Stanley Muttlebury

"One of the Presidents"
Muttlebury as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, March 1890

Stanley Duff Muttlebury (29 April 1866 – 3 May 1933) was an English rower notable in the annals of rowing and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Parentage and family background

Muttlebury was born 29 April 1866 in London, England, the only child of James William Muttlebury, and his wife, Catherine Elizabeth Stanley Duff (born in Madras, British India; died in 1915, aged 80), daughter of Major Duff, 37th Regiment, Madras Native Infantry (The Grenadiers). He was baptised according to the rites of the Church of England on 4 September 1866 in Holy Trinity, Paddington, London, England. His father, who was by profession a barrister, was trained in Toronto and called to the Bar of Upper Canada as a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He practised in Toronto, Canada West (now Ontario), but by 1851 returned to his birthplace Walcot, Bath, Somerset, and by 1856 migrated to the antipodes where he was a solicitor in St Kilda's, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. There he made his fortune, becoming a director of the National Bank of Australasia. He returned to England by 1862, for he was married in Kew that year, and the subject was born in London four years later. Financially able to retire, he lived the life of an annuitant gentleman, dying in Geneva, Switzerland in 1886, when Muttlebury was a freshman Cambridge undergraduate.

Muttlebury's paternal grandfather was Dr James Muttlebury (1773–1832), M.D., F.R.S.E.(1818), a medical graduate of St Andrews and Inspector-General of Hospitals (18 September 1795 to 25 June 1818), in the British Army, whose own mother resided at Close Hall, Wells in Somerset in 1798, and at Taunton, Somersetshire, at the time of her death in 1825. After retiring as an Army doctor, in 1820, he settled nearby at Bath, Somerset, where he joined the hospital board.

In the spring of 1832, he emigrated from England to Upper Canada, in British North America, arriving on 7 May after a 67-day journey which had involved sailing from Portsmouth, England to New York City, and then travelling overland for a month. He bought land in Upper Canada, in York Township along Yonge street, near the capital, York, now Toronto, where, accompanied by two of his eight sons, the eldest, Rutherford, 18, and Augustus, 12, he met the leading citizens, including the governor, Sir John Colborne. The latter made him a member of the provincial, that is, colonial, medical board, and he received a 640-acre (2.6 km2) land grant at Blandford township in the Brock district commensurate with his former military rank. Unfortunately, on 14 August 1832, he died at his new farm during a cholera epidemic after visiting local hospitals filled with the infected. His widow, Elizabeth Margaret "Eliza", eldest daughter of John Rutherford, of Sue River plantation, Jamaica, accompanied by the rest of their sons, and their three daughters (Eliza, Fanny Maria, and new-born Jane Isabella Charlotte), arrived in the colony after landing at New York on 19 November 1832. There she managed to send six of her fatherless sons to Upper Canada College (enrolled 1832: Frederick, Augustus, James; 1833: John; 1837: Francis, 1838: Francis (again) and Henry), eventually launching them on careers in the Law, Army, and Medicine.

According to the 1854 obituary (in The Gentleman's Magazine) of the rower's great uncle, this nineteenth-century Muttlebury family was descended from an old, armigerous, English landed family settled at Jordans (or Jordaynes) near Ilminster, Somerset, whose pedigree was recorded in the heraldic Visitation of Somerset in 1623, and again, in 1672 as of Jordans in Ashill in Com Somersett. The blazon for the coat-of-arms borne by them is found in Burke's General Armory (p. 719, col. 2), under the rubric Muttlebury (Jourdaine, Co. Somerset) Ermine on a bend gules, three round buckles or, a border of the second. Crest—A hare courant argent.

Catholic Record Society publications reveal the family's long adherence to Roman Catholic recusancy. It is likely that this loyalty contributed to the family's eventual ruin as heavy payments levied on them for their religious nonconformity to the Church of England took their financial toll. Suspicion of the Catholic church has become a legacy for many members of the Muttlebury family who remained loyally Church of England.

The history of the English Benedictine Congregation includes three known members of the family: Dom Placid, O.S.B. who was professed a monk at St Laurence, Dieulwart, Lorraine, France in circa 1610-11. He is described as the former Muttlebury, George (Placid), O.S.B., born in Somersetshire: whilst a priest on the mission came to Dieulwart to petition for the habit of a monk; here, says F.[ather] Weldon, his pleasing qualities rendered him highly grateful to all his brethren of that house, amongst whom he happily ended his life in a good old age, 6 July 1632 (see Collections, Illustrating the History of the Catholic Religion George Oliver, 1857, p. 632); Dom Francis Muttlebury, of Somersetshire, professed 13 November 1658, later Vicar to the Abbess of Cambray in James II's reign; and a lay member, Sister Dorothy Muttlebury, of St John-Baptist, who died 2 October 1704.

Some sources claim that the family were forced to sell their estates in the reign of Charles I, possibly for their habitual Catholicism. Opposing this is the fact that, in 1685, one John Muttlebury was sentenced in the Bloody Assizes at Wells to be transported to the Caribbean for his part in the Monmouth rebellion, an uprising for the Protestant bastard son of Charles II of Great Britain, James, Duke of Monmouth, against the Catholic Duke of York, later James II. The obituary states that it was through this latter event that Jordans was forfeited to the crown in consequence of the adherence of the Colonel's ancestor to the unfortunate Monmouth. It may be that their own membership in the Established Church by nineteenth century members of the family favoured this particular interpretation of events.

Whether in the reign of Charles I, or that of his son, James II, it is, nonetheless, clear that in the seventeenth century, the old West Country Muttlebury family went into a decline in social status and wealth which apparently lasted until the second half of the eighteenth century.

It was then that opportunity arose through the rewards bestowed upon the subject's great-grandmother, Frances, wife of James Muttlebury, gent., of Creech St Michael, Somerset, and later of Brighthelmstone, Sussex, who served as wetnurse to Princess Charlotte, The Princess Royal, eldest daughter of King George III, and later to his son, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, Queen Victoria's father. This post was considered a plum appointment only suitable for a vigorous gentlewoman, and proven mother of healthy offspring. It gave the recipient an unusually intimate relationship within the royal circle, and at her 1798 marriage, Mrs Muttlebury's own daughter, the royal namesake, Charlotte Muttlebury, was referred to as the fostersister of her mother's former royal charge who had herself by now become the Duchess (later Queen) of Württemberg. This close Court connexion doubtless had led to her daughter's having been baptised with the name Charlotte (in 1771, St Nicholas', Brighton, Sussex; and, from 1798, the wife of Francis Richardson, to whom she was married at Fivehead, near Langport, Somerset). It also helped launch two of her younger sons (James, baptised 1773, and, George, baptised 1776, who were both also christened in Brighton, then fast becoming a royal haunt) on respectable careers in one of the classic professions for gentlemen, the British Army.

According to Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses, Mrs Muttlebury's older son, the Rev. John Muttlebury, was educated at the expense of the Queen (Charlotte, wife of George III), first at Manchester Grammar School, and later at Cambridge University's St John's College, before being ordained a clergyman of the Church of England, as the following extract reveals:

Admitted pensioner at ST JOHN'S, July 3, 1783. Of Somerset. [S. of James, of Brighthelmstone, Sussex.] School, Manchester (supported there by the Queen). Matric. Michs. 1783; Scholar, 1783; B.A. 1787; M.A. 1790. Minor Canon of Bristol Cathedral, 1792-5. Rector of Cowley, Gloucs., 1795. He can have held the living for but a short time, since George Martin was instituted rector, June 6, 1796. His education at the expense of the Queen is explained by this notice: ‘died lately at Wilton, near Taunton in her 90th year, Mrs Muttlebury, foster-mother to the Princess-Royal of England, the present Queen of Wurtemberg.’ (Manchester Gr. Sch. Reg.; St John's Coll. Adm. IV. 393.) (In fact, he married Grace Hancock on 24 April 1796, at All Hallows, London Wall, in London, and their daughter, Frances Elizabeth Muttlebury, was baptised at Broadwinsor, Dorset, on 15 July 1798. See also his estate papers: Abstract of Administration of John Muttlebury, Clerk of Saint James, Gloucestershire. Proved in the Court of Bristol. Date May 13, 1808 TNA Catalogue reference IR 26/295)

The rise of the family star continued through the career successes that both younger sons, the subject's grandfather and great-uncle, achieved after benefiting from this same royal patronage. They appear to have needed what help they could get as their own father died in India when they were both children (see Will of James Muttlebury, Gentleman and now Cadet in the Honourable East India Company's Service at Pondicherry on the Coast Coromandel in India of Brighton, Sussex proved 3 July 1782, TNA Catalogue reference PROB 11/1093).

With his large family, it seems likely, however, that through emigration to Upper Canada, and in taking up the large land grants, and additional career opportunities, on offer to veteran British officers, Dr Muttlebury probably sought not only to increase his income, but to economise the better to rear his eleven offspring on his small Army pension. After his untimely death, however, it was left to his sons, notably the subject's father, to advance the family's fortunes.

Education at Eton and Cambridge: A Rower through it all

Stanley became a new boy at Eton in the Easter term of 1880 at the age of thirteen. His tutor was the Rev. S. A. Donaldson, and he settled in quickly as a successful sportsman. Winning the school pulling in 1883, and the school sculling and hurdles in 1884, he moved on to row for the Eton Eight (1884), when Eton won the Ladies' Plate at Henley (beating Radley by seven lengths). Stanley also played in the Oppidan and mixed wall games.

At Cambridge University, he was admitted to Trinity College, and he was secretary of the Pitt Club.[1] His entry in Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses reveals some important details:

Adm. pens. at TRINITY, Oct. 8, 1885. [Only] s. of James [William], of 10, Orsett Terrace, London. B. [Apr. 29], 1866, in London. School, Eton. Matric. Michs. 1885. Rowing ‘blue,’ 1886-90, being in the winning crew 4 times; President, C.U.B.C., 1888-9. Steward of Henley Regatta. Adm. at the Inner Temple, Nov. 23, 1886. A member of the London Stock Exchange. Died May 3, 1933, at 3, Westbourne Crescent, London, W. (Book of Blues; Inns of Court; Who's Who; The Times, May 5, 1933.[2]

There he excelled above all others as a fine rower. Muttle, as he was called at the varsity and later in life, soon gained the title of a Great Name in rowing circles, and was esteemed as The finest oarsman to have ever sat in a boat. In 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, and 1890, Stanley rowed in the Boat Race; an unsurpassed five times, only losing the 1890 race. Winning four Boat Races successively set him apart as a record holder in the history of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Contemporaries writing to The Times to add to his obituary notice called attention to his extraordinary physical prowess and natural aptitude for rowing, traits accompanied by his extraordinary mildness, good manners, and natural kindness (compare Dom Placid Muttlebury above):

Muttlebury had a natural aptitude which amounted to a genius for rowing, and, as he was not only massively large and full of courage but herculean in muscular strength, it was inevitable that he should be an outstanding exponent of oarsmanship. Added to this, he came to his prime when rowing was in a transitional stage, when the old methods of the straight back and the body catch, suited to the fixed seat and the short slide, had necessarily to be superseded by methods required by the long-slide. I consider that long-slide rowing sprang suddenly to perfection in Muttlebury, that on him this new (or partially new) art was built...

With regard to the man himself ...[he] had the most charming "good manners." It was a trait natural to him which all must have noticed... [W]ith this, somewhat unusually, went a refusal to hurt. I have never known "Muttle" to speak unkindly of anyone; and I have never known him [to] swagger.

Race of 1886

As a freshman, Stanley occupied the sixth position in the Cambridge shell in the 1886 Boat Race. That year, Hammersmith Bridge was under repair. This gave the crew only a few inches to spare should the two crews shoot the bridge abreast. Oxford won the toss and chose the Surrey side, but Cambridge immediately moved in front. Cambridge maintained a spurt when three lengths down at Barnes Bridge, and won by two thirds of a length in a time of 22 minutes 29 seconds. Stanley had every reason to remember his first success in the Boat Race.

Race of 1887

After winning the Boat Race of 1886, Cambridge College crews swept the board at Henley, and since College crews were the hatcheries from which University material is provided, the strength of the crew for the Boat Race in 1887 was considerable. Stanley again rowed at six and won his second race by nearly three lengths in 20 minutes 52 seconds.

Race of 1888

In 1888, Muttlebury became the President of the Cambridge University Boat Club, a post he held for three successive terms. This year, at the Boat Race, the Cambridge crew won the toss, and chose the Surrey station. The light blues were rated as one of the fastest ever to have appeared at Putney Bridge. They won handily by seven lengths in a time of 20 minutes 48 seconds.

Race of 1889

Stanley was boat club President for Cambridge in his second year for the 1889 race. He had an easy time selecting his shell-mates as exactly the same crew was available to him this year as the one prior, the cox excepted: a unique situation before and since. He maintained not only their names, but their order in the boat. Once again Cambridge won the toss for sides of the river. In a record time of 20 minutes 14 seconds, Cambridge beat Oxford by three lengths.

Race of 1890

The 1890 competition was the most important race in Stanley's rowing career. He started off at a disadvantage due to his being the only Old Blue in residence at the beginning of training. Furthermore, he had no one to stroke the crew. Eventually, he persuaded the stroke of the previous year to come up and perform that important role. On Race day, the toss was won by Cambridge, and they elected to row on the Surrey side. Cambridge lost the race by one length; but it was one length which stood between Stanley and his becoming an unmatched rowing immortal. This was the first race Stanley lost. Nonetheless, his name went down in rowing history as the first man to win four intervarsity Boat Races in a row.

Additional Rowing and Aquatic Sporting Endeavours

In other rowing events at Cambridge, he won the pairs in 1886, 1887, 1889 and 1890, and the Colquhoun Sculls in 1888. At Henley he won the Silver Goblets in 1886, 1887, and 1889, as well as being a member of the winning Thames Rowing Club crew for the Stewards' Challenge Cup in 1894.[3] Stanley Muttlebury exhibited an almost faultless style: he used his weight and strength to the utmost.

Muttlebury was also involved in other university-level watergoing sports including water polo as is evinced in the following extract from the Cambridge Review of 15 October 1891:

The Inter-Varsity water polo match, is fixed for next Friday, at the Crown Baths, Kennington Oval, at 7.20 pm. Owing to the want of a covered swimming bath at Cambridge, Water Polo can only be played at the sheds, and at the close of a bad season like the present men are necessarily very much out of practice. Our team will feel the loss of Muttlebury, who is unable to play, and our opponents have a strong team.

Family

Stanley Duff Muttlebury married Christina Augusta Parkinson on 30 April 1902 in an Anglican ceremony at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, London, England. The bride's birth was registered in the Fylde division of Lancashire in the March quarter of 1875. She was the elder daughter of Major General C.F. Parkinson of Bays Hill Court, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and granddaughter of Mrs Nicholson, of Lancaster Gate. The children of the marriage were Ralph Stanley Muttlebury, who was born in 1903 in Paddington, London, England, and Eileen Joyce Muttlebury (from 1935, Joyce, Mrs William Dalrymple Tennant), who was born in 1905 in Paddington, London, England. Ralph Muttlebury continued with the family tradition of being educated at Cambridge University and was on the committee of the Cambridge Footlights. In 1926, Ralph married Gwen Parsons (from the Parsons Shipbuilding family), of Melcombe court, Dorset Square, London. Gwen Muttlebury (nee Parsons) worked in the Admiralty Operations Room Whitehall during the Second World War. A letter to Gwen Muttlebury from Captain Angus Nicholl (HMS Duke of York) who was present on board the USS Missouri to witness the Japanese Surrender, is in the Muttlebury family's possession today. Gwen was fluent in French along with her sister Betty. Betty, was firstly married to Michel Castillon du Perron who undertook the dangerous task of being a leading French Resistance operative during World War II and the newly married pair were extracted by a British warship as the Germans arrived to capture Guernsey. Michel died shortly after being in England and Betty married again. Her second marriage was to Baron Loch (3rd Baron Loch) George Henry Compton,(see also Marquess of Northampton) where she became Baroness Loch and they resided in Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk. Gwen and Ralph meanwhile, had a son, Peter George Stanley Muttlebury, born on 3 June 1929 (died at home in Yorkshire, 24 August 1975). In 1952, Peter married Gillian Joan Hoare, daughter of W.D.N. Hoare (a descendant of the banking profession's Henry Hoare II). Peter Muttlebury enjoyed a successful advertising career in partnership (MCR Advertising) with John Ritchie, father to Guy Ritchie. Peter and Gillian had a son, Edward Stanley Muttlebury, who was born in 1953, and died in April 2008. The youngest scion of Stanley's descendants to bear his surname is Rebecca Gwendolen Adele Muttlebury whose birth was registered in November 1988 in the Plymouth registration district of Devon. She is the only daughter of Edward Stanley Muttlebury and his wife, the former Ruth E. Snell (Ruth Muttlebury BA (Hons) President of Plymouth Proprietary Library 2010-2012) and a Dockyard Worker since 1979, whose marriage was registered in August 1987 in the St Germans registration district, Cornwall, England. Inspeximus: Poetry from the Manors of The Roborough Hundred (ISBN 978-1-78132-302-1) was published under her maiden name of Ruth Snell in October 2014 by SilverWood Books.

Post-University Career

Stanley Muttlebury, who was first called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1886, ultimately chose a career as a stockbroker rather than pursuing that of a barrister after coming down from Cambridge. Characteristically perhaps, he seems to have arrived in that profession as a result of his involvement in rowing:

Mr. S.H. [sic] Muttlebury, the world-famous coach, is a member of the House. Twenty-five years ago a Stock Exchange crew met the London Rowing Club in a match on Thames; it was there that we captured the Mighty Muttle for the business.

Death

Muttlebury died on 3 May 1933 at his home in Westbourne Crescent, London, at the age of 67. In his obituary, printed in The Times on Friday, 5 May 1933, Stanley was described as "The greatest oar ever produced by Cambridge".

His funeral, conducted by the Venerable the Archdeacon of London, in St James's Church, Sussex Gardens, was widely attended by rowing greats, including former Oxford University Boat Club members such as Guy Nickalls, Harcourt Gold and R. P. P. Rowe. Such was the measure of the man that many of his chief rivals sought to honour him at his passing. To this day, his name is legendary in the sport of rowing. His body lies buried in Putney Vale cemetery, London, England. His widow, who later resided in Basingstoke, Hampshire, survived him until 9 July 1971, when she died, according to The Times, a great-grandmother, in her 97th year.

His Family's Continuing Rowing Legacy: Back to the Future

In 2007, Stanley's great-great-granddaughter, Rebecca Muttlebury of Plymouth, was a guest of the Cambridge University Boat Club at the 153rd Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. It was a momentous occasion for a young member of a very old family, especially as Cambridge won that day. The conditions were perfectly bright and sunny, yet included a cool wind ideal for rowing. Nonetheless, appropriately, Oxford lost, leaving Muttlebury's old crew victorious in a race witnessed by his modern namesake.

British and American Literature and North American Place Names

Stanley Muttlebury was an inspiration to many people. His wide circle of friends included Rudolph Lehmann (Founder of The Granta Magazine (Cambridge University) comic writer, rower, barrister, and Liberal MP) and Douglas Jardine, Captain of the England Cricket team. Lehmann paid a warm tribute to his good friend in his book, In Cambridge Courts, describing him as The Mighty Muttle, and that brawny king of men.

Yet, it is understood this inspiration was covertly used by Mark Twain for his famous book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Family knowledge revealed that when Mark Twain was on one of his many tours of Europe, his study of English life led him to meet Stanley Muttlebury, and it is believed they rowed together on several occasions. Mark Twain spoke with a southern drawl which softened the crisp English Received Pronunciation of Muttlebury. As a result, he started to call Stanley, Hucklebury, as it was easier to say, and Mark Twain enjoyed word-play with friends' names. Waxing intimate, he told Stanley that one day he would write a book about his English friend, and it is believed that the character of Hucklebury Finn was the result - with Finn being a reference to the blade or oar which Stanley used to achieve his greatest real-life successes. Interestingly, Mark Twain was, for a time, a mining prospector in Nevada, U.S., where, in Pershing county in that state, exist areas called Muttlebury Mines, Muttlebury Well and Muttlebury Springs.

These areas are likely to have been named after one or other of Stanley's seven paternal uncles who, settling originally in what is now southern Ontario, Canada, later travelled across North America mostly as military doctors and lawyers. The likeliest candidate, however, is Stanley's uncle Henry Muttlebury (born in England in September 1827, who went to US from Canada in 1850, and became a miner first in California (by 1860), Nevada (by 1875), and Oregon (by 1900), at which latter date he was a naturalised American citizen, and still single at age 72. Without blood offspring, it may be that the names of these few, remote localities are his only legacy.

Canadian connections

While Muttlebury's grandfather perished of cholera early in his Canadian sojourn, and his father had left Toronto by 1851 (an inconvenient absence for his articled clerk as recorded in the Statutes of the Province of Canada, 1852, p. 254), the rest of the 1832 emigrant couples' eleven children appear to have made their mark in North America, primarily in Canada.

One uncle, Captain William [recte George] Muttlebury, was, along with Captain James Perrier, one of the first white men to assist in the formation of a voluntary black militia in the Windsor area of Upper Canada during the 1838 rebellion. (Ontario Historical Society, Papers and Records, vol. XXVII, 1931, pp. 381–3).

Another uncle, the eldest brother of the subject's father, Rutherford Muttlebury, was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge almost a year before the family emigrated from England, but Venn's brief entry reveals that he did not fulfil the academic requirement to live in college, and he quite likely did not attend the university at all, given the later evidence as to his movements, viz.:

Rutherford. Muttlebury. Admitted sizar at TRINITY, May 18, 1831. Did not reside.

Instead, aged 18, with his father, Dr Muttlebury, and one brother, Augustus, 13, he sailed from Portsmouth, England to New York City, early in 1832, arriving in that port on 9 April. Thence the small family party travelled to Upper Canada, arriving in York (now Toronto) on 7 May 1832. Following his father's untimely death that August, his mother, 6 remaining brothers, and 3 sisters, also left England for Upper Canada the same year, after landing in the same port on 19 November 1832.

In 1844, Rutherford Muttlebury married Hannah Foster Ellah, in St James's Church of England cathedral, Toronto. Also a barrister, he died in 1849, when still relatively young, leaving a daughter, Charlotte Amy Rutherford Muttlebury, later wife of Toronto attorney, George St John Hallen, whose son, George Muttlebury Hallen (1882–1958), also a lawyer, eventually settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Descendants remain in Neepawa and other parts of that province. Rutherford Muttlebury's son, George Augustus Muttlebury, born 1 December 1847, in Toronto, also went West to Winnipeg, where he was practising as a barrister when he returned to Toronto for his 20 Jan. 1881 marriage to marry Fannie Lucretia Wynne Gillespie, of that city, in the same church where his parents had married in 1844. He eventually retired to Vancouver, British Columbia where he died, aged 89, in 1936. His son, Charles Robert Muttlebury, of Winnipeg, San Diego and Los Angeles, California, and latterly, of Victoria, British Columbia on Vancouver Island (where he died, aged 77, on 10 September 1961), was married in 1914 to Scottish-born Clyna Elizabeth Wood Hogg (1888–1962), and had a son, George John Muttlebury, born 21 July 1918 in Winnipeg, who was, like his earlier kinsman at Cambridge, a varsity sportsman. In 1938, George Muttlebury was undefeated heavyweight boxer of Montreal's own McGill University Boxing, Wrestling and Fencing Club. When he died on 19 November 1993, his death, aged 74 [sic], was reported by the Royal Canadian Legion's Trafalgar branch, of Victoria, British Columbia in their magazine, The Last Post. As of 1973, he had never married. He had two married sisters, Elizabeth Anne Muttlebury (born 1 August 1915), and Barbara Jean Muttlebury (born 8 September 1920), but no brothers.

Waterloo

Stanley Muttlebury was also a great-nephew of Colonel George Muttlebury, C.B. and K.W., 69th Regiment of Foot (The South Lincolnshire's)(b. Brighton, Sussex, 1776; d. 1854, Maida Hill), who served at the Battle of Waterloo. On the battlefield, Major Muttlebury of the 69th's 2nd Battalion (later to become a lieutenant-colonel as he was promoted in brevet) took over command following the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Morice, making the best of a difficult situation. Conflicting orders from the Prince of Orange left the men of the 5th Brigade in a vulnerable position at Quatre Bras, where there were heavy losses and hand-to-hand fighting in the squares (square formations then employed in the British Army). The Colonel's coolness under fire was subsequently recognised by the British government. He was also made a Knight Commander, fourth class, of the newly instituted Willem's Order, by the King of The Low Countries (Gentleman's Magazine, 1815, p. 451, col. 2; and Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1820, p. 1450), according to a despatch from the Duke of Wellington writing from Paris on 8 October 1815.

Colonel Muttlebury was twice married, first, by licence, at Eling, Hampshire, in 1799 to Ann Barclay (d. 1825 Gentleman's Magazine), by whom he had three children all baptised at Chatham, Kent: James Eyre Muttlebury (1800), Ann Margaret Muttlebury (1802), and Frances Muttlebury (1808). Next, on 31 October 1828, at Christ Church, St Marylebone, London, when he resided in St Pancras, London, he wed, also by licence, the widowed Catherine Brown, of Cavendish place, Bath (Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1828, p. 462, col. 1. N.B. groom's name spelt Mattlebury, in error) By this second wife (who died 3 February 1862, aged 83 The Annual Register, p. 473), he had a son George Augustus Muttlebury (born 1830; died 1893, Bristol, Gloucestershire) who played for Lansdown (1852–1863) the Marylebone Cricket Club (1860–1861). In the latter club's Lord's match of 21 May 1860, Frederick Lillywhite's Cricket scores and Biographies, from 1746 to 1826 (p. 358) erroneously cites him as G.A. Nuttlebury [sic], of Major Boothby's side. In fact, the name Nuttlebury is a fictional one appearing both in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, as a place name, and in Charles Dickens's Mrs Lirriper, as the name of a character.

Another discrepancy appears in the official record as to how Col. Muttlebury was styled. His will in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury referred to him as though he were accorded the accolade of a British knight, viz.:

Will of Sir George Muttlebury, Lieutenant Colonel late of Her Majesty's sixty ninth Regiment, of the City of Bath, Somerset, proved 3 February 1854 (TNA Catalogue reference PROB 11/2186) N.B. Some confusion does exist in the style of honours granted to citizens of one nation by the government of another. So despite Sir George Muttlebury and his wife Lady Catherine Muttlebury being recognized and addressed in some European quarters (predominantly the Dutch) by such titles, the honour - not having come from the British government - carried no automatic right to the descendants.

References

  1. ↑ Fletcher, Walter Morley (2011) [1935]. The University Pitt Club: 1835-1935 (First Paperback ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-1-107-60006-5.
  2. ↑ "Muttlebury, Stanley Duff (MTLY885SD)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ↑ "Henley Royal Regatta Results of Final Races 1839-1939". Friends of Rowing History. Retrieved 28 August 2011.

Sources

The medical profession in Upper Canada, 1783-1850: an historical narrative with original documents relating to the profession, including some brief biographies, pp. 530–535 (for James Muttlebury, M.D., as father of Rutherford Muttlebury and James William Muttlebury, and via the latter the grandfather of the subject)

www.blackdominion.org/blackhistory.php?top_id=64 (for the story of Capt. William [sic, recte George] Muttlebury)

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