Countess Bathurst: I have a Cornish smuggler in my family tree

Lady B's no-nonsense banter from Cirencester Park

History has always caught my imagination, especially that of our family. When I was young, my beloved Aunt instilled in me a deep appreciation of the past – she spent years researching our ancestors.

She’d get incredibly excited when she discovered something new, and we’d have a lovely time linking various characters and wondering what their lives were like.

Back then, of course, it was all done manually. Aunty Elsa didn’t have the luxury of online research – websites that did all the work for you – and she would spend days pouring over copies of church and community records.

Our family were a mixture of West Country on the maternal side, and Derbyshire on the paternal side, and I loved hearing about various ancestors of note.

One of my favourites was Mark Chapman who was a smuggler in Cornwall, in the Port Isaac area to be exact. Rather romantically, he had to mend his ways when he met and fell in love with the daughter of the nemesis of all smugglers, an excise officer.

Coincidentally, I was staying with a girlfriend in that quaint little town a few months ago. A casual conversation over dinner with a local lady there caused us to go exploring the next day and we were lucky enough to discover, quite by chance, the grave of William Chapman, another of my clan.

Another favourite was Thomas Player. He was born in Malmesbury in 1784, and died there 95 years later, having fought at the Battle of Waterloo. In the census of 1851, he was listed as living at No.2 Oxford Street with his large family and was recorded as being a mason and sexton of Malmesbury Abbey. He was still having children aged 63. I’d have loved to have met him.

Of course, the Bathurst family are far better documented. The name goes back centuries, and their position in the annals of time is well recorded, but they still fascinate me.

At the end of the 19th century, one of our ancestors was good enough to write a book about the history of the Bathurst and Apsley families, but with the access to records we have now, it’s clear it is fantastically incorrect and much of it was clearly based on hearsay and legend, rather than fact.

My intention is to re-write it one day, when I have the time, and I hope it will act as a better record for future generations. The two families have done much over the centuries and, while the Bathursts are well known, the Apsleys are less so. But I have met the most wonderful lady, Elizabeth St John, who is descended from Lucy Apsley, of the St John family of Lydiard Park, Swindon.

Liz has been fascinated by Lucy and her family for a long time. They were hugely prevalent in the time of Charles I and II, with members of the family sitting on both sides of that infamous argument. She has written three wonderful historical novels about The Apsley family, and I thoroughly recommend them. They begin with Lucy, meeting and marrying Sir Allen Apsley who became the Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and they chronicle the years of the 17th century.

It is a highly addictive pastime, family research. My husband has long since realised that if I open my laptop of an evening and get stuck into any of the online websites, he will barely get a word out of me, apart from the odd squeal of excitement as I uncover another unknown gem.

So, watch this space, there’s a book in everyone – or so they say.

Follow Lady B on Twitter: @CotswoldLadyB