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GURLEY of St. Vincent

Posted on May 20, 2007
Posted UnderFamily Pages |

FAMILIES OF ST. VINCENT
GURLEY

Contact GURLEY family researcher:

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The GURLEY family in St. Vincent is best known for its ownership of the “Peter’s Hope” estate. Located in St. Patrick parish, the estate was established about 1765. The estate suffered heavy damage in the hurricane of 1831. Some of its ruins still remain today.

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Pictured above from left to right: Peter GURLEY, his wife Mary Selby GURLEY, and their son, William GURLEY. The miniatures by Englehardt are owned by a GURLEY family descendent. The images of the miniatures contributed to this website by Joan Leggett, who also contributed the GURLEY family information below.

The GURLEY family in St. Vincent is best known for its ownership of the “Peter’s Hope” estate. Located in St. Patrick parish, the estate was established about 1765. The estate suffered heavy damage in the hurricane of 1831. Some of its ruins still remain today.

Extract concerning death by duel of William Gurley of Peter’s Hope, St Vincent, from Joan Leggett’s Scotland’s penultimate Duel - after a bet at the 1824 St Leger

Richard GURLEY Snr. died in St Vincent in Oct. 1782; his son Peter GURLEY Snr. died there in 1783 leaving Peter’s Hope Estate, St. Vincent to his son Peter GURLEY Jnr.

In 1775 Peter GURLEY Jnr. married Mary Selby JOHNSTON at St Nicholas Church, Aberdeen. She was the daughter of Sir Wm. JOHNSTON of Hilton and his wife Dame Elizabeth CLELAND.

Peter and Mary GURLEY had a large family, some baptised in St Mary’s, Marylebone, London and St Clement Danes, Westminster; others were baptised in St Vincent. A son named Peter Johnston GURLEY was buried there on 9 October 1783 and another son, William GURLEY was baptised there the following day. The family travelled frequently between the West Indies and Britain - in 1806 a child baptised John Baker was born to the Mulatto servant of Peter GURLEY at Broughton Hall, Oxfordshire - the home of the OTTLEY family.

William GURLEY inherited his father’s St Vincent properties in 1810. He was stationed with the 51st Aberdeen Militia at Berwick-upon-Tweed 1810-11 and married there on 21 April 1813 Elizabeth MARSH (baptised in 1791 in Ford, Northumberland, the daughter of Rev. George MARSH and his wife Elizabeth MARSDON).

In 1824 at the suggestion of his Solicitor, Mr Grandison BARR, William GURLEY, his wife and children moved to Edinburgh so that he could attend to legal business concerning an estate belonging to him in the West Indies. Mr BARR considered Elizabeth GURLEY “a person of very superior abilities well acquainted with the ordinary habits of business.”

On 26 October 1824 GURLEY invited Mr BARR to dine with him at the Black Bull Inn, Edinburgh. Here GURLEY spotted John WAISTELL, a lace representative from London, who had been refusing to pay GURLEY a sum owed to him after the St Leger in September. A fight broke out when WAISTELL again refused to pay up; he was knocked unconscious by GURLEY and after notes and threats passed between the pair and failed meetings by go-betweens, they agreed on a duel.

The first attempt at the duel was near Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh early on 30 October 1824 but policemen were seen in the area. GURLEY, WAISTELL, their seconds, doctors and supporters decided to find a secluded site at North Queensferry, Fife and they crossed the Firth of Forth in the same boat.

There was confusion as to how ‘the count’ should be made and some witnesses thought WAISTELL fired prematurely. GURLEY, a man “comfortable with his pistols” was fatally shot through the chest. WAISTELL was immediately advised by his supporters “make the best of your way” and, as he ran, he shouted to his friends to let his father (a Clergyman in Cleasby, near Darlington) know what had happened. John WAISTELL was never brought to trial - he could not be found.

Elizabeth GURLEY crossed the Firth of Forth to sit alone, in “the utmost agony of grief”, with her husband’s body before he was buried in Inverkeithing churchyard, North Queensferry.

Elizabeth GURLEY and her 7 children then moved to be with her mother in Scarborough where her 8th child was born early the following year. After her mother’s death Elizabeth and family moved to Bawtry, Yorkshire. She died there on 25 June 1862 and she is buried in nearby Scrooby, Yorkshire.

– William Gurley –
Information subsequent to printing “Scotland’s Penultimate Duel – after a bet at the St Leger 1824”:

William GURLEY’s mother, Mary Selby GURLEY, died on 21 March 1819 at Needham Cottage, now Uvedale Hall, Coddenham Road, Needham Market, the home of her sister Helen Sandilands UVEDALE whose husband was Chaplain of Needham Market Church. Mary Selby GURLEY is buried in the ground/aisle (only partly visible now) of the Chancel of Barking Church, Suffolk – Needham Market has no burial ground. Her Will was made in Needham Market and a copy was obtained from St. Vincent.

Also in Needham Market in 1819 was Helen Amelia GURLEY, youngest daughter of Peter and Mary GURLEY who was probably in Suffolk for her education at one of the 4 private schools for girls in the town. Helen Amelia was born at Kensington in 1800 and married in January 1827 the Rev. Edward PASKE, Rector of Creeting St. Peter near Needham Market. The Rectory in High Street, Needham Market, where Rev. PASKE and family lived is now The Limes Hotel. Helen Amelia PASKE died in 1892 at Wanstead having had a large family.

In a letter dated 15 Sept. 1998 the Eton College Archivist, Windsor, Berks. SL4 6DB advised me that William GURLEY, killed in the duel in 1824, signed the Eton entry book on 3 May 1796; he was there for the summer term of 1798 but by next summer he had left.

William GURLEY was Ensign, First (or Royal) Regt. of Foot (1st Batt.) – Regt. Rank 12.11.1802
Lieut., 3rd (East Kent) Regt. of Foot (or the Buffs) - from PRO Army Lists.

In 1834 Elizabeth GURLEY was living at Brunswick Place, Scarborough [Pigot & Co’s National Commercial Directory for Durham, Northumberland & Yorkshire, 1834: Gentry && Clergy for Scarborough]. Her mother, Elizabeth MARSH, was buried at St Mary’s, Scarborough 1 April 1839 aged 78 [p.242 Index of Burials, St Mary’s Ch. Scarborough]. Elizabeth GURLEY remained a widowed Gentlewoman, receiving an Army pension and died on 25 June 1862 at South Parade, Bawtry, Yorkshire [Census for Bawtry, 1861 Ref RG 9/3522 Fol.38 – Doncaster & District FHS]. South Parade is a row of red brick Georgian houses, some of 16th century origin.

Elizabeth GURLEY’s death is registered in Doncaster [2nd Qtr. 1862 Ref. 9c 310]. Her death certificate reveals she was the Widow of William GURLEY of the 9th Royal Lancers and died of cancer of the liver from which she had suffered two years; her daughter Mary Isabella registered her death.

Elizabeth GURLEY was buried in the churchyard of St Wilfred’s Church, Parish Church of Scrooby, just south of Bawtry. A grave had been purchased on 26 July 1861 for 1s 6d from the Parish Clerk of Bawtry. She left an estate of under £100. Her two unmarried daughters Mary Isabella and Georgiana Anne were administrators with Joseph MUNBY and John Forth MUNBY, Gents (Solicitors of York) Sureties.

At the time of her death Elizabeth’s two daughters Mary Isabella and Georgiana Anne were with her – Mary Isabella died 4.4.1901 Bexhill. She was not at Bawtry on the night of the 1861 Census; in the 1901 Census she was staying at a Guest House in Hastings, aged 80, near to her cousin Georgina SUTHERLAND (nee CUMMING) and her two daughters Georgina and Margaret SUTHERLAND. Georgiana Anne died 27.1.903 at Crow Park Cottage, Keswick

Of Elizabeth GURLEY’s other children –

From Bapt. Records, St Mary’s Church, Scarborough –

In December 1778 in St Vincent, West Indies, a duel was fought between Colonel ROPER and Lieut. William Poe PUREFOY, an officer in Colonel ROPER’s regiment and “for some excess was severely reprimanded. The case developed into a court martial and PUREFOY was dismissed from the army - the sentence being read out as he stood on parade with his men. PUREFOY later went up to Colonel ROPER, told him he was a coward and shook a whip in his face. The Colonel challenged PUREFOY to a duel and PUREFOY shot him dead. He was tried for murder at Maidstone Assizes in 1794 and acquitted.”

I am grateful to the following for information received subsequent to publication -
• Two descendants of Helen Amelia (Gurley) Paske, including the owner of Miniatures by Englehardt of Peter Gurley, Mary Selby Gurley and their son William Gurley, aged about 8.
• Shelagh Herring, local historian, for material on Needham Market, Suffolk.
• Jennifer Gregory for information on Scarborough, Bawtry, Doncaster & York.
• Antonia Williamson for information on William Gurley’s Army career from the PRO, Kew.

Joan Leggett
© 2003

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