I have been intending for some little time past to write to you each a separate letter, but have concluded to write one more after the style of a budget and I shall ask you after reading it to kindly pass it on to the next.
When I tell you the reason of my long delay you will better understand why I ask this favour.
First. Let me thank you all for the very prompt replies to mine of October 1903. While only one person has failed to answer my note with a family list, yet none has answered so nicely and promptly as your branch in "Far Tasmania".
I wrote William and Henry Hingston of Cressy (sons of 47. William)
Alex J. Hingston of Ulverstone (Alick J was son of 47. William)
James Thomas Hingston of Exton
William Robert Hingston of Whiteford Hills (son of 49. Robert)
William T Hingston of Abbotsham (HD#50)
Louisa J Hingston of Beaconsfield (daughter of 49. Robert)
and received their prompt answers.
Please favour me by letting each of them see this.
Second. You wish to know who I am. Well I am William (HN#26) the son of Edward (HN#25), the son of William (HN#21) a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, the son of Edward (HN#30) also a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, the son of William (called the first in our branch) who bought the estate of Whitehall in 1729. He was the son of James, the son of Captain James, the son of John the organist to Oliver Cromwell who was son to Walter the son of Andrew marked No 1 in your list.
Now, by placing list B on top of your list which is marked No. A, and bringing the name of Andrew 1 in line, you will see where our two branches diverge and find that I am ninth cousin, not 42nd.
I was born on 28th July 1842, so you see I am 63 years old, have a wife, a daughter (the eldest) and seven sons, four of whom are married to American girls. My wife is an American of English origin. I was born in Liverpool and left there for the United States in June 1862. Anything more about myself I shall be pleased to tell you at any time.
Third. What do I want this information for? About 20 years ago, one of my uncles (HN#24) was drowned, and in moving his furniture to another house one of the men who was carrying an old-fashioned desk let it fall. It was broken up and disclosed a secret drawer which was full of papers belonging to my grandfather. Among them was a list of the family with date, hour and minute of birth of many of them. My Aunt knowing I was very much interested in the family history, gave me the list, and with that I started to make out a Register of the Hingstons and had a book made and ruled for the purpose.
In 1895 I made a trip over to England for the express purpose of getting information in and around Devonshire.
In 1860, one of my uncles while passing down the main street of Rochester met a man. They both stopped, looked at each other, challenged each other by name - Hingston - and found they were not mistaken. The gentleman's name was E.P.Hingston agent for Anderson, the "Wizard of the North", afterwards agent for Artemus Ward and was with him when he died. He was brother of James Hingston, Lawyer of Melbourne (of whom later).
E.P.Hingston told us of villages where so many grave stones bore the name of Hingston. I visited them and took copies of most. I met the Rector of the church at Deptford (something in brackets that I can't read) where my great Grandfather was married and he agreed to make me an extract from his church books of the Births, Marriages and Deaths of all the Hingston family. I now have them from Aveton Gifford, Bigbury, Cloyne, Kingston, Kingsbridge, Liskeard, Woodbury, Moorleigh, Ringmore, Staveton, Thirlstone, Malborough, Torquay, Dodbrooke, Storkenham and Storkgabrie (Stoke Gabriel?). They have cost me over £50 but I count that nothing because of the pleasure I have had. I say pleasure for although it has been a great labour it has been a labour of love, and it has been a pleasure to me when I have got a tangle of names and dates straightened out and in their right places.
I shall greatly appreciate it if you will fill in the enclosed sheet marked 4C with all the dates (days, months and years) you can and return it to me.
At the end of the Register I first have written a mythology of the family gathered from several stories current amongst them, then I have taken each name according to number on Register and have written a short history of each, as far as I know it.
One of our cousins a Miss Lavinia Hingston is very kindly copying it on the typewriter ready for the printer.
The book, when printed, will be about the size of this sheet will have both coats of arms and crests in colour and a number of photos of places and persons and be about 1.25 to 1.5 inches thick.
I say when it is finished. Had I not been sick these past two years it would have been finished before this, but owing to my heavy loss I cannot do it myself just yet. However, several members of the family have offered to pay the expenses if I will only furnish the matter.
Fourth. Why have I delayed answering your (and many other) letters and why have I stopped work on the book? The same answer for both - sickness.
As I told you I went over in 1895 alone. I was so well please with my trip that in 1899 I took my vacation in the same way, only that time I took my wife. (A trip across the ocean from here does not cost as much as the same time spent on a vacation in this country). I was again very much pleased with the trip and the information I gained so decided to make a final trip and pick up all the loose ends and visit the Isle of Jersey to there find out all I could about the parentage of one William Thomas Hingston, the son of Henry Thomas Hingston, the son of Thomas Hingston of Devonshire.
"Man proposes but God disposes." He has disposed of my time and body for the past two years and four months greatly to my discomfit, but His will be done.
On the 14th Feb 1903, just before your answers got here, I set sail from Boston with my daughter, on board the "Commonwealth" 18,000 tons burden.
We had a beautiful trip, passed the Azores, skirted along the coast of Spain and stopped one day at Gibraltar, from there to Algiers in Africa, to Naples, Mt Vesuvius, Pompeii, Tarbaloa (??), Selvons (??), Amalfia, Salerno, The Isle of Capria and to Rome. We saw the Apin Way, the Baths, Catacombs and Aqueducts, St Peters and about twenty other churches, the Vatican and all of old Rome that is uncovered. From there we went to Florence, Pisa, Genoa, Milan and Venice in Italy, Frankfurt and Munich in Germany, down the Rhine to Cologne and thence to Paris. We did Paris as well as we could in five days then crossed the Channel from Calais to Dover, and then my trouble began.
We had a very dirty rough passage over and I caught a severe chill on the boat. Then the first four days after reaching London I worked hard day and night, and the next two weeks tried to show my daughter the sights of London.
On the 20th of April, my daughter saw the plate on the door of a Dr Hingston-Fox, and made me go and see him. He said I had a bad case of Lagrippe (an old word for influenza) so next morning I left London for Devonshire to get a rest and sit or lie in the sun, but I had to stop on the way and had to spend two days at Aldershot. We got as far as Exeter and saw Mr Hingston-Davey and family, and they would not let me go by but put me to bed and sent for Dr.and Nurse and I lay there for six weeks. The Dr there said I had influenza, pneumonia and a dilated heart. They fed me on Scotch Whisky every three hours, night and day, for a week, to keep up the heart action, for I was nearly a "gonner". I was there for eight or nine weeks, but the Dr would not hear of me going around; he said it would kill me.
While there I found that the fall before Mr James Hingston of Melbourne had come home on a visit and brought his neice, Miss Lilian Hingston with him, and that he had died at Exmouth, a few doors above where I was staying. He was first cousin to Mr Hingston-Davey and I am sorry to say a very disagreeable man. He had boarded for 40 years at the one hotel and had occupied the same room all that time. He is the author of "Around the World in out of the way places". He sent me a copy from Australia. Miss Lilian Hingston had been travelling with Olga Methersole(?). He left her all his money. The last time we heard of her she was at Nice in S. of France.
I don't know how the estate called "Hingston" left the family, but the estate of Wonwell went to the Ashfords by marriage. In the little church near by is a large pew (now closed up) with the Ashford arms over the entrance that is always spoken of and pointed out as the Hingston pew. It is in a recess and built of oak, which is now full of pin holes and dry rot.
The Holbeton estate was sold to the Mildmays, who married into Lord Revelstoke's family, by Joseph Hingston, Banker of Plymouth; the last uncle in the direct line.
"Aglish" is still in the family and belongs to the Rev. Richard Hingston of London who has just spent £3000 in fixing it up.
My Grandfather sold "Whitehall" to his cousin Alan Hingston, whose son's widow has just sold it for the benefit of the five children (all boys).
I am enclosing a photo of myself and wife at the door of "Wonwell Hall". The hall is about 650 years old, but about 10 years ago they recut and pointed up all the front of the building and it looks quite new from the front. It is used as a farm house now, and so is "Hingston". The walls of each are about three feet thick, and all the partitions inside are of stone 1.5 or 2 ft. thick and look as though they would last for hundreds of years to come.
The Hingstons have been Lord of the Manor of Hingston, Wonwell and Holbeton since the time of Henry III.
I hope to finish my history of the family this year and have it printed.
Please let me hear from you soon and I shall not keep you waiting again, God willing.
For the present I must say good-bye, and trust you have forgiven my long silence ere you have reached this part of the letter.
Please give me what information you can about Andrew the son of Andrew and I will look him up.
Your well wisher & kinsman.
W.E.Hingston
and another line showing WEH's own descent