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) was then a student at University College, Oxford, and gained his MA in 1791 when he was appointed curate at Poulton. Mary and John had five children but he abandoned the family and fled to Paris where for a time 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. In 1815 he was in London where, on 30 May, he married Mary Knott Trail at All Saints, Enfield. They had a daughter, Emily, 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 further financial disaster. In 1844 he was outlawed by the Court of Exchequer and 1851 saw him once again listed as an insolvent debtor. The 1851 Census shows him living 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 probably 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])
Other Names:
- Bertie Ambrosse