MAUD FRANKLIN OF BICESTER (MISTRESS OF FAMOUS ARTIST JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER)

The mistress of world-famous artist James McNeill Whistler was born and bred in Bicester!

Maud Franklin was born on 9th January 1857 - one of the six children of Charles Franklin (an upholsterer and cabinet maker) and his wife Mary Franklin (née Clifton).

By the late 1870's, Maud was working as a model for Whistler, and the two quickly became an item. Maud had two children, both sired by Whistler. Although Maud referred to herself as 'Mrs Whistler', she and James never actually married.

It would seem that Maud's lover treated her rather badly at times... In January 1879, he abandoned Maud (who was pregnant at the time) in a London hotel without warning, under the pretense of needing to go to Paris, although he apparently never actually left London!

Following Whistler's bankruptcy later that same year, Maud accompanied him to Venice, but she was sadly not accepted into society; not only were the couple not married, but Maud was also of a lower social status.

Maud was actually a very good artist in her own right, and had no doubt picked up a few tips from her lover; during the 1880's, she exhibited her own work under the pseudonym 'Clifton Lin' (taking parts of her mother's maiden name and father's surname) at the Grosvenor Gallery, and at the Society of British Artists.

In 1888, James married Beatrice Goodwin, who was far more suitable for a man of his standing. Poor Maud must have been devastated! She moved to Paris with her children, then emigrated to New York, where she married a man named John Little. When John died in 1904, she married again, this time to Richard Abbott. They lived in Cannes until Maud's death in 1939, aged 82.

Her two illegitimate daughters, both sired by Whistler, were:

Ione McNeill Whistler Franklin, born 1877.

Maud McNeill Whistler Franklin, born 1879.

Whistler reportedly sent Maud regularly, in order to provide for their children.

The image below shows Whistler's painting, 'Arrangement in White and Black', painted in 1876. Maud was the model he used. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia).

EBENEEZER BEESLEY OF BICESTER (VIOLINIST/CHOIRMASTER)

Ebeneezer Beesley was born on 14th December 1840 in Bicester. His parents officially baptised him into the Church of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the 'LDS') in 1849.

In 1859, Ebeneezer - who was working as a cobbler - emigrated with his family, and they ended up settling in Tooele, Utah, USA. His first wife, Sarah Hancock Beesley, also went with them. They eventually moved to Salt Lake City, also in Utah.

Ebeneezer worked as a choir and music school director at a local Sunday School, and in 1863, he joined the Salt Lake Theatre Orchestra as a violinist.

In 1869, he married for the second time, to Anne Frewin Buckeridge - he was still very much married to first wife Sarah, but being part of the LDS Church, polygamy was perfectly normal and legal! Ebeneezer fathered 16 children in total between the years 1860 and 1883.

Ebeneezer was a regular contributor to a magazine called 'The Juvenile Instructor' (a periodical published by the LDS Church). He also contributed to the first LDS Church hymnbook to include music ('Latter-Day Saints Psalmody').

In 1880, Ebeneezer became the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and in September of that same year, he led the choir on a trip to American Fork, Utah, where they performed with another local choir in front of a large crowd. He continued serving as choir director until 1889.

He spent many years teaching music in various different places, before moving back to Salt Lake City. He died there on 21st March 1906.

Ebeneezer Beesley was responsible for writing 12 LDS hymns, which are still sung to this day!

The picture below shows the Salt Lake Theatre Orchestra in 1868; Ebeneezer is second from the left. (Picture courtesy of Wikipedia).

ALBERT FREEMAN AFRICANUS KING OF AMBROSDEN (RENOWNED PHYSICIAN WHO WITNESSED THE ASSASSINATION OF US PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN) 

Renowned physician Dr Albert Freeman Africanus King - one of the first people to make the connection between mosquitoes and malaria - was actually born in Ambrosden!

Born in 1841, Albert was the third child of Edward King and Louisa King (née Freeman).
He was given the unusual middle name of 'Africanus' due to his father's apparent 'love of the continent'.

On 26th August 1854, Albert and his family decided to emigrate, and left Liverpool aboard a ship destined for the United States; they arrived in New Jersey on 7th September that year. They settled firstly in Alexandria, Virginia.

After achieving a degree from what is now known as the George Washington University Medical School, Albert became a surgeon in the US Army, eventually going on to become a lecturer on toxicology, before obtaining a second degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

On 14th April 1865, Albert was among the crowd who witnessed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and helped to carry the dying man to a house across the street.

In the years that followed, Albert enjoyed a career as a prominent and renowned doctor. In 1882, King proposed a method to eradicate malaria from Washington, DC. His method was to encircle the city with a wire screen as high as the Washington Monument. Many people took this as a jest, partly because the link between malaria and mosquitoes had, at that time, been hypothesized by only a few physicians. It was not until 1898 that Ronald Ross proved mosquitoes were a vector for malaria (he won the Nobel Prize for the discovery just four years later). However impractical, King was on the right track for malaria control, well in advance of the rest of the medical profession.

He married Ellen Amory Dexter of Boston, Massachusetts, with whom he had two daughters: Louisa Freeman King and Sarah Vincent King.

Albert died in Washington DC on 13th December 1914, with his cause of death being cited as 'senile debility'.

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia). 

WILLIAM BUCKLAND OF ISLIP (SCIENTIST) 

One of the most important and influential scientists that ever lived is buried in the cemetery of St Nicholas Church, Islip!

William Buckland was born in 12th March 1874 in Axminster, Devon - the son of a Rector. As a child, he would accompany his father on walks, during which he'd collect fossils from the Jurassic Era rocks exposed in local quarries.

William's interest in paleontology stemmed from those childhood walks, and he eventually won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1801, graduating five years later. He went on to obtain another degree in 1808, and became a fellow of the college in 1809, also becoming ordained as a priest at this time. On horseback, he would make regular excursions to various parts of the British Isles, fuelled by his passion for paleontology and geology.

Despite initially receiving endless criticism, William developed a new hypothesis - namely, that the word 'Beginning' in the Genesis part of the Bible referred to an undefined period of time between the creation of the earth and the creation of mankind, during which a long series of extinctions and successive creations of new species of plants and animals had occurred.

His critics were eventually forced to admit that Buckland had made some very valid points in 1829, when he published a paper on his investigation of the Kirkdale Caves in Yorkshire; Buckland had found sufficient evidence to prove that the fossilised bones of prehistoric hyenas found in the caves had been the remains of animals which had lived and died due to natural causes, rather than dying due to the biblical Great Flood, as was previously believed.

Buckland's work became widely viewed as a model for how careful analysis could be used to reconstruct the earth's past, earning him the Copley Medal in 1822 (an award given for outstanding achievements in science).

Following Charles Darwin's pioneering voyage to the Galapagos Islands (during which he validated his theory of evolution), Buckland discussed the subject with Darwin many times, using it to aid his own research.

As well as confirming the existence of dinosaurs, Buckland also discovered that geological evidence previously assumed to have been caused by the Great Flood was actually due to the movement of glaciers.

In around 1845, Buckland was appointed to become the Rector of Islip, although he still spent much of his spare time researching the plethora of preserved dead animals, fossils, and rocks he hoarded in his home there!

Sadly, in around 1850, William contracted 'a disorder of the neck and brain'; he finally succumbed to the illness in 1856, and was subsequently buried in Islip.

Buckland was one of the greatest scientific minds of his time (perhaps even of all time!), and his research forever shaped the way our planet's past is viewed.

The portrait below is borrowed from Wikipedia.

WILLIAM DOWLING WEBSTER OF BICESTER (ETHNOGRAPHIC ANTIQUITIES DEALER) 

William Dowling Webster was born on 11th May 1868 in Greenwich, Middlesex - the son of Robert Webster (a potato trader), and his wife, Sarah.

Despite William's father's humble occupation, he managed to get himself a job up north in Lancaster, working as a stained glass designer; however, he soon became enamoured with artefacts from foreign lands, and eventually became a dealer in 'ethnographic antiquities' during the 1890's.

William married Agnes Harrison in 1891, with whom he had two daughters; however, they ended up separating, and a few years later, he began living with a woman called Eva Cutter, although they never married.

Throughout the 1890's and early 1900's, William kept himself busy by writing and publishing a series of catalogues, detailing the enormous collection of artefacts which he had amassed over the years. He also hosted several exhibitions at Earls Court (Middlesex), and travelled the length and breadth of Britain in 1899, purchasing new items brought back home as souvenirs by British soldiers who had been a part of the 'Benin Expedition' (when 1,200 men - under the authority of Sir Harry Rawson - captured and sacked the city of Benin in 1897, which eventually became part of colonial Nigeria).

During the first decade of the 20th century, William and Eva moved to Bicester, where he began trading under the name 'W. D. Webster' from their home (Oxford House, King's End). He died in 1913, due to alcoholism.

Many objects from the Webster collection are on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, but I believe some are also housed in other countries, such as New Zealand and Australia.

You can read Webster's catalogue in full by creating a free account here: https://archive.org/details/b29011425_0001/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater

(Images show: Oxford House circa 1900 - source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/EA_Eu-B3-32; and the front page of Webster's catalogue, dated 1895 - source: National Library of Australia).