#william thovez

[gardenofkore]

During the lifetime of Earl William, a general law was made in Sicily, whereby the intails and strict forms of succession, which had rendered certain estates inalienable, were abolished, and the persons lawfully in possession of such estates, became absolute owners, and, as such, enabled freely to dispose of them, and Earl William, being conceived by this to have become absolute owner of Bronte, made a will, attested, as required by the law of Sicily, by six witnesses, and thereby, after reciting that he had, by the law of Sicily, become the absolute proprietor of the Bronte estate, he appointed and nominated as his absolute heiress and free successor, in and to all his hereditary estates in Sicily, and particularly in and to the Duchy of Bronte, with all and every its rights, members, and appurtenances, his daughter the Lady Charlotte Mary Baroness Bridport, wife of Samuel Baron Bridport, in such manner, that his said absolute heiress and successor might have free and entire power and authority to take and enjoy the said duchy, for herself and her heirs, and to dispose of the same, as well by acts and deeds in her lifetime, as by her last will and testament.

Earl Nelson v. Lord Bridport, in Reports of Cases in Chancery..., vol. 32, p. 558-559.

Charlotte Mary was born on September 20th 1787 to Reverend William Nelson, older brother of the Hero of Trafalgar, and his first wife Sarah Yonge. Charlotte was born most certainly in the small village Brandon-Parva (Norfolk), where her father had settled as a country parson the year before, after marrying. In 1788, her mother gave birth to a boy, Horatio.

William Nelson, described as ambitious and rowdy, benefited greatly from his brother Horatio’s fortune. In 1802 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from both the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and the following year he was appointed a prebendal stall at Canterbury. In 1805, following his brother’s death, William succeeded him since Horatio had died without legitimate issue (Horatia, the Admiral’s only child by his mistress Lady Hamilton, had been excluded from inheriting her father’s titles and possessions and, to make it worse, William didn’t respect his brother’s wishes to look after her). William became thus 2nd Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Hilborough, 2nd Duke of Bronté, 1st Viscount Merton of Trafalgar and of Merton, with special remainder to his father and father's male heir and, failing them, his sisters Susannah Mrs Bolton and Catherine Mrs Matcham . In 1806 he and his successors in the title were granted £5,000 a year (the pension was discontinued in 1951 on the death of the 5th Earl, Edward Agar Horatio Nelson) plus a lump sum of £90,000 to buy an estate to be named Nelson and to be inherited by every successor of the title. The chosen venue was the manor house of Standlynch (in Downton, near Salisbury), previously owned by the banker Sir Peter Vanderput, which, after being bought by the Nelsons, was renamed Trafalgar House and then Trafalgar Park, and would be owned by the family until 1948.

In 1808, William’s heir Horatio died of tuberculosis while his wife, Sarah Yonge, died on April 13th 1828. The following year, 71-years old William married Hilare Barlow, daughter of Admiral Sir Robert Barlow and widow of her father’s cousin, George Ulric Barlow. No child was born out of this union and, when William died on February 28th 1835, at age 77, his daughter was his only living child and heir.

Previously, on July 3rd 1810, in the parish of Marylebone (London), Charlotte Mary had married Samuel Hood, second son of Henry Hood, 2nd Viscount Hood, Chamberlain of the Household to Queen Caroline. In 1814 Samuel had succeeded (under the special remainder of that title in the Peerage of Ireland) his childless great-uncle Admiral Alexander Hood as 2nd Baron Bridport. Charlotte Mary would give birth to seven children, five daughters and two sons: Mary Sophia (1811-1888), Charlotte (1813-1906), Alexander (1814-1904), Jane Sarah (1817-1907), Catherine Louisa (1818-1893), Frances Caroline (1821-1903), and Horatio Nelson (1826-1832). The couple and their children resided in Cricket St. Thomas (Somerset), in the manor once belonged to the 1st Baron Bridport.

Upon her father’s death, Charlotte (as iy had happened to her cousin Horatia), being a woman, was unseated of her successions by her cousin Thomas Bolton, son of her aunt Susannah. Thomas, who legally changed his family name into Nelson as previously agreed, inherited all his late uncle’s titles except the Duchy of Bronté, who fell upon Charlotte, now 3rd Duchess of Bronté.

The Dukedom of Bronté (in Italian, Ducato or Ducea di Bronte) was a dukedom granted in 1799 to Horatio Nelson by King Ferdinando of Naples and Sicily (later Ferdinando I of the Two Sicilies) to thank the Admiral for saving the kingdom from being conquered by the French revolutionary forces of Bonaparte and (perhaps more importantly) having helped the Bourbonic royal family to repair to Sicily following Naples’ occupation by the Frenchmen and the instauration of the Parthenopean republic. It took its name from the town of Bronte, near Catania, where stood the Castello di Maniace, a former Benedictine abbey founded in the 12th century, which King Ferdinando donated to Nelson and his heirs. The title gave its holder the right to sit in the Sicilian Parliament within the military branch and was bestowed to whomever the precedent owner desired, strangers included. Nelson (and his heirs after him) was even given the power of mero et mixto imperio, such as the concession given to a feudal lord to administer justice. Misto imperio regarded low justice, such as the right to impose light sentences, such as mild corporal punishments, imprisonment and small fines. Mero imperio granted its holder the right to imprison, exile and condemn to death.

Nelson never visited his Sicilian estate (nor did his brother William), but seems to have much appreciated the title since he signed his will Nelson Bronte. Coincidentally, Nelson’s appointment as Duke of Bronté allegedly inspired Irish Anglican priest Patrick Brunty, father of the more famous writer sisters, to change his family name into Brontë. 

When the Sicilian Consitution of 1812 abolished the feudal system, William (and his heirs after him) maintained his feudal rights, at the expense of the people of Bronte. The Dukedom of Bronté, with its feudal connotation (aggravated by its foreign origins), was seen in England as an embarrassing relic of the past, but this never stopped the Nelsons to jealously hold on to it. 

Thomas Nelson died on November 1835, merely nine months after his uncle William, and was succeeded by his son Horatio, 3rd Earl Nelson. Not satisfied with all the titles and possessions he had just inherited, Horatio decided to also claim the Dukedom of Bronté. Charlotte Mary and her husband were forced then to embark on a long legal dispute (which lasted from 1838 to 1847) that would end with the verdict, dated March 12th, which would acknowledge Lady Bridport as the legitimate bearer of the title.

It wasn’t affection that had prompted the Duchess to protect her rights, but rather her interests to keep enjoying the dukedom’s lucrative profits. In fact, her first trip to Bronte had been a complete disaster (on her side). Around 1836, Charlotte Mary had convinced her reluctant husband to visit their Sicilian estates. For a refined and classy woman like her, the Sicilian rural landscape was unbearably primitive and squalid. Shocked by a ride on sedan-chair hanging between two donkeys, by the dark volcanic panorama, and by the gruesome tale of the atrocities  perpetrated by the people of Bronte during the 1820 Revolution (in their eyes, the manor was the symbol of oppression and abuse, and so they retaliated by beheadings and disembowellings the tyrant’s representatives), she swore she would “never came back to the Island unless there was a revolution in England, and even then would probably go elsewhere”.

The Barons Bridport kept relying on the Thovez family in the management of the property. Philip Thovez had administrated the Duchy on behalf of William Nelson since 1819. When Charlotte Mary inherited the title in 1835, she confirmed the older Thovez, who kept superintending until 1837 (he would die two years later), when he retired in favour  of his son William. With their masters so far away, the Thovezs acted like they were the true owners of the estate. They vexed the people of Bronte, closing the trazzere (rural roads that allowed access to the fields and allowed the cattle’s passage), imposing the payment of a toll and fencing woods and pastures, thus preventing poor people from collecting wood and fruits. Transgressors caught red-handed were whipped on the spot or denounced to the public authorities (conniving with the Duchy’s representatives), which condemned them to heavy fines or even imprisonment. The people of Bronte would keep living in a feudal world, even when, in 1841, the Bourbonic government ordered the transfer of a fifth of the many fiefs’ properties to the various surrounding towns so that it could be split to the destitutes. The Duchy refused to comply until 1846, when they were forced to cede to the town of Bronte ”metà delle terre boschive, un quarto delle terre aratorie e pascolabili e un terzo di quelle vulcaniche“ (half of the woodland, a quarter of the fields and pastures, and a third of the volcanic areas). The 1848 Revolution blocked the official distribution, but the same year indigent farmers occupied the vineyards and a part of the Duchy’s plots. William Thovez protested about the damage suffered and managed to obtain that a troop of the National Army came to Bronte to stop the squatters. Once the order was restored, the land division could be started, but the plots were given to the notables (nobles and bourgeoises) and not poor people as it should have been.

On May 11th 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi and his troops landed in Marsala (western Sicily), starting the Expedition of the Thousands, which led to the conquest of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by the House of Bourbon Two-Sicilies. As temporary head of State of the newly conquered territories (Garibaldi acted as Dictator on behalf of Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy, King of Sardinia), the Hero of The Two Worlds issued a series of statements, among them he urged the Sicilian picciotti (lit. guys) to fight the Bourbonic army; abolished the much hated tax on the mill, reformed the National Guard; crimes of homicide, theft, looting and destruction were to be judged by Councils of War and nobody could take the law into their own hand. On June 2nd, Garibaldi issued the decree which abolished the large estates, whose territories had to be shared among the needy and those who had fought for the liberation of Sicily. The Island was divided in 23 districts and new governors were elected for each district. Finally, on August 3rd, the Statuto Albertino (Kingdom of Sardinia’s consitution) was adopted also in Sicily.

The people of Bronte (like many thousands others) had put much faith in Garibaldi and his decrees. So it shouldn’t be a surprise they were very distresses to see that not only the Dukedom wasn’t abolished (nor was the tax on the mill) and its lands given to the town of Bronte, but Thovez had managed to convince the new Governorr of Catania to put up some posters on Bronte’s house walls which ordered the population to respect the Dukedom’s property. Moreover, even British General Consul for Sicily in Palermo, John Goodwin, had pressured Garibaldi to safeguard the Nelsons’ interest and “avvertire energicamente il Comitato di Bronte di rispettare e di far rispettare la proprietà della signora Nelson Bridport” (“energically warn the Bronte Committee to respect and ensure respect for the property of Mrs Nelson Bridport”). Garibaldi had responded that “che si son date oggi stesso [30 giugno] energiche disposizioni perché non avvenga il menomo inconveniente o abuso a pregiudizio della proprietà di Lady Nelson, Duchessa di Bronte” (“this same day, orders have been issued to prevent any inconvenience or abuse to the detriment of the property of Lady Nelson, Duchess of Bronte”)

Frustrated by the many broken promises, on August 2nd the people of Bronte rebelled. Popular hatred was directed agains the Dukedom’s officials. 15 people (mostly working for the Nelsons) were killed in the following two days. The mob burned down the theatre, the town archive and 46 notables’ houses.

As soon as the rebellion had started, William Thovez had informed the British Consuls in Catania and Messina, who related the information to Goodwin in Palermo, whom in turn informed the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Lord John Russell.

The British Government then decided to step in, pressuring (via Goodwin and the other consuls) Garibaldi and the Governor of Catania to “sopprimere l’insurrezione nella più sollecita ed effettiva maniera” (“suppress the insurrection in the most quick and effective way”).

As Garibaldi didn’t want to compromise his alliance with the British Government (they had supported his expedition), he obliged and sent to Bronte the loyal Nino Bixio. Despite Colonel Poulet, whom had been previously sent to stop the rebellion, assured Bixio that the violences had stopped and order had been restored (the majority of the most violent rioters had already fled the scene, fearing of being arrested), Garibaldi’s right hand decided the people of Bronte needed to be severely punished and the leaders executed. The population was heavily taxed and around 150 people were arrested. Nicolò Lombardo, a lawyer whom had been elected mayor following the start of the rebellion, together with 4 others was sentenced to death and expected to be executed by firing squad on August 10th. The sentence was executed, nonetheless, at dawn of that day, the soldiers refused to shoot at Nunzio Ciraldo Fraiese, a mentally-ill man, considered the village fool and who was guilty of having played a trumpet and shouted threats in directions of the much hated Bronte notables. Thinking he had been miracously saved by the Holy Virgin (while the firing squad had in fact volutarily missed him), Ciraldo Fraiese went to hug Bixio’s knees and pleaded for his life. Instead of pardon, the poor man received a bullet in his head.

In order to calm the spirits and meet the people of Bronte’s desires and necessities, on June 1861, Mary Charlotte Nelson agreed to stipulate a transaction with the town and ceded a good part of the Duchy’s territory to Bronte (although, it had to be noted that the Duchess kept the most fertile part and gave away a large part of the woodlands, barren lava deserts and only small portions of farmland).

In her lifetime, Charlotte Mary Nelson would make two more short trips to Bronte, one in 1864 and the other in 1868. Both times she was accompained by her son and heir Alexander, her daughter-in-law (Lady Mary Penelope Hill), and some of her grandchildren (among them Alexander Nelson, who fell in love with the place and inherited the title in 1904 despite not being the eldest son. The 5th Duke would be well-respected and liked by the population, spending half of the year in the Maniace estate and the rest in his villa in Taormina, where he hosted King George V in 1925).

The Duchess died on Janyuary 29th 1873, aged 85 at Cricket St. Thomas, Somerset. She was succeeded by her son Alexander, who inherited title (becoming the 4th Duke of Bronte) and properties.

Sources

- Charlotte Mary Nelson, Duchesa di Bronté, in The Peerage;

- COKAYNE, JOHN EDWARD, Bridport, Bridport of Cricket St. Thomas, and Bridport of Cricket St. Thomas and of Bronte, in Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, ed. 1, vol. 2, p. 24;

- Earl Nelson v. Lord Bridport, in Reports of Cases in Chancery..., vol. 32, p. 527-574;

- GIANNINI, GIORGIO, I fatti di Bronte, Garibaldi e le responsabilità inglesi;

- Horatio Nelson, Primo Duca di Bronte;

- I sette duchi di Bronte (1799 – 1981);

- LAUGHTON, JOHN KNOX, Nelson, William (1757-1835) in Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol. 40.