William Tomset Balcombe (abt. 1777 - 1829)

Born about Dec 1777 in Rottingdean, Sussex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Jane Wilson (Green) Balcombe — married 26 Jul 1799 in Marylebone, Middlesex, England

Descendants

Died 19 Mar 1829 at about age 51 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Heather Stevens [send private message]

Biography

William Balcombe is Notable.

William Balcombe came free to the Colony of New South Wales (1788-1900)

WIlliam Balcombe was appointed Colonial Treasurer to NSW and arrived in Sydney in 1824. Prior to this time, he had lived on the island of St Helena where he had been friends with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Research by Heather Stevens, July 2021

William Tomset Balcombe was born at Rottingdean in Sussex in 1777 to Stephen Balcombe and his wife Mary (nee Vandyke). He was baptised at Rottingdean on 28 December 1777.^[1] His brother Stephen was baptised on 21 May 1780 at Rottingdean.^[2][3]Their parents had married on 27 May 1777 at Rottingdean.^[4] Stephen and William Balcombe's father Stephen Balcombe was a butcher of Rottingdean, and had died by 1788 when their mother remarried. There is a London warehouseman apprenticeship record for Stephen Balcombe of 1797, which states that his late father Stephen Balcombe was a butcher of Rottingdean. ^[5]

There was a rumour that William Balcombe was the Prince Regent's natural son. It was mentioned in the journal of Balcomb's former business partner William Burchell (1808). It was mentioned in correspondence, Baron Sturmer to Prince Metterich in 1817; and Sir Hudson Lowe to Lord Bathurst in 1818 wrote that Balcombe's father had drowned in a boating accident caused by a yacht belonging to the Prince of Wales. It was also mentioned in Lord Roseberry's Napoleon: The Last Phase. According to his descendant Dame Mabel Brookes, William and his brother were sons of a captain of a frigate lost at sea and were assisted in their education by the King's Bounty. Anne Whitehead's research has not found any evidence to substantiate the many rumours of William's father being a fisherman/ privateer/ inn keeper/ ship's captain. William's friend was Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt who had been the Prince Regent's secretary. It is probable that William encouraged the rumour for his own gain.^[6]

In about 1789 William went to sea as a captain's servant in the Royal Navy. Within two years he was appointed a midshipman, with voyages on the Phoenix to the West Indies and Bengal. India Office records (which stop at 1801) also show that he was fifth mate and acting fourth mate.^[7]

Marriage: 26 July 1799 Marylebone, London, England: William Balcombe bachelor and Jane Byng (nee Green) widow both of the parish by licence. Witnesses were Elizabeth Green and William [Man?]^[8] William's wife Jane Wilson Green had previously been married to John Byng. Jane Wilson Green had been baptised 31 January 1772 at Westerham, Kent, parents Francis and Isabella Green.^[9]

From 1804 WIlliam Balcombe was living at St Helena where he was superintendent of public sales for the East India Company. Napoleon spent part of his exile living in a pavilion on Balcombe's estate, The Briars, and Balcombe was purveyor to Napoleon and his entourage. William's daughter Lucia Elizabeth (Betsy) later wrote Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon.

However in 1818 Balcombe was dismissed from the island on suspicion of acting as an intermediary for Napoleon. The Balcombe family moved to Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt's property, Tor Royal at Dartmoor in Devon. (Whitehead p.244)

On the (probable) recommendation of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, in 1822 William Balcombe moved his family to Saint-Omer in France, where his daughter Betsy gave birth to a baby girl (possibly in September). Betsy's husband Edward Abell was also with them at Saint-Omer in France. (Whitehead pp. 284, 292)

Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt used his influence to obtain for Balcombe the appointment of Colonial Treasurer of New South Wales.^[10] With his family Balcombe arrived in the Hibernia at Sydney in April 1824. Sadly, his daughter Jane died on the voyage.

Balcombe had a 6000-acre (2428 ha) grant, Molonglo, near Bungonia, County Argyle, New South Wales. (Thomson)

Balcombe established the first Colonial Treasury on 30 April 1824 on the corner of O'Connell and Bent Streets with a staff of three clerks. He was a founding member of the Sydney Turf Club. (Findagrave)

"In 1826 he came into collision with Governor Darling and Alexander Macleay concerning the affairs of the Bank of New South Wales, then badly managed and in serious difficulties. He was charged by Darling with having paid public moneys into the bank at a time when he should have known tha it was unsafe to do so; but Bathurst, while agreeing that he had done wrong, merely ordered that in future the public funds should be equally divided between the two existing banks." (Australian Enclyclopaedia)

Balcombe was prone to severe attacks of gout, which occasionally confined him to bed for several weeks at a time. Towards the end of 1828 he suffered a severe and intractable attack of dysentery, his strength declining gradually. ^[11]

Death: William Balcombe died at Sydney on 19 March 1829.^[12] He was buried at the Devonshire Street ("Sandhills") Cemetery in Sydney (where Central Railway Station now stands) and his remains were later moved to Botany Pioneer Cemetery at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park.^[13]

Obituary, Sydney Gazette, 26 March 1829, p 3:^[14]

The late William Balcombe Esq – The funeral of this respected gentleman took place on the evening of Monday last, and was attended by His Excellency the Governor, the Hon. the Colonial Secretary, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Civil Officers resident in Sydney, several of the Military Officers of the Garrison, and a number of private friends of the deceased. Mr. Balcombe had seen a considerable deal of public life. He resided at St. Helena during the period of Napoleon Buonaparte's exile to that island, and his family circle at "The Briars," as his residence was designated, was a frequent resort of the ex-Emperor, and beguiled him of many of those restless moments by which he was afflicted in his captivity. It is also stated, upon good authority, that Mr. Balcombe once indignantly spurned an offer of an immense sum, made to him by Buonaparte, to aid him in a projected escape from St. Helena. The character of Mr. Balcombe in this Colony was sufficiently known. Perhaps no gentleman, holding a public situation, has ever kept clearer of parties or politics (in the acceptation of the term in this Colony), and there are few, we feel assured, whose memory will be more generally respected.

After his death, creditors took most of his livestock. His widow sought a pension in London and the Colonial Office gave her £250 to return to Sydney and promised land and government posts for her children. (Thomson)

Research Notes

Sources

1. ↑ Baptism William Tomset Balcombe 28 Dec 1777, Rottingdean, County Sussex, Father's first name Stephen, Father's last name Balcombe, Find My Past https://www.findmypast.com.au/transcript?id=R_22085426316
2. ↑ https://www.findmypast.com.au/transcript?id=R_22085427995
3. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5K7-WQP : 20 September 2020), William Tomset Balcombe, 1777.
4. ↑ https://www.findmypast.com.au/transcript?id=R_854424035
5. ↑ https://www.findmypast.com.au/transcript?id=GBOR%2FHABS%2F68614
6. ↑ Whitehead, pp. 90-94, and notes pp. 417-418.
7. ↑ Whitehead pp. 93, 418. (Apparently no records exist after 1801?)
8. ↑ London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 for Jane Byng, Westminster St Marylebone 1794-1801 https://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/1623/images/31280_194671-00620?pId=5678330
9. ↑ A confirming record is her name "Jane Wilson Balcombe" in the baptism of her son Alexander Beatson Balcombe at St Helena in 1811. Strangely, the death certificate of Alexander Beatson Balcombe in 1877 has his mother's name Jane "Cranston". Is this a mistake on the part of the informant, an "authorised agent"? No birth or marriage record of a Jane Cranston has been found.
10. ↑ Whitehead writes of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt's efforts to help Balcombe in detail.
11. ↑ Darling to Murray, quoted in Whitehead p.382
12. ↑ New South Wales. Department of Justice and Attorney General. NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages. Data-base on-line, Death Reg. No. 1074/1829 V18291074 13
13. ↑ Keith A Johnson and Malcolm R Sainty, Sydney Burial Ground 1819-1901 and History of Sydney's Early Cemeteries from 1788, LAH 2001, Sydney. Transcribed from original volume now held by SRNSW. Book entry number: 427, and Appendix 3 - Monumental Inscriptions at Bunnerong Cemetery transferred from the Sydney Burial Ground in 1901. (Monuments transcribed by Johnson & Sainty 1969-1970).
14. ↑ Balcombe, William (1778–1829)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/balcombe-william-17079/text28920, accessed 11 July 2021.

• Anne Whitehead, Betsy and the Emperor: The True Story of Napoleon, a pretty girl, a Regency rake and an Australian colonial misadventure. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015, ISBN 978-1-76011-293-6
• Kathleen Thomson, biography of William Balcombe, comprised within that of his son Balcombe, Alexander Beatson (1811–1877); Australian National Dictionary of Biography.
• "England, Sussex, Parish Registers, 1538-1910", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KG8K-X5Y : 7 December 2017), William Tomset Balcombe, 1777.
• "BillionGraves Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL9J-P7HK : 29 March 2018), William Balcombee, died 19 Mar 1829; citing BillionGraves (http://www.billiongraves.com : 2012), Burial at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Matraville, Randwick City Council, New South Wales, Australia.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88439262/william-balcombe : accessed 11 July 2021), memorial page for William Balcombe (28 Dec 1777–19 Mar 1829), Find a Grave Memorial ID 88439262, citing Devonshire Street Cemetery (Defunct), Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia ; Maintained by Andrew R. (contributor 50490916) .
• https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2019/07/?m=0
• https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/exminster-devon-may-1822-betsy.html
• https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/tyrwhitt-thomas-1762-1833
• https://www.oldplymouth.uk/Who%20was%20Who%20in%20Old%20Plymouth-Tyrwhitt%20Thomas%201762%201833.htm
• http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:2500/SOURCE2?view=true
• https://www.budget.nsw.gov.au/node/2611
• https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2615847
• Roberta Ann Carew, "A Landscape Of Compliance, Conflict And Invention : An Administrative History Of The New South Wales Treasury, 1824–1976" A Thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Research) School of History, University of New South Wales 2008 https://emhs.org.au/system/files/catalogue/pdf_files/emdf0090_01.pdf