The Rascally Rector lives Happily Ever After

Camille Silvy's Portrait of Alfred from 1861 
© National Portrait Gallery London

In the space of two years, the Reverend Alfred Bond lost everything: his wife, his eldest son, his home and profession, all of his property and his reputation. He was ruined and disgraced, but even so, he was extremely lucky not to have been declared bankrupt ten years earlier, when he would have been thrown into prison until his debts were paid. Instead, trustees liquidated his assets and decided who was entitled to a share of his estate. Alfred's creditors ended up with 7s. in the pound -- about a third of what he owed them. That process complete, Alfred remained at liberty: penniless but debt-free. 

He didn't go quietly Several minor court cases show him trying his luck in reclaiming funds and evading further claims against him. For example, he argued that before the bankruptcy, his bank had made an error in calculating interest. Since his creditors had already accepted settlement of their debts, he argued, the money owing should be paid to him. In another case, his daughter Ethel argued that her father was liable to pay for her shoes (using real price as a measure of comparison, the debt would be almost £2k today). The point was that it was tough on the shoemaker that Alfred had been declared bankrupt, but it was hardly Ethel's fault. The judgement was a weary 'hope that an arrangement would be arrived at'. 

With the help of the allowance from his son, Edward, Alfred got by, though he doesn't seem to have tightened his belt. When the 1881 census was taken, he was staying at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. 

In 1890, Alfred married Matilda Jonas, nee Goldshede, the widow of a tobacco merchant and daughter of a money-lender named Bernado Goldshede. While she might not have been considered a suitable helpmeet for a respectable rector and landowner, Matilda was pleasantly wealthy. Her first husband's personal estate was valued at £59,512 4s 6d in 1883, with a relative income value of almost £50m today.

The 1891 census finds Alfred and Matilda living 'on own means' at Bailey's Hotel in Kensington. In 1901 they were living in Northwoods Grange in Frampton Cotterell (now a hotel), with four live-in staff. By 1911 they'd moved to a 13 room house called Belfont on The Park in Cheltenham (if it still exists, it isn't called that anymore). The elderly couple now had two paid companions in addition to four servants.

After Matilda's death later that year, Alfred inherited her estate, valued at £4329 14s 10d, with a relative income value of £2.8m today. I should be so lucky! But it isn't a lot considering the size of Bernado's estate. It's probable that the couple held their assets in common, making Alfred's will a better indicator of their joint wealth. 

Alfred died a year later, in Fleet, in Hampshire, in the home of George Tilson Shaen-Carter (a Justice of the Peace with country estates in Oxfordshire and Ireland). He left £13,909 9s 2d to Edward, worth about £8.7m today.

Assuming that Matilda had been her first husband's main heir (I've ordered the wills and will update you when they come), she and Alfred had burned through her inheritance at quite a rate. Interest on £50m would have yielded a more than comfortable income without touching the capital at all, but Matilda had no children to leave it to and Alfred was Alfred. 

I see Alfred as a chancer -- a loveable rogue. He could have ended his life in poverty, but his success in juggling his debts for two decades gives a measure of his charm. At the age of 63, he was charming enough to persuade Matilda to share her fortune with him. Even so, I think it's significant that Alfred's children didn't take him in when he was widowed. Luckily, they didn't need to. Alfred was welcomed instead by one of his wealthy friends, and I'm sure he was a charming house guest.  

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