George John Cayley (1826 - 1878)

Born 26 Jan 1826 in Brompton by Sawdon, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Anne Frances (Wilmot) de Royer — married 11 Sep 1860 in Sketty, Glamorganshire, Wales

Died 11 Oct 1878 at age 52 in The Rectory, Hunton, Kent, England

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Biography

George John Cayley was born in 1826 at Brompton by Sawdon, Yorkshire, England. He was the son of Edward Cayley and Emma Cayley. He was baptised at Brompton by Sawdon on 28 March 1826.^[1] He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge (where he did not graduate) before entering Inner Temple, London. He was called to the Bar in 1852, but partly devoted himself to writing. In 1854 he was a correspondent for the Daily News in Crimea (during the Crimean War), and afterwards travelled in the Near East.

The 1851 census lists George at Westminster, London.^[2]

Several times he unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of Scarborough. He advocated extending the franchise to skilled workers.^[3][4].

In 1860 he married Mary Anne Frances Wilmot. The marriage was registered in the Swansea district of Glamorganshire, Wales in the 3rd quarter of that year.^[5]

The 1861 census lists George John Cayley at Westminster, age 35, non-practising barrister, born Wydale, Yorkshire.^[6]

He was a noted craftsman and skilled amateur artist who illustrated his own works. In 1862 he and the artist George Frederick Watts designed a challenge shield for a shooting championship at Wimbledon, Surrey, England.^[7] He also published several light poems and a travel book.

In 1869 poor health led him to move with his family to Majorca, and then the following year, to Algiers. There he was a keen tennis player and he wrote what is believed to be the first article on what came to be called lawn tennis (published in the Edinburgh Review in 1875). He and a craftsman he knew developed new designs for tennis rackets.

He passed away in 1878 at Hunton Rectory, Kent, England on his way back from England to Algiers.^[8] He was buried at Hunton, Kent on 16 October 1878.^[9] Probate was granted on 28 December 1878, with the death date recorded as 11 October 1878.^[10]

He had a small but select circle of close friends, among them the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, Caroline Norton, Monckton Milnes and the artist John Everett Millais. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he was often regarded as an eccentric, with his long beard, independent political views, skills at craftsmanship, high harsh voice and early championship of cigarette-smoking.

Writings

• 1849-50 Life and adventures of Sir Reginald Mohun, a poem
• 1853 Las Alforjas, or the Bridle Paths of Spain
• 1858 The Working-Classes: their interest in administrative, financial and electoral reform
• 1858 The service and the reward: a memoir of the late R W Roberts RN
• 1859 Indignant Rhymes by An Illused Candidate
• Lusio Pilaris and lawn tennis (published in the Edinburgh Review January 1875)

Sources

1. ↑ England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NP3H-C2C, accessed 3 March 2019
2. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SG6T-DJB : 9 November 2019), George John Cayley, Saint Margarets, Middlesex, England; citing Saint Margarets, Middlesex, England, p. 31, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey
3. ↑ The Working Classes; their Interest in Administrative, Financial and Electoral Reform, George John Cayley, 1858
4. ↑ Indignant Rhymes by An Illused Candidate, George John Cayley, 1859
5. ↑ England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DW2-DMT , accessed 3 March 2019
6. ↑ 1861 census, FindMyPast
7. ↑ Blackburn Standard 16 July 1862
8. ↑ Modern English Biography, Frederick Boase, 1892-1921
9. ↑ Kent burials, FindMyPast, accessed 3 March 2019
10. ↑ England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPJ3-84CG , accessed 3 March 2019

• Burke's Peerage
• Burke's Landed Gentry
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by Thomas Bean for George John Cayley, print and online 2004, revised online 2011
• Alumni Cantabrigienses, Venn (CUP 1940)
• A supplement to Allibone's critical dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors, by John Foster Kirk, pub. Gale Research Company, Detroit 1965