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Peter William# Griffiths
(1797-1868) |
Peter William# Griffiths
1947 Letter Cyril Griffiths - Ann G-P "The Griffiths family, that is to say, my father's parents were landed gentry in North Wales, where they owned what I believe were large estates in and around Llantisilio (see below), a small village in the Bala District. As a family, too, they owned property in London, in the Strand. I think they owned the land on which the Strand Theatre was built. This Strand Theatre was standing when I was ingesting the West End as a student and I remember going there to see a musical comedy" ...... "anyway the land belonged at one time to the Griffiths bunch" ...... "my father's father, of whom I know nothing, had several brothers and they are the old gentleman where portraits in oils used to adorn the dining room at the 'Old Cottage'. The old chap who is holding the flute in the portraits was Pete; and Ted, I believe, was one of the other pictures" ..... <but Pete IS his Grandfather!> ..... "They were a musical lot and Pete, I believe, could play about a dozen instruments very passably well. A certain Alice Long was a maid in the service of my father's father and when my father married mother and went to live at Ryde, where I and Oswald were born, she went with them as cook. And she used to tell remembrance stories of the musical revels in which my fathers uncles the said Pete & Ted & Co, used to indulge in the wine cellars under the Strand Theatre, or thereabouts, when the family was in town. ........ after a few years in the service of my mother & father they set her (Alice Long) up in a lodging house in Ramsgate and we all used to go and stay there during the summers" ....... " I do not know whether Pete & Co ever married, and I do not even know the Christian name of my father's father. He had a considerable family but I only know the names of three viz Madge, Walter and my father Stephen. There were at least three other boys." ....... "of my father's other three brothers I know practically nothing, except that they put paid to the family fortunes. They were a wild reckless crew and their father paid their debts three times(?) I believe and had to sell land each time in order to raise the necessary money. Finally, there was no more land left and the three boys were packed off to Australia, and that was the end of that, except for what might have been an echo, many years later". ...... "the possible echo happened when mother and we three children were living at Bognor. Mother and I were in town one day when we saw an announcement that the 'Griffiths Australian Ensemble' would have give a concert at the Assembly Rooms. I wanted mothers to get in contact with them, but she would not - and that was that". Peter married Ann# Fry, daughter of William# Fry and Hannah#, on 16 Mar 1823 in Saint Mary Aldermary, London. (Ann# Fry was born on 8 Jun 1797 in Watling Street, London, christened on 5 Jul 1797 in Saint Mary Aldermary, London and died Q1 1847 in Lambeth, Surrey.) Peter next married Mary Ann. (Mary Ann was born in 1815 in Pimlico, Middlesex.) |
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