As we have seen, Benjamin John Maclean’s grandfather, Robert LEAN of Trehudreth Farm, Blisland married Elizabeth EVERY, whose family lived in Plymouth, County of Devon, an adjoining county to Cornwall. They were married in the Devon Parish of Stoke Dameral on the 14th of May 1810, with their fathers, Robert LEAN (snr) and Thomas EVERY as witnesses.
The Blisland Parish burial register records the burial of Robert on 25 June 1821 (aged 47) and there is a memorial on the wall of Blisland’s Anglican Church, St Pratts, which reads as follows:
“In memory of ROBERT LEAN, Gentleman, of Trehudreth, in this Parish, who died 21st June 1821, aged 47 years, and ELIZABETH, his wife, daughter of THOMAS EVERY, who died on the 17th day of July, 1840, aged 65 years. Mortui in pace quiescent.”.
Will of Robert Lean of Trehudreth Parish of Blisland Cornwall (1772 – 1821)
A copy of the Will of Robert’s wife, Elizabeth LEAN (nee EVERY, born c1775 Devon died Blisland 17 July 1840 aged 65 years) late of Trehudreth in the Parish of Blisland, Cornwall follows. Under her Will she appoints her son, Thomas Every LEAN as her sole beneficiary and executor. One of the witnesses, “Jonothon/Jonathan ?” EVERY was presumably a family relative.
The Four Lean Brothers
Robert and Elizabeth produced 4 sons.
John LEAN baptised Blisland 8 December 1811
Robert LEAN baptised Blisland 24 January 1813
Benjamin LEAN baptised Blisland 4 July 1815
Thomas (Every) LEAN baptised Thomas LEAN Blisland 23 August 1819
It would be safe to conclude Robert was named after his father Robert LEAN of Trehudreth (1772 – 1821) and grandfather Robert LEAN (1729 – 1811).
Benjamin was probably named after his uncle, Benjamin of Warleggin (1778 – 1837, Warleggan is another small Cornish Parish), who was his father’s brother. Benjamin of Warleggin was named in the Will of the 4 boys’ father, Robert, in which Robert left farming lands to each son. He also made a residual gift to Benjamin and appointed him as a joint executor and a guardian to his children (the 4 sons) during their minority.
Thomas (Every) LEAN was no doubt named after his mother’s father, Thomas EVERY.
This leaves the eldest son John LEAN. Robert, the father of John, had a brother called John LEAN (1766 – 1851) and an uncle John LEAN (1745 to 1792). Maybe there was also a John in the Every family. Whatever, John was named John and the name came down through my grandfather and father to me.
So, what happened to the 4 Lean brothers after their father’s death in 1821?
By adulthood, the brothers could all read and write competently (and were adept with finance matters). They had no doubt benefited from a sound education at their mother’s direction. With the exception of Thomas Every LEAN, it is not known whether they ever farmed the properties left to them by their father. We know from Sir John’s Blisland Parish history that the LEAN family sold Trehudreth Farm in 1836. We also know from Sir John’s obituaries and National Bibliography entry (OUP 1960) that, “in 1845, as a descendant of the Dochgarroch branch of the clan Lean, he resumed the prefix of Mac.” John’s 3 brothers – and Robert and Benjamin’s wives and children – also made the name change.
1. John LEAN (born 1811)
On 5 December 1835 in the Parish of Helland Cornwall, John married Mary, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Thomas BILLING of Blisland and Lanke and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan KINGDON.
Presumably, soon after their marriage, John and his wife moved to London. (Or John may have been living and working in London before his marriage.) We do know he commenced a War Office career in 1837 as a keeper of ordnance records at the Tower of London and progressed up the chain of command with accounts and audit responsibilities, eventually earning himself a knighthood. In his private endeavours he earned a considerable reputation as an ‘antiquitarian’ and author. Today we would just say he was an excellent historian and family researcher.
2. Robert LEAN (born 1813)
I originally thought Robert was probably always a farmer. Surviving records from New Zealand indicate he jointly farmed and bred pedigree stock with brother Thomas Every in Devon and, more notably, in New Zealand.
The New Zealand family history publication states Robert married Mary Evans VOSPER (2nd child of Richard VOSPER b 1784 and Elizabeth Betsy NICHOLLS b c1793) at Lewannick Cornwall, some 12 miles from Blisland, in c1837 (details from Mary’s death certificate). Mary was born c 1816. The Maclean Family History records that their only child, Ellen Jane MACLEAN was born in 1838 at Launceston, Cornwall with the surname LEAN.
Web searches show Richard and Elizabeth VOSPER produced 16 little VOSPERS. Robert MACLEAN’s wife Mary was the second of these. The first born was Thomas Nicholls VOSPER (born March 1812). In 1871 Thomas published his life recollections in a book entitled “A Story of Commercial Life, and Memoirs, with Leaves from a Journal”. A summary of the book entitled “Reminiscences of a former Launceston Man” was published on March 27th, 1937 (Web Search). Key points from the summary are:
- Thomas was educated first at a “dames school”, then a village school and finally at a classical school. He then commenced as an apprentice draper with a cousin (unfortunately the name of the cousin was not given in the summary) at Devonport (formally called Plymouth Dock in the County of Devon).
- In 1836 he went into a partnership in the mercery and drapery business with his brother-in-law, Mr Robert Maclean, in Launceston (a town in Cornwall). Sometime after 1839 he dissolved the partnership with Robert MACLEAN and “commenced on his own account with small capital.” He went bankrupt towards the end of the 1840s.
This is the only reference I have seen to this phase of Robert’s life and raises the following questions:
- did Robert also become a draper or was he just a ‘silent’ partner in the business? The likelihood is that somehow Robert did acquire drapery skills.
- what did Robert do after leaving the partnership?
3. Benjamin LEAN (born 1815)
Benjamin married Elizabeth Anne BILLING, his brother John’s wife’s sister, in June 1839 in the Parish of Helland, Cornwall.
On their marriage certificate both Benjamin and Elizabeth’s fathers’ professions are given as Yeoman (farmers), as in Benjamin’s. Two of Benjamin’s brothers, Thomas Every LEAN and Robert LEAN, are listed as witnesses. Elizabeth signs her name as ‘Annie’ – this is also how her name appears on her gravestone so it is probably what her family called her.
Benjamin and Elizabeth’s first child, Mary Elizabeth Kate Billing LEAN, was born at Trehudreth Farm and baptised at Blisland in September 1840. “On the 7th of January, 1859, Benjamin and Elizabeth’s last 3 children, Robert Lachlan MACLEAN, Reginald Benjamin MACLEAN and John Hubert MACLEAN were baptised, as a job-lot, in the Anglican faith in the Parish of Saint Saviour, Southwark, in the Country of Surrey, (presumably in preparation for the family’s emigration to New Zealand). By now Benjamin was describing his profession as ‘Gentleman’.”
At the time of his marriage Benjamin may have been a farmer in Cornwall, but census and baptism records show that he and his growing family left Cornwall around 1845 for a Post Office job. I have seen no documents indicating what his Post Office duties were. Benjamin may have tried farming in New Zealand after his family migration around 1860, but by 1863 he was working in a senior public service capacity in Auckland.
4. Thomas Every LEAN (Born 1819)
Thomas Every seems to have been a farmer and entrepreneur pretty well all his life. From a letter to his niece, dated 1887, Thomas was living in Bridgerule Devon when 23 years of age (1842) and from the tone of the letter had been there for some time. Under his father’s Will he inherited land known as Helland Park (also known as Kelland Park) in the Parish of Egloskerry which is 5 miles North West of Launceston.
The Archives and Cornish Studies Service holds a document which shows that Thomas Every Lean (of Tackbear, Bridgerule, yeoman – lately of Launceston, draper – defined as a dealer in cloth, linen etc) took out a mortgage (amount not shown) on this property in 1844 (aged 25 or so years) and a further mortgage for 150 pounds in March 1846.
Thomas’s maternal grandfather Thomas EVERY was described as a witness on his daughter’s marriage licence (re marriage of Robert Lean and Elizabeth Every) as a mercer (a dealer in silk, velvet and such fabrics) so maybe for a while young Thomas Every LEAN followed the same profession. The description of Thomas as “lately of Launceston, draper” also raises the question of what, if any, business relationship he might have had with his brother Robert’s and Thomas VOSPER’S drapery partnership in the same town.
A further question which arises with Thomas is the clouded details of the mother of his only son, Geoffrey St Every MACLEAN. Thomas MACLEAN (as a single male) landed in Auckland in May 1850 with his brother Robert and family. Geoffrey is thought to have been born out of wedlock in September 1850 in either Cornwall or Devon. Geoffrey arrived in Auckland aged about 9 years with his Uncle Benjamin and his family in November 1860.
The family story is that Geoffrey’s mother was one of Robert’s wife’s sisters (ie one of the 16 VOSPER children) who was ‘charmed’ by Thomas Every MACLEAN prior to his embarkation for New Zealand. Geoffrey’s death certificate records his mother as being Minnie (or Miriam – family oral history) MACLEAN, nee VOSPER, but no record of a Minnie or Miriam VOSPER has been sighted and there is nothing to suggest that Geoffrey’s mother ever came to New Zealand or that Thomas Every MACLEAN ever married.
Use of the name EVERY as a non-surname
The Peskett record of the Blisland Parish Baptisms Register for Thomas LEAN does not include the middle name EVERY.
It would seem that some time early in his life Thomas adopted his mother’s maiden name EVERY as a second Christian name and in later life he became well known in New Zealand as just Every MACLEAN.
On the certificate for Elizabeth Anne BILLING and Benjamin LEAN’s marriage on 6 June 1839 in the Parish of Helland, County of Cornwall, Benjamin’s brothers Robert LEAN and Thomas EVERY LEAN are recorded as witnesses to the ceremony.
In his mother’s Will dated 16 June 1840 he is also named as Thomas Every LEAN, both as Executor and Beneficiary.
It is not clear whether any steps were made or had to be made to legally add the second Christian name.
Whatever, the name “Every” flowed through to Thomas Every MACLEAN’s natural son, Geoffrey, who styled himself as Geoffrey St Every MACLEAN (born 24 September 1850 Cornwall, died Blenheim New Zealand 18 November 1932, buried Omaka Cemetery NZ). Again, it is not clear whether the name “St Every” or “Maclean” was legally recorded as part of Geoffrey’s name. I have no birth certificate for Geoffrey.
Copies of the death certificates for Geoffrey St Every MACLEAN and Thomas Every MACLEAN follow. On the certificate for Geoffrey his father is named only as Every MACLEAN. On Thomas Every MACLEAN’s death certificate his mother is named as Elizabeth MACLEAN. This was never her name. She died with the surname LEAN, as did her husband Robert LEAN (1772 – 1821), who is also incorrectly named as a MACLEAN.
Thomas Every MACLEAN’s brother Robert MACLEAN (1813 – 1888) who migrated to New Zealand had only one child, a daughter, Ellen Jane MACLEAN (1838 – 1926) and who, in 1864, married James BAILEY. Their second child, James Every Stephen BAILEY (1868 – 1930) also carried the “Every” name.
It was next used in the birth name of my father, John Every MACLEAN, and is so recorded on his birth certificate. I believe his mother called him ‘Every’.
Thankfully, no one has been stuck with ‘Every’ as a Christian name since.
Pte John Every MACLEAN; photo dates from when he was taken on strength by the 12th Infantry Battalion AIF in November 1915 after finishing basic training.
Maclean Family History 