The Culleys of Coupland and Fowberry
The Culleys of Coupland Castle and of Fowberry Tower were descended from Matthew Culley of Denton, Co. Durham (b 1685, d 1762) and his sons Matthew Culley of Denton and Akeld (b 1731, d 1804), and George Culley of Denton and Fowberry (b 1735, d 1813). Together with a third brother James, who died in 1793, the younger Culleys had moved to North Northumberland in 1767. They began as tenant farmers, but their success as farmers and stock breeders, introducing new methods, enable them to purchase their own farms. Matthew Culley of Denton and Akeld married Elizabeth Bates, who was the heir to Coupland Castle and its estates, and their eldest son also called Matthew inherited Coupland. The estate remained in hands of the Culleys until sold in 1923. George Culley of Denton and Fowberry, who died in 1813, purchased Fowberry Tower and its estates in 1807 and his son named Matthew inherited the property.[Note 1] The latter remained unmarried and on his death the property passed to the Darling family through his sister Eleanor who had married James Darling. Their descendants inherited Fowberry. |
Culleys of Fowberry Tower
On 24 February 1851 George Darling (b 1834, d 1893), who was the grandson of James and Eleanor Darling and the heir to Fowberry Tower, was granted the Crown’s permission to take the surname Culley in compliance with the will of his maternal great uncle Matthew Culley of Fowberry (London Gazette, No. 21190, 11th March 1851, p.704). The newly named George Darling Culley married Jane Arundell St Aubyn Woodcock in Edinburgh in 1858 and the couple had one child a daughter christened Jane ('Kitty') Darling Culley (b 1859, d 1930). The latter was to achieve fame for her services taking ‘Comforts for Nurses and smaller Hospitals’ and for sick and wounded troops to South Africa during the Second Boer War (Newcastle Courant, Saturday 14th July 1900, p.3; London Evening Standard, 6th September 1900, p.6; Morning Post, 15th June 1900, p.1).[Note 2] She published an account of her experiences in a book entitled On the Warpath: a Lady’s letters from the Front (The Scotsman, 25th July 1901, p. 2). |
Jane Darling Culley had married Arthur Hugo Leather (b 1860, d 1924) at Belford in 1878 (Berwick Advertiser, 1st March 1878, p.3). Arthur was the younger brother of Frederick John Leather of Middleton Hall, Belford, and Tickhill, near Doncaster. Arthur Leather added his wife's surname to his own, so that the family became the Leather Culleys (London Gazette, No. 26771, 25th August 1896, p.4817). There was one son (Arthur) George Leather Culley (b 1879) from the marriage. George held a commission in the Coldstream Guards and served in South Africa, but resigned his commission in 1903 soon after his return from Africa (London Gazette No. 27603. 6th October 1903, p.6089). He married Zella Evelyn Dick-Lauder in 1904 (Berwickshire News, 15th November 1904, p.6) but he died suddenly aged just 31 in 1910 (Berwick Advertiser, 22nd July 1910, p.2; Army and Navy Gazette, 30th July 1910, p.16). He is buried in the churchyard at Chatton. Zella Leather Culley did not remarry. In 1911 she was living at Radcliffe House, in Bamburgh, where her father-in-law Arthur Leather-Culley was residing. The whereabouts of Jane Leather Culley at this date are uncertain.
During the Great War from June 1915 Jane Darling Leather Culley was matron of the 12th Northumberland V.A. Hospital based at Fowberry Tower and Hetton House with the rank of Commandant. Her daughter-in-law Zella Evelyn Leather Culley was also active with Red Cross and with the VAD. She had been vice president of the Alnwick Division, Northumberland Branch of the British Red Cross Society since March 1909 and Commandant of the VAD Northumberland 4, from 1910. In 1912 Zella Leather Culley was voted onto the Board of Guardians for the Alnwick Workhouse to fill a vacancy created by the death of Miss Jane Dunn (Morpeth Herald, 27th September 1912, p.9; Alnwick and County Gazette, 19th October 1912, p.2). She was honoured with an OBE in the New Year Honours list in 1919 for her work with the Red Cross during the Great War (London Gazette No.31114, 2nd Supplement 8th January 1919, p.454). In 1920 when Fowberry Tower was sold, Jane Leather Culley seems to have been resident in London, but by 1922 she had moved to Rudloe Manor, near Box in Wiltshire.[Note 3] It is clear that she and her husband Arthur Leather Culley had separated. Arthur died in April 1924 at St Vincents, Andover, Hampshire (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 28th May 1924, p.2). He is buried in the churchyard at Chatton. Following his death, his widow Jane, married her second husband Capt Archibald Montgomery Campbell, on 6th November 1924 in the Church of St Thomas à Becket in Box, Wiltshire (Bath Chronicle, 8th November 1924, pp 7 & 17). The couple appear to have been old friends because when Capt Montgomery Campbell, who was long retired from the Army, was interned in Germany during the Great War, Mrs Leather Culley interested herself in his plight and wrote letters to Viscount Grey of Falloden the Foriegn Secretary on the captain's behalf (TNA, FO383/53 & 383/169). The newly married couple lived at Rudloe Manor. Mrs Jane Montgomery Campbell, formerly Leather Culley, died on Christmas Day 1930 and was interred in the cemetery at Box, Wiltshire on Tuesday 30th December (Bath Chronicle and Herald, 3rd January 1931, p.7). Capt Montgomery Campbell was interred in the same grave as his wife following his death in Bath in April 1934 (Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 28th April 1934, p 22). . |
Culleys of Coupland Castle
Matthew Culley of Coupland Castle (b 1786, d 1834), who was the son Matthew Culley of Denton and Akeld and his wife Elizabeth Bates, married Margaret Ann Tewart (b 1811, d 1834), the daughter of Edward Tewart, of Southgate Park, Middlesex, in 1831. They had one son Matthew Tewart Culley born in 1832, but both parents died in April 1834. The two year old Matthew Tewart Culley became the ward of the Rev Christopher Robinson the vicar of Kirknewton, who was married to Elizabeth Culley and thus the younger Matthew’s uncle by marriage. Matthew Tewart Culley (b 1832, d 1889) married first Harriet Mary Jane Knight, the daughter of the Rev Thomas Knight of Ford on 6th October 1859. The couple had seven children – Matthew Culley (b 1860), Thomas Knight Culley (b 1861), Ethel Harriet Culley (b 1863), John Henry Culley (b 1864), George Christopher Bolton Culley (b 1865), Margaret Elizabeth Culley (b 1867) and Sarah Georgina Eleanor Culley (b 1868). The family were on the Isle of Wight in 1871, perhaps for the health of Harriet, who died in 1872. In 1882 Matthew Tewart Culley (b 1832) married his second wife Eleanor Jane Darling (b 1844) the daughter of his second cousin the late George Darling of Fowberry Tower and the sister of George Darling (later Darling Culley) of Fowberry. The couple had one child Geoffery Matthew George Culley (b 1883). Matthew Tewart Culley died in 1889 and his estate was inherited by his oldest son Father Matthew Culley (b 1860), who was a Catholic priest. On latter's death in 1920 the estate was inherited by his younger brother John Henry Culley (b 1864), who had settled in the United States. John was married and his son served with the US Army in the Great War. John Henry put the estate up for sale soon after he inherited it (Berwickshire News, 15th February 1921, p 5, 19th December 1922, p 8, 26th December 1922, p 7). |
Geoffrey Matthew George Culley (b 1883) was educated at Cheltenham College, and in 1901 both he and his widowed mother were living in Cheltenham. By 1911 Geoffrey and his mother were living at Grove House, Semley, near Shaftesbury, Wiltshire. On 16th April 1914 Geoffrey Culley married Elizabeth Frances Twynam the second daughter of John Twynam and Mary Rachel Twynam (née Baker) of Soberton House, Soberton, Hampshire (Hampshire Advertiser County Newspaper, April 25th 1914, p. 6). Elizabeth’s parents had married in Tipperary in 1878, and they had seven children: Mary (b c 1880), Elizabeth Frances (b 1880, Droxford, Hampshire), William Hugh (b c 1884), John (b c 1885), Hugh (b c 1889), and twin boys Charles and Godfrey (b 1891).
Geoffery and Elizabeth Frances Culley had two sons, George William born Tisbury, Wiltshire in 1915, and Geoffrey Matthew born on 27th Sept 1916 at Wardour, Wiltshire. Before the Great War Geoffrey Matthew George Culley had served with the Durham militia and then with the Special Reserve battalions of the Durham Light Infantry. He was promoted to Captain with the 3rd battalion Durham Light Infantry in April 1907 (London Gazette No 28027, 4th June 1907, p 3835), and subsequently he was appointed instructor of musketry (London Gazette No 28137, 15th May 1908, p 3581; Hart's Army List 1908, col. 679). In December 1914 Geoffrey Matthew George Culley resigned his commission with the Durham Light Infantry (London Gazette No 29011, 18th December 1914, p 10821), and in April he was posted to the 9th battalion Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) with the rank of temporary Captain (London Gazette No 29131, 13th April 1915, 4th Supplement, p 3700). He was wounded at Loos in September 1915. After recovering from his wounds Geoffrey Matthew George Culley was posted to the 11th (Service) battalion Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) (London Gazette No 29590, 19th May 1916, 2nd Supplement, p 5055) and was killed in action on 15th September 1916 in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (15th-22th September 1916). Geoffrey Matthew George Culley was Jane Darling Leather Culley's first cousin and following the early death of Jane's only son in 1910, Geoffery Culley would have inherited the Fowberry Tower estate had he not been killed in 1916. Elizabeth Frances Culley did not re-marry. In the 1939 Register she was recorded living at Sun HIll, Arlesford, near Winchester Hampshire. Living with her was her younger son Geoffrey who was student at the South Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent, her mother-in-law Eleanor Jane Culley (née Darling), a cook Emma Redhead, and a trained private nurse Emma Fluellen (recte Llewellyn?). In the SEcond World War, Elizabeth Culley's elder son Major George William Culley, MC, who was serving with 53 (The Worcestershire Yeomanry) Airlanding Light Regiment, RA. died on 25th March 1945 and was buried in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.[Note 4] Her younger son Sergeant Geoffrey Culley, who was serving as a Radio operator/air gunner with RAF Volunteer Reserve was killed in North Africa on 17th May 1942 aged 25 and was buried in the Tobruk War Cemetery near Benghazi, Libya.[Note 5] |
Elizabeth Frances Culley not only lost her husband in the First World War and both her sons in the Second World War, but also lost four of her five brothers during the First World War:
Corporal William H Twynam, No. 16391, 7th battalion Canadian Infantry, died 24th April 1915 during the 2nd Battle of Ypres, and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial. Staff Sergeant John Twynam, No. 131, 1st South African Mounted Rifles, was killed by lightning while on signalling duty on 30th November 1914 at Windhoek in Namibia, and is buried in the Barnea Siding Burial Ground, Bethlehem, Free State, South Africa. Lt Hugh Twynam, Royal Navy Reserve, was lost in the sinking of H.M. Submarine E36 on 19th January 1917, and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. H.M. Submarine E36 was laid down on 7th January 1915 and was commissioned on 16 November 1916. She sank with the loss of all her crew of three officers and 28 men after a collision with H.M. Submarine E43 off Harwich. 2nd Lt Godfrey Twynam, 11th (Service) battalion Border Regiment, was killed on 18th November 1916, and is buried in the Waggon Road Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel. 23/07/2019 - 03/06/2020; 26/12/2023; 26/12/2023; 18/03/2024; |