Samuel Michell - St Tudius - St Tudy, Cornwall
Posted by: SMacB
N 50° 33.267 W 004° 43.878
30U E 377359 N 5601710
Coat of arms of Colonel Samuel Michell in St Tudius' church, St Tudy.
Waymark Code: WMZGF4
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/08/2018
Views: 0
A memorial bearint the coat of arms of Colonel Samuel Michell (1701-1786). He was the brother of Captain Matthew Michell who accompanied Lord Anson on his voyage around the world (
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The monument reads:
Beneath this stone lyes the body of
SAMUEL MICHELL Esq.
formerly o Col. in the Coddstream
regiment of guards
who departed this life VI Oct
M,DCC,LXXXVI aged LXXXV
A man of strict integrity
and virtue"Samuel was a member of the same family as the Chitterne Michells but he wasn't born in Chitterne. He was born in Hengar, on the Michell family's estate in Cornwall. The Cornwall estates they owned also included Hametethy and Penrose Burden. The property of Hametethy included land in the parish of St Tudy, hence the memorial in St Tudy church. These estates had passed to the Michell family through Samuel's mother, who went by the delightful maiden name of Loveday Billing. After Samuel died childless in 1786 the Cornish estates passed to the Chitterne Onslow family through Anne Michell who was married to Sir Richard Onslow. After Richard and Anne's time the Onslows lived in Cornwall and Hengar remained their property until it was sold in the 1950's. In 1904 the original house was destroyed in a disastrous fire when most of the family heirlooms were lost. The present house was built in 1906.
Was Samuel Michell actually a Colonel in the Coldstream Guards? Because no evidence to support the statement on the memorial could be found, it turns out that the statement is most probably false and that Samuel's rank at retirement in 1756 was that of Lieutenant Colonel in the First Guards.
"One can only assume that he died so long after leaving the Army that none of his relatives was quite sure which Guards regiment he had served in .... and so, showing impeccable good taste, they decided to make him a veteran of the Coldstream Guards!" "
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