Tauranga's Plantagenet Connection by Christine Clement
In February 2013 bones exhumed from a Leicester city centre car park, once the site of Greyfriars Friary Church, were identified as being of the last Plantagenet King, Richard III of England.
Analysis showed mitochondrial DNA extracted from the bones matched that of Canadian matrilineal descendants of Richard's sister, Anne of York. With this and other scientific and archaeological evidence, the University of Leicester announced that it had concluded "beyond reasonable doubt" that the skeleton was that of Richard III.
Richard III was King of England for two years from June 1483 until his death in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last significant battle of the War of The Roses. Richard’s brother King Edward IV had died in April 1483 and Richard had been named Lord Protector for Edward's son and successor, 12-year-old King Edward V.
However before the young King could be crowned, his parents’ marriage was invalidated making him ineligible for the throne. Richard was declared King and young Edward and his younger brother, Richard of Shrewsbury were taken to the Tower of London and were never seen in public again.
Richard had married Anne Neville, the younger daughter of the Earl of Warwick in 1472. They had a son, Edward of Middleham who had died aged ten. Richard also had two illegitimate children, John of Gloucester and Katherine Plantagenet who both survived him but appear to have died without issue.
However Richard’s sister Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter (1439-1476) did have issue.
She married twice, the first time at the age of eight, to Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (1430-1475). During the War of the Roses, Henry sided with the House of Lancaster against his wife's family the House of York. Anne and Exeter separated in 1464 and divorced in 1472. They had a daughter Anne Holland who married Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset but she died without issue.
About 1474, Anne married secondly to Thomas St. Leger (c.1440-1483). She died giving birth to their only child, Anne St Leger (1476-1526).
This Anne married George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros, and was mother of Thomas Manners, the 1st Earl of Rutland.
Fast forward to 1802 with the birth of Robert Mansel, the g-g-g-g-g-g-grandson of Thomas Manners, the 1st Earl.
Robert’s father was Robert Manners (1758-1823) an equerry to King George III, and Lieutenant-Colonel in the 84th Regiment of Foot. He was unmarried, but left issue with Mary Ann Goodchild (1780–1854) also known as Mansel.
Robert Mansel (1802-1879) married Maria Armstrong in 1825 and they had three children – Robert Charles, Lieutenant Colonel in the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, who married Agnes Pengelley and had seven children. He died in 1872 in South Africa. Daughters Lucy, who never married and Mary who in 1860 married Lieutenant George Dare Dowell V.C of the Royal Marines.
After death of her brother in 1872 and her parents in the late 1870s, Lucy, then in her early fifties, migrated to New Zealand with six of her nephews - Robert Charles Mansel, Harold Barton Mansel, Herbert Benbow Mansel, William George Mansel, Clement Coltman Dowell and Robert Arthur Dowell. The six cousins ranged in age from 12 to 20 and left London on board the Northumberland as part of George Vesey Stewart's fourth group of special settlers. After arrival in Auckland on the 18 March 1884 the group made their way to Tauranga by sea.
On the 29 April 1884 Lucy Mansel purchased the 320 acre Yatton Estate at Tauranga from John Chadwick at £11 17s 6d per acre. John Chadwick had bought the land in 1867 and by 1872 he and his son John Alfred Chadwick owned most of the land between the Waimapu estuary to 18th Avenue and Cameron Road. They had erected a four-roomed cottage overlooking the Waimapu River.
Lucy had the original cottage converted into the New Zealand equivalent of an English country house with eight bedrooms, drawing room and a dining room with sixteen foot long table. The house occupied three sides of a square, with a courtyard in its centre. There were two detached buildings for extra guest accommodation and an enormous barn, built from timbers of the Gate Pa military barracks.
Gardeners were employed and she had planted flower beds edged with box hedging, ornamental shrubs and many varieties of fruit trees. A large number of exotic trees were also planted though some were already there from Chadwick’s time. Lucy continued the tradition, begun in Chadwick’s time, of inviting church and school groups to picnics in the grounds.
Subdivision of the land began in 1904 when she sold 171 acres to George Hamilton Grapes – this became Merivale. She gave blocks of up to fifty acres to three of her nephews and Lucy retained the balance.
Lucy and her nephew Herbert were very involved with the building of the St George’s Memorial Church at Gate Pa. An initial meeting was held in 1893 and quotes were called for in 1896. The first service was held on Easter Sunday, 15 April 1900 and Lucy later donated a baptismal font to the church.
Lucy Mansel died on the 22 January 1916 and is buried in the Tauranga Anglican Cemetery.
In 1884 Mary (née Mansel) and her husband Lieutenant George Dare Dowell contracted with George Vesey Stewart for 250 acres at the special settlement of Te Puke. This was Section 12 Block VI on the eastern side of No 2 Road, now opposite Dudley Vercoe Drive. George and Mary later moved to Tauranga and George became the first chairman of the Bay of Plenty Jockey Club when it was formed in 1891. The Bay of Plenty Times of the 19 December 1892 reported that the Dowell family left by the SS Clansman to take up their residence in Auckland and that a large number of friends and acquaintances assembled on the wharf to bid them goodbye.
Mary Dowell died in Auckland in 1910 aged 73 and is buried at the Purewa Cemetery, Meadowbank, with her husband.
New Zealand descendants of the Plantagenet Kings of England now number in their 100s and are scattered throughout the country.
Sources: Barbara Bayly (Te Puke – great-grandaughter of Lieutenant George Dare and Mary Dowell), Wayne Marriott (Whakatāne), Clement, Christine and Mc. Cormack, Ellen The Pioneers, Settlers and Families of Katikati and District (2012 Christine Clement and Ellen Mc. Cormack, ISBN 9780473206055), Rorke, Jinty. 'Mansel, Lucy 1830/1831?-1916 Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Yatton Park - http://www.library.tauranga.govt.nz/localhistory/historic-places/yatton-park.aspx
This page was archived at Perma CC march 2017 https://perma.cc/3ja9-z8ee
