Back into the Family Box File

An early nineteenth-century illustration. From: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Menagerie.wombwell.jpg

In disentangling the story of Hetty Jane Owen’s Irish ancestors, the key starting point was a document comprising eight pages of details regarding the sale of Irish fee-farm rental lands in County Down. 

In the same family box file, passed down through the generations until it reached Hetty Jane Owen’s son, Dr. Harold Eldridge, were three newspaper clippings, together with an original handwritten letter telling the story of an elephant named Peto. These items form the starting point for the investigation into Hetty Jane Owen’s Wombwell relatives. 

In particular, they enable us to put some flesh on the life of George Wombwell junior, the nephew of the George Wombwell who was the founder of the famous Wombwell’s menagerie.