Author: Ambrosse, Samuel Bertie
Biography:
AMBROSSE, Samuel Bertie (1792-1854: ancestry.co.uk)
Death notices give his age as 65 but he was baptised on 28 Oct. 1792 in Poulton, Gloucestershire. His mother was Mary Mahon, a popular vocal performer. On 3 Apr. 1787 in London she married John Ambrosse (b 1768 in Ireland), the natural son of Caroline Ambrosse and Lord John de Blaquiere. John Ambrosse (Ambrose) then a student at University College, Oxford, gained his MA in 1791 and became curate at Poulton. The couple had five children but he abandoned the family and fled to Paris where he lived as “Parson Ambrose” on borrowed money before returning to London and imprisonment for debt in the Fleet. Mary married the Rev. John Portis in 1798 in Salisbury and her three surviving sons joined the army. Samuel or “Bertie” was a cadet in the Indian army in 1807, became Lieutenant in 1811, and was struck off in 1816. His Opoleyta; or, A Tale of Ind was issued in 1815 and was written on his return voyage to England. It met a lukewarm reception from MR which complained of the obscurity of some of the language. Also in 1815, on 30 May, he married Mary Knott Trail at All Saints, Enfield. Their daughter, Emily, was born on 9 Mar. 1816 when their address was given as Somerset Place, Stepney. Almost certainly the marriage did not last. Bertie Ambrosse was listed as an insolvent debtor on 11 July 1823 by which time he had resided in countless locations, mainly London hotels. In 1841 he inherited from the Rev. John Portis £1000 and various items of value including a portrait of Henrietta Kelf, his great-aunt, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, but even this did not stave off financial trouble. In 1844 he was outlawed by the Court of Exchequer and in 1851 he was an insolvent debtor. The 1851 Census shows him as a lodger in Holywell Street; his occupation is given as “Contributor to Public Periodicals” and he did write for the Monthly Magazine, the Ladies’ Museum, and other periodicals. He died at Carlton Hill, St. John’s Wood, London, on 21 Aug. 1854. (ancestry.co.uk 7 Apr. 2022; Morning Herald 25 Aug. 1854; E. Dodwell, Alphabetical List of the Officers of the Indian Army [1838]; London Gazette [1823]; Law Times [1844]; The Jurist [1851]; georgianera.wordpress.com 7 Apr. 2022; Highfill 1.70-71 [for Mrs. Ambrose, singer, and Miss Ambrose, later Kelf]; MR 79 [1816], 323-24) SR
Other Names:
- Bertie Ambrosse