Author: Coles, Charles Barwell
Biography:
COLES, Charles Barwell (1784-1874: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born at Ditcham Park, Hampshire, and baptised on 9 Oct. 1784 at Buriton, the eldest of five children of Charles Coles and his wife Frances Elizabeth Barwell, who had married at St. George’s Hanover Square, London, in 1783. He was educated at Winchester College and then articled to a Lincoln’s Inn attorney, John Vernon, in 1801. He purchased a commission in the 7th Regiment of Dragoon Guards and was promoted to lieutenant in 1806. It is unclear how long he served in the army or how long he practised as an attorney. He is listed in 30 Ancestry trees as marrying either or both Elizabeth Byrne at St. Dunstan’s in the West in 1815 and Charlotte Ann Fisher at an unknown date but the documents do not support either conclusion. It was William Coles who married at St. Dunstan’s and there is no record of a marriage to Charlotte Ann Fisher. There is a record of the illegitimate birth in Boulogne, France, on 7 Dec. 1816, of Charles James Christopher Coles, who was baptised on 29 Jan. 1817 at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, son of Charles Barwell Coles and Charlotte Anne Fisher. This event may be the story behind The Discarded Son (1823), since Charles Barwell did not inherit Ditcham Park but was passed over in favour of his younger brother Rev. John Coles. Even though he described himself as a widower living on an annuity in the 1851 Census, it seems likely he did not marry. He lived most of his life in London at Alpha Place, Westminster, but may have moved to France after the sale of his extensive picture collection of Old Masters and modern English works in June 1856. By 1864 he was living at Cité Odiot, Paris, and died there on 28 Nov. 1874, leaving an estate of £1500. The French death certificate identified his parents but no spouse. He also wrote a number of minor works: Short Whist (1839), Hints on Life; And How to Rise in Society (1845), Tea. A Poem (1865), and poems and melodies for musical accompaniment in the 1840s. Songs of Birds (1870) collected some of these. (ancestry.co.uk 14 June 2023; findmypast.co.uk 14 June 2023; SJC 12 June 1806; MP 9 June 1856; N&Q 19 Feb. 1910, 150-1) AA