Life story shared by Yota Dimitriadi
Captain Frederick Vansittart was born around 1825 or 1826 at White Waltham, Berkshire, the fourth son of the Reverend William VANSITTART, D.D. Doctor of Divinity(30 November 1779-22 November 1847), rector of White Waltham and Shottesbrook in Berkshire, and and Prebendary of [Carlisle/Durham. His mother was Charlotte Teresa WARDE, the only childof General George WARDE. William and Charlotte married on 11 February 1817 and at some point later in their lives, they moved to Driffield, Yorkshire, England.
The Vansittarts were an old Berkshire family with connections to the landed, clerical and military establishment. Frederick’s grandfather Colonel Arthur VANSITTART held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Berkshire between 1757 and 1774 and the office of Vice-Lord-Lieutenant for Berkshire. His grandmother, the Hon. Anne HANGER, was the daughter of Gabriel HANGER, 1st Baron Coleraine. Although Frederick descended from a different branch of the family, the wider Vansittart family had other prominent connections, including the statesman Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley (1766–1851).
Frederick had two siblings: an older brother, Spencer (12 June 1824–18 May 1902), and a younger sister, Katherine Mary (23 August 1827–13 January 1895). Spencer attained the rank of Captain in the 1st Royal Scots Regiment and was a man of considerable means. His will was valued at £32,404 2s. 8d. gross, and he left Frederick a legacy of £200. However, he only died 4 days before Frederick and while his will was proved on 9th September Frederick may have not received that amount.
Frederick grew up within a well-connected social and professional milieu. His father held important ecclesiastical positions, while his mother came from a military family with established connections. This background placed Frederick within a social world considerably removed from that of his future father-in-law, James LOWE, whose career as an inventor would ultimately bring his own family close to financial ruin.
14th Regiment of Light Dragoons which was named 14th King Hussars by 1861. Image from the National Army Museum.
His education and subsequent military career indicate that he was being prepared for the conventional life of a Victorian gentleman: education at Oxford followed by a commission in the cavalry. Alumni Oxonienses records that Frederick matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 19 October 1843, aged eighteen and identifies him as an officer in the 14th Dragoons.
The 14th (The King’s) Regiment of Light Dragoons was a distinguished cavalry regiment with a long history of service, including during the Napoleonic Wars and subsequently in India. In December 1848 Frederick became Cornet, a junior cavalry officer rank, by purchase, vice Boyd. In 1851, he was promoted to Lieutenant by purchase, vice Woodman, who retired on 31 October. His military career brought him into contact with the social and diplomatic circles that surrounded the British Army. Frederick was eventually stationed in Paris in connection with the British diplomatic establishment, and it was during this period that his life became connected with the Lowe family. It was probably there where he became closely acquainted with Henrietta LOWE (1833*–8 February 1883), whose family had connections to Frederick’s maternal relatives. Henrietta would go on to achieve considerable distinction as a naval engineer and inventor. Today, she is recognised as one of the pioneering female engineers of the Victorian era.
*There is a debate of whether Henrietta’s date of birth was in 1833 or later around 1841.
The circumstances were unusual. Henrietta came from a family whose financial position had deteriorated badly as her father, James, blacksmith and smoke jack maker was also a self-taught engineer and inventor devoted himself to the development and promotion of his screw-propeller inventions and as a result had consumed much of the family’s money. Yet Henrietta possessed connections with families of considerably higher social standing.
On 25 July 1855, these two worlds came together when Frederick married Henrietta at the British Embassy in Paris. Contemporary and later accounts differ regarding Henrietta’s age at the time of her marriage. In this account, we follow Henrietta’s own statement, published in her 1882 pamphlet, The History of the Lowe-Vansittart Propeller and a Short Extract of the Life of the Late Mr. James Lowe, the Successful Inventor of Screw Ships from their First Introduction. In it (see image below), Henrietta states that she was 15 years old when she married and that Frederick was 22. Some research has identified inaccuracies in the pamphlet but are also confirming that it remains an important primary source for understanding how Henrietta herself presented her life and her father’s work. In the 1881 census Henrietta was recorded as 41, which implies a birth around 1839–40. That is probably one reason researchers have also questioned the conventional 1833 date of birth for her.
The marriage gave Henrietta a connection to the world of the Victorian military and landed establishment, while Frederick became associated with an exceptionally ambitious and unconventional woman.
Soon after the wedding, on September 30, 1856, the War Department published that Frederick was permitted to retire from the service of the 14th Dragoons by the sale of his army commission (Allen’s Indian Mail, Monday, 6 October 1856, page 27). He bought a house at 18 Clarges Street, and the couple returned to England to set up home there. They had no children, and by approximately 1859, Henrietta had moved out of her husband’s London house and returned to live for a while at her grandfather’s home in Surrey, at Ewell. Around this time, she also became involved in a long-term and relatively public relationship with the novelist and politician Edward BULWER-LYTTON, later the first Baron Lytton. Among his many contributions to literature, a famous quotation attributed to Bulwer-Lytton is “The pen is mightier than the sword,” from his play Richelieu. The relationship continued for roughly 12 years, ending in 1871, two years before Bulwer-Lytton’s death. Around 1869 the couple seem to have been back together. They moved to a big Georgian house at No.4 Maids of Honor Row on Richmond Green. The 1871 census also confirms that Frederick and Henrietta were living together. Frederick described himself as a retired cavalry officer.
Henrietta did not abandon engineering after her marriage. On the contrary, she continued to work with her father. In 1857, she accompanied him aboard the HMS Bullfinch, one of the 98 Albacore Class gunboats built for the Crimean War, which was used in trials of one of James’s propellers. This was an extraordinary experience for a young Victorian woman and demonstrated that Henrietta was already deeply involved in her father’s engineering work.
The decisive event in Henrietta’s life, and eventually in Frederick’s, came in October 1866. James was travelling along the Blackfriars Road in London when he was struck by a heavily loaded dray. According to contemporary accounts, he was standing at the kerb preparing to cross when the horses approached. He was caught by the arm, pulled into the roadway and crushed beneath the wheels. He died on 12 October 1866, aged about 69. The driver, William Scott, was charged with manslaughter and sent for trial at the Central Criminal Court. James was buried at St Mary’s, Ewell, on 29 October 1866.
For Henrietta, her father’s death represented not only a personal tragedy but the end of the person who had driven the family’s engineering enterprise. She decided to continue his work herself. She inherited the problem of the screw propeller and the considerable technical knowledge she had acquired while working alongside her father. She developed the design further, producing what became known as the Lowe-Vansittart propeller. Her improved design used curved rather than straight blades and was claimed to offer greater speed and efficiency, reduced vibration and improved control when reversing. In 1868, Henrietta obtained British patent No. 2877 for her improved propeller. A United States patent, US89712A, followed in 1869.
This was an extraordinary achievement. Henrietta was among the relatively small number of Victorian women able to obtain a patent in her own name, and she became one of the earliest women to establish a serious reputation in marine engineering. The propeller was used in naval and merchant vessels, including the HMS Druid in 1869, and received a first-class diploma at the Kensington Exhibition in 1871. A model of the Lowe-Vansittart propeller survives in the Science Museum in London. Henrietta’s obituary in the Journal of the London Association of Foremen Engineers and Draughtsmen stated that she was:
“the only lady, it is believed, who ever wrote and read a scientific paper, illustrated by diagrams and drawings made by herself, before the members of a Scientific Institution.”
Frederick’s exact technical contribution to the invention should not be exaggerated. The patent was Henrietta’s, and she was the person who developed and patented the improved propeller. Nevertheless, Frederick was closely involved in the commercial and legal affairs of the enterprise. His military experience, social connections and practical involvement may also have helped Henrietta navigate the predominantly male world of Victorian engineering and naval procurement. By the 1881 census, he described himself as:
“Retired officer of Army, Patentee of the Lowe-Vansittart propeller.”
Henrietta attended exhibitions all over the world and carried on until 1881. The geographical separation between Frederick and Henrietta during part of this period appears to have coincided with Henrietta’s relationship with Bulwer-Lytton. Nevertheless, Frederick and Henrietta remained married and there is no evidence that the marriage formally ended before Henrietta’s death. This aspect of Henrietta’s life has sometimes overshadowed her engineering achievements, but it may also tell us something about Frederick. When Bulwer-Lytton died on 18 January 1873, his will remembered both members of the Vansittart marriage. Frederick received a legacy of £300, while Henrietta received £1,200 that she used for her work on the propeller.
By 1881 the couple had moved to the Twickenham area. They were living at St Mary Priory, at 1 Montpelier Row, whose main frontage, at that time was on the Richmond Road. The 1881 census provides a snapshot of Frederick in later life. He was recorded as:
Frederick Vansittart, aged 53, born White Waltham — “Retired officer of Army, Patentee of the Lowe-Vansittart propeller.”
There in Montpellier Row, Twickenham Henrietta bought four neighbouring houses, possibly from the profits from the propeller but the Vansittarts were also embroiled in rivalry with one of their neighbours.
“Henry George Bohn lived opposite in North End House and was a well-known publisher and collector. Through letters sent to the Richmond and Twickenham Times, they were often embroiled in a heated discussion over the houses that Henrietta bought and subsequently sold to Bohn. Numbers 4 and 5 were converted into one, now known as Seymour House. Perhaps this was named after her connection with the Seymour family and also as her grandfather’s name was also Seymour. Numbers 1 and 2, were known as Bell House and St Maur’s Priory and both properties had gained their names from Henrietta. However, by 1880 she only had Numbers 1 and 2 in her possession having sold the others to Bohn for a profit.” from Behind these doors website.
Henrietta’s story ended tragically. In September 1882, she attended the North East Coast Exhibition of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at Tynemouth. Shortly afterwards, she was found wandering in a confused state and was committed to the Tyne City Lunatic Asylum at Coxlodge, Gosforth. She died there on 8 February 1883. The recorded causes of death were acute mania and anthrax. She was only about 42 years old.
The obituary in the Journal of the London Association of foremen, engineers, and draughtsmen recalled that “she was a remarkable personage with a great knowledge of engineering matters and considerable versatility of talent”, and “how cheery and thoughtful for the happiness of others she was.”
Her death left Frederick a widower after almost twenty-eight years of marriage. After Henrietta’s death, Frederick lived for almost another twenty years. We do not know at this stage why he moved back to Reading. By the time of his death he was described as Captain Frederick Vansittart, late of 4 Cannon Place, Brighton, Sussex. He died from oesophageal cancer, with exhaustion/physical debility contributing to his death on 22 May 1902 at 162 Castle Hill, Reading, Berkshire. He was 76 years old.
His will was proved by September 1902 and had only £510 4s 2d. As with his brother Spencer, Spencer’s son, Spencer Charles Patrick Vansittart named as executor for his will.
Division 48, Row N, Plot 11