Mary Eliza (Maltass) Whittall (1851-1938) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Mary Eliza Whittall formerly Maltass

Born 18 Nov 1851 in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire

Ancestors

Daughter of William George Maltass and Elizabeth (Jackson) Maltass

Sister of Ada Maria (Maltass) von Eichstorff, William Augustus Maltass, Lydia Melita Ann Maltass, Edith Victoria Maltass, Henry Edward Maltass, Thomas Jackson Maltass, Edith Mary Maltass and Walter A Maltass

Wife of Edward Whittall — married 14 Apr 1875 in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire

Descendants

Mother of Edgar Arthur Whittall, Albert James Whittall, Elsie Louise (Whittall) Miller, Rachel (Whittall) Tissot, Godfrey Whittall, Jessy Maud (Whittall) Turrell, Ruth Madelaine (Whittall) Giraud, Edward Sidney Whittall and Walter Whittall

Died 6 Jan 1938 at age 86 in Bornova, İzmir, Türkiye

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Profile last modified 30 Apr 2024 | Created 6 Jul 2013

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Whittall Family Project

1 Biography
2 Sources
- 2.1 Acknowledgments

Biography

Mary was born in Smyrna, Turkish Ottoman Empire on 18th November 1851. She was the daughter of William George Maltass and Elizabeth Jackson.

She married Edward Whittall on 14th April 1875 after he proposed to her at a ball. She had apparently been reluctant to attend the ball, because all she had to wear was her old, tarlatan (stiff open weave cotton) dress, when ball gowns would usually have been made from silk (tafetta) in that era. Edward Whittall was from a grander and much wealthier family and though Mary had long admired him, it had been from a distance. She was apparently surprised to have caught his attention at the ball and that he should subsequently want to marry her. They were happily married and Mary bore 9 children, including five boys and four girls. Their 2 youngest daughters were identical twins. They also took in an orphaned girl and a Greek boy who wanted to learn English.

Mary, Edward and their family lived in the 'Edward Whittall House' with its beautiful garden, which remains in the hands of a great grandson today. After her father in law John Whittall died, Mary's husband Edward and his brothers Herbert 'Octavius' Whittall and Richard Whittall, managed the family company C. Whittall & Co started by their grandfather Charlton Whittall. It is uncertain how much their brother Frank was involved.

Edward was more of a botanist than a business man however and he spent large sums of money on his gardens, his boat and his shooting lodge. He enjoyed the outdoors a lot more than business and when he died in 1917 he didn't leave much. It has been said that Mary was a bit lost without Edward.

Mary was known as a gentle, kind and slightly timid person but when it came to her children, she somehow found it within her to stand up to her formidable mother in law, Madeleine, the matriarch of the large Whittall family.

In September 1922 just before the sacking of Smyrna by Turkish irregular soldiers, during the Turkish war of independence, Mary escaped to Mytilene on Lesvos, Greece. She left on the British hospital ship, the Thalia with her daughter Jessy, her son in law Reginald Turrell, three of her young grandchildren, her son Albert and other relatives including the La Fontaines.

The family spent a year in Greece, and on her return to Izmir once it was safe, Mary continued living in the Edward Whittall house. Her brother in law Octavius Whittall was evacuated to Malta with his wife, when Smyrna was attacked. The Whittall business was destroyed by the events of 1922 and Octavius Whittall went to Tunisia and never returned to Turkiye. Mary's daughter Jessy died of a stroke aged 44 in 1928, brought on by the stress of 1922 and the grief of having her home looted and her servants murdered and thrown in the garden well.

Mary became vague and forgetful in her old age, which would no doubt be diagnosed as dementia today, but she was surrounded by her family and friends. Those of her surviving children who had remained in Izmir or had returned to Izmir, visited her regularly, as did her grandchildren, and Mary often had visitors sit on the verandah with her.

After she died, the Edward Whittal house was bought from her estate by her son in law Edmund Giraud, husband of her daughter Ruth, and it remains in the Giraud family today.

Name

Name: Mary Eliza /MALTASS/^[1]

Birth

Birth:

Date: 18 NOV 1851

Place: Smyrna, Izmir, Turkey^[2]

Marriage

: Husband: Edward Whittall

Wife: Mary Eliza Maltass

Child: Edgar Arthur Whittall

Relationship to Father: Natural