The Mystery of the Mysterious Grandmother

Warning: dated and offensive tosh Theodore Augustus Tharp (1844-1915) was the son of Augustus James Tharp (1805-1877) and Juliet Bond (1817-1892). I've talked about his life elsewhere, but this post is about his first novel, The Sword of Damocles , published in 1880 . You'll notice some marked similarities if you compare between his life and his fiction, which reveals a range of imperialist, sexist and classist attitudes that were very probably Theodore's own.  The novel concerns the Grayle family, who live on their country estate, Barringtree Park, in Suffolk. The current holder of the estate is Percy Grayle, whose twin brother Andrew lives in a small house in the grounds where he nurtures his resentment of Percy's good fortune in being born an hour earlier. Andrew seems suspiciously close to his devoted housekeeper, but perhaps I'm reading between the lines. Andrew's last hopes of inheriting have been dashed by the birth of Percy's son (George), and then h

Theodore Augustus Tharp (1844-1915) was the son of the Reverend Augustus James Tharp (Georgianna's uncle) and of Juliet Bond (Alfred's sister). By 1861, he was in the Addiscombe Military Seminary and he was a lieutenant with the 104th Regiment of Foot (Bengal Fusiliers) in Ireland by 1867. Although he certainly also served in India before he retired in 1872, Theodore found the time to entertain his father's parishioners with comic songs and readings on more than one occasion. Theodore returned from India in 1870 (see clipping from the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal on the 16th of April) and he married Margaret Annabel Black Spence in 1872. The couple had five sons: Eden Arthur Augustus George Tharp (b. 1873), John Montagu Emile Sidney Tharp (b. 1875), Julian Augustus Tharp (born and died 1875), Charles Julian Theodore Tharp (b. 1878) and Stuart Norman Frederick James Tharp (b. 1880). I'll come back to his family life later. After leaving the army, Theodore turned his

When I saw that there were DNA matches with Alfred and Georgianna's ancestors on both sides, that seemed to be confirmation that they were direct ancestors to the mysterious grandmother, Christine Cambridge . The degrees of match would help determine how many generations there were between them, but she definitely had DNA from both of their birth families. How else could that be explained? It was a shock to my certainties when I realised that because Alfred's sister (Juliet Bond) had married Georgianna's uncle (Augustus James Tharp), that couple's children also had Bond and Tharp ancestors and therefore had DNA from both sides.  Three of their children could theoretically have been one of Christine's parents: Theodore Augustus Tharp (b. 1844), Arthur Keane Tharp (b. 1849) and Juliet Louisa Tharp (b. 1847). Another brother had died in infancy and the remaining sister, Agnes Laura Tharp (b. 1851), married in September 1881, making her an unlikely mother for Christine