Llano Estacado and struck west over an ocean of grass for the Pecos. In New Mexico the Lincoln County War had commenced. Billy the Kid and three of his gang stopped them, threatened to steal all their horses, but after an ugly scene let them pass - an adventure recounted later in Townshend’s skilful narrative style.

Climbing up to Raton Pass, Townshend’s party enjoyed the clear water, cool air, and dancing quaking aspen leaves. The horses, full of fresh grass, stampeded but were cornered in a box canyon. Down on the north side of the mountains where the "picket wire plains” are studded with elk-horn cactus, Townshend felt at home. This was his old range. He trailed the horses north along the edge of the Rockies, drove past Colorado Springs and up through the mountains to the railhead of the Denver & South Park Railway, which was only thirty miles from Leadville. Here Townshend put his horses to work hauling freight to the silver camp, selling the teams at the end of each trip. This was slow but

profitable. At the first opportunity he sold out, returned to England, married Dorothea, and began an academic life at the age of thirty-three. For five years Townshend served as assistant master at Bath College. Then he moved to a village in Worcestershire, but in 1891 he settled permanently at Oxford. Through influential friends he became a member of Common Room in Wadham College where he might sip tea on the emerald lawn. Meanwhile, he wrote “Trial by Lynch Law,” his first magazine article, which appeared in 1892 and later became chapter seven of A Tenderfoot in Colorado. Encouraged by the publication of this article he recorded other western experiences. He also wrote several narratives on the English civil war - one of Dorothea’s special interests. Using his knowledge of Latin, he translated the Fourth Maccabees for Clarendon Press. He also translated works by Tacitus. In 1893 his alma mater awarded him an M.A. degree. During these years he served as treasurer of the Oxford University Golf Club, played tennis, and practiced shooting on the Bisley ranges.

In 1899, Townshend saw his first novel published. Lone Pine was a Pueblo Indian story with his own blue-eyed, curly-headed self as an important character. In 1903 he made a last visit to Colorado. Armed with a camera now instead of a rifle, he visited the Great Plains, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and the pueblo at Jemez. The old chiefs he had known were gone but the two kivas (of the Summer and the Winter People) with the lodge-pole ladder-ends protruding from the roofs, were still there and the young men still followed ancient Indian traditions. Townshend regretted that he could not say the same about the cowboys. The open-range life he once knew seemed gone forever. His early-day friends no longer possessed the dash, the gay humour, the youthful glamour he had admired, and he returned to Oxford wondering why these toothless old men had ever seemed

appealing.

When World War I commenced, Townshend joined the University Volunteers. He wanted to show the officious military instructor how to shoot, and shoot fast. It would have been easy for him to do so, but the chap wouldn’t watch! Townshend retired philosophically to his garden where, with air rifles, he taught ambitious boys the correct way to shoot. However, this activity soon became too strenuous for the seventy-year-old man. His health broke in 1916 but he lived another seven years writing from his accumulated notes the texts of A Tenderfoot in Colorado and two other books. Happy with his memories, Townshend looked calmly at the end of the trail ahead. He survived the publication of this volume by less than four months and died on April 28, 1923.

Dorothea, her husband’s constant companion during his later years, saw his other books of memoirs through the press. In the manuscript of one, written shortly before the death of this man of many adventures, she read these consoling words: "Life has not been a disappointment, and there is a good deal of truth in the line: ‘And for His chosen, pours His best wine last!' "

(Introduction by Professor J. Monaghan from the University of Oklahoma Press reprint of "A Tenderfoot in Colorado.")

(A Note in Inspired Golf)

1921

1921 Census - 117, Banbury Road, Oxford, St Giles, Oxfordshire

Richard Baxter Townshend, Head, Male, 1846, 75, Cork, Ireland, Author

Letitia Jane Dorothea Townshend, Wife, Female, 1852, 69, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, Author

Anna Maria Niblett, Servant, Female, 1855, 65, Pendock, Worcestershire, England, Cork Private

Louisa Stokes, Servant, Female, 1868, 53, Worcestershire, England, Parlourmaid, Private

Annie Maria Cridge, Servant, Female, 1869, 52, Housemaid, Private

Florence Agnes Goddard, Servant, Female, 1904, 17, Oxfordshire, England, kitchen maid, Private

Edith Clara Fanny Bayliss, Nurse, Female, 1891, 30, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, Sick Nurse, Private

Eleanor Florence Dann, Nurse, Female, 1867, 53, Linton, Kent, England, Sick Nurse, Private

1930

Letitia Dorothy Townshend of 117 Banbury Road, Oxford, died on 30 November 1930 and probate was granted on 28 March 1931 to William Meath Baker Esq and Mary Frances Penny, wife of the Reverend Canon Alfred Penny. £18,255 17s 9d. Townshend Letitia Dorothea of 117 Banbury Road Oxford widow died 30 November 1930 Probate Oxford 28 March to William Meath Baker esquire and Mary Frances Penny (wife of the rebverend canon Alkfred Penny). Effects £18255 17s 9d (Probate Records).