Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, by Winterhalter
FRENCH CANNINGS:
Introductions to our family
At least one generation of our Cannings were French-speakers. Alfred D. Canning, Civil Engineer, may be our last English patriarch, but we can find no birth record for him, and no family "nest" for his many children. Our lack of birth records leave us with no assurance that we are even Cannings!
Mystery Sibling, George Baltriune Canning?
The Rafton Mystery
Biographical Sketches
Family Tree Chart
CSS Shenandoah
French Second Empire
Historical Canynges
George's Photo Album
Family Photo in 1911
Sons of George of Cleveland
Angel-Butlers of Guernsey
Doing Research
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The Mysteries
Our Canning family is absolutely nothing if not a mystery. Where we have documentary evidence, we see very energetic accomplishments, based largely on merchant activities, but including large mineral development, politics, engineering, theater and opera, a knack for coining totally unique names, all interspersed with travel, travel, travel. But the documentary evidence is contradictory and suggestive.
The biggest mystery concerns
Raftan (Rafton) Canning
Both George and Achilles, Rafton's two oldest sons, who eventually lived in Cleveland and were highly responsible men (one the Secretary of Cleveland Iron and Forge, the other a Notary), did not have the name "Rafton" put on their death certificates, as being their father's name. George's death certif. says his father was "George," while Achille's says his father (and mother) were "Unknown." These were both men who prided themselves on the impeccability of their written records.
Achille's daughter Cecilia Canning Himes, before her death, said that she had listened all her life for any mention of the name Rafton, and heard not one family member ever mention it. She concluded that something extremely onerous had occurred involving him. Rafton's nephew, Rafton Boutrenne Canning, was referred to as Paul in his Aunt Louise's household.
Finally, we have the mystery of the parallel lives of Rafton and his brother (George) Baltriune. Both lived in Paris, perhaps at different times but at addresses 1/2 mile apart. Both married women who were neither English nor French, and both had only sons. The sons of both men were born in close sequence: 1858 and 1860 for Baltriunes, and 1862, 1863-4, and 1865 for Rafton's.
Rafton and George Baltriune died of the same cause, a few months apart; neither has a visible grave (so far).
Baltriune was buried at sea somewhere near Madeira in October, 1865, dying of phthisis due to a mysterious gunshot wound to the right lung, which he said variously happened at Shiloh or the Crimean War. Rafton died in London, April, 1866, of "Phithisis, Certified" but no grave has yet been located.Baltriune's wife, Margaret Phillipis (Phillips ?) Hook (Hux) did not continue to raise their two sons; instead, they were raised by Baltriune and Rafton's only sister, Louise Canning Pierrot, in Luzarches, where her husband was the Postmaster. We do not know anything about Margaret's disappearance.
The Look-Alike Photograph for Rafton:
George of Cleveland, a thorough documentarian, had no photograph of Rafton, his father, for his family album. So he made a point of including a photograph that "looks so much like" his own father, that "it could be taken to be a photograph of" his father, his mother often said. And who is the mystery look-alike? "One of my uncles..." George wrote. So, was this Rafton's brother Baltriune? George of Cleveland had several uncles, but none whom he would want to omit the name of, except perhaps Baltriune.After all this is laid on the table, it looks just possible that Rafton and George Baltriune Canning were not two men, but one and the same.
Conjecture: A man who was adventurous beyond what he himself could endure, raised in an environment of extreme intrigue in Rotherhithe, the shipping center south of London, who would wed and bring a Southern woman to Paris, only to separate from her, and become involved with his sister's intimate friend, a woman who was a teacher attached to the Court of the Second Empire. Somehow the American woman needed to be removed from the picture (if she had not already died or removed herself). It was necessary to adopt a new name, one that no one could trace. The inimical horses of Egypt and the East were being discovered in those days. For the world-travelling set, "Raftan! Raftan!" was heard shouted as if a hero's accolade at the great horse trials in the East. It meant simply "Go!" That would be the new name. (Later, it would be changed to Rafton.) As Raftan Canning, he wed the teacher in impeccable ceremony in the British Consul's in Paris. The couple had three (more) sons. They lived on the Avenue de Villejust, a five minute walk from his old digs on Rue de l'Etoile. (All the boys would come to be raised by Louise Canning Pierrot / Perrot in Luzarches.)
It seems logical to me that a plan to devastate American whaling, the only source of oil at that time, may have been worked up several years before it could be carried out. The French in 1861 were assisting the South in the Civil War, whether hoping to eradicate democracy or not I don't know ~~~ democracy had become anathema to many aristocrats and thinking people in Europe ever since the horrors of the French revolution. A ship capable of doing this globe-spanning work would have to be built. Extraordinarily accurate guns would have to be engineered and built. A man to operate them would have to be contracted. Perhaps Mary Anne had some part in the plan.
to be continued
Hypothesis and the Facts
If they were the same man, this would explain the family's ban on the name Rafton. Such an unusual name, once anyone heard it, they would have to know who he was, and thus the trail would be started that would lead to details that could not be explained. Better not to mention the name at all. Husband Colonel E.H. Davidson (no one ever knew his first names until we found them in 2002 via genealogist John Dagger) was well-equipped to continue the family silence. And it was seemly not to bring up a past life in Europe, now that Mary Anne and E.H. were wed and raising a family in Canada.This ban even goes back to France, when Louise writes to Mary Anne that "Paul" keeps hanging around Chantilly and takes cheap jobs working with horses, stays out with his friends all night, and other complaints that families often have about teenagers. "Paul" is Rafton Boutrenne Canning, Baltriune's second son; this is evidenced by the fact that Louise has just described Alfred, Baltriune's first son, then goes on to discuss "Paul." (Paul Canning, by the way, is the name of the father of George Canning who became the First Baron Garvagh. This George Canning died in Chalons-sur-Marne, 1840, about 30 miles from Arcis-sur-Aube where "Paul" Rafton Boutrenne Canning was born in 1860.)
Baltriune Canning would have been a very much wanted man if he had survived the inimical 16,000 mile sailing feat of the CSS Shenandoah, and arrived in Liverpool with the ship. The officers and crew were also wanted extremely much by the US government, but Liverpool was not about to give them up. The crew took leave of ship and visited around the area for a few days, enjoying their liberty. If Baltriune had been alive, one wonders just what questions might have come to light about his involvements in France. Or would he also have taken protected liberty, no questions asked? Slipped away once again? But he gave the world one final slip, and what a way to go!
After the Shenandoah's defeat of the US whaling fleet, and her subsequent "disappearance" from the ocean, the US launched a heated global dragnet to "find and destroy at all costs." As the Shenandoah sailed and steamed the 16,000 miles back to England, "invisibly" through superb seamanship, one can only faintly imagine what must've been private agonies of worry on the parts of many, many players for many weeks. Would she be sunk? Would the men be captured? Would the world ever know her fate? What would the trials reveal?
The biggest worry: how much scandal would there be? Baltriune Canning's part in operating her most sophisticated Whitworth guns would embarrass England, who had claimed neutrality in the war. Who knows what might have embarrassed the Emperor and Empress of France, due to any part Mary Anne might have played in the plan.
On this note, it is interesting that her second husband, Lt. Col. Eugene Hilary Davidson, was the grandson of one of the biggest East India Company merchants in Calcutta, India, Alexander Davidson. "EH" was near the end of his career in the Indian military, in Bombay, at the time that the Sea King (= CSS Shenandoah) was under orders to sail to Bombay.
If he were part of the plan, then his application for early termination of his service in India, in March 1865, is quite understandable. By that time, and no sooner, it was evident that the Sea King had not only successfully passed into the control of the Confederates, but had passed successfully through the Indian Ocean, and was en route to its final mission somewhere in the Pacific. There would be nothing more that E.H. could do in India, and every reason for him to take cover. The Shenandoah leaves Melbourne February 18. E.H. applies for early leave for medical reasons about 2 weeks later. This was an unusual career move according to Mr. Dagger, the genealogist specializing in Indian military records.
Even if Mary Anne had had no part in the plan to destroy the whaling fleet, she surely must not have enjoyed the prospect that an international trial would occur involving her husband, who had two identities in France, with her being intimate party to the fabricated one. Surely she and her close family would have been following and discussing the situation very closely. She would be faced with the prospect that at any moment, news of any sort might arrive regarding her husband's fate. This sudden news might be that the Shenandoah was sunk, all lost, or captured, all prisoners. She would have known for months before the Shenandoah arrived in Liverpool, that Baltriune Canning could not survive long with his wound. But would he reveal his family's identity, or even their "identities"? Would their plan be revealed? And how would the death of her Rafton Canning be "accomplished" once he succumbs to his wound or is drowned at sea?
Her closest confidant may have been John O'Connor, her brother, who may have been as active in staging massive entertainments in France as he would later be in England. John, quite wealthy, surely had the wherewithal to have a death registered unquestioningly in London's poor Clerkenwell area. Especially since the official making the registration of death would only need to see a printed slip of paper signed by a doctor, stating the details of the death. When the advertisement came out in the newspapers, seeking George P. Canning's family, John O'Connor would be the one to answer, signing as Rafton Canning. His flowery handwriting would be so unusual as to cause comment that has survived in historical sources. Rafton would be assigned the job of "beer and spirit merchant", an occupation that John and Mary Anne probably knew well (John's first wife Maria's father was a Malster; Mary Anne's boys remembered the smell of beer around them continually in Toronto). John could assume the part, if necessary, to pose as Rafton for a few more weeks until Rafton's death could be created.
This is, most admittedly, pure fiction at this point. But it does not preclude the possibility that Mary Anne, and John, knew quite a bit about Baltriune's activities, and the CSS Shenandoah's as well.
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Achilles Botriune Canning (1862 Paris-1937 Cleveland): (Raftan's 1st son)
(1) Consular birth registration.
Document Number: 102
When & where born: 09 August 1862 at Paris
Name: Achilles Botriune
Sex: Boy
Name of father: Raftan CANNING
Maiden name of mother: Mary Ann O'Connor
Father's profession: Commercial Agent
Informant & his residence: Raftan Canning, father [of] 4 Rue de Villejust, Paris
When registered: 26 December 1862
Consular Officer performing registration: T Pickford HBM Consul, Paris; Consular district of birth: Paris
(2) Certificate of Death from the State of Ohio, Div. of Vital Statistics, obtained from the Cleveland Historical Society. In this, his name is spelled Achille Botrium Canning, but this is explained by the fact that the convalescent hospital filled out that part of the certificate, and "botrium" is a microbial term, thus the confusion. The family always spelled it Botrine, and Achille himself was a Notary, so we take Botrine to be the correct spelling as he intended it. Date of birth: blank. Age, "About 75 years." Birthplace: "Paris, France". Father: "Unknown". Mother: "Unknown". Wife: Anna. Trade or Profession: Collector. Date of death, July 30, 1937. Place of death, Cleveland, Ohio. Address at time of death: 925 Roanoke Rd., Cleveland Hgts. Informant: Henry Canning, Son (same address). Cemetery: Calvary Cemetery. Funeral Director: R. S. Mcllurch (McColloch?), The Millard (Milland?) Co. lic. # 1237. Body was embalmed.
Alfred (D.?) Canning (c. 1797 where? -1851 Rotherhithe, London) Proposed father of the Mystery Generation (Rafton, Marinus, Baltriune, Louise, Arthur who "went to Spain"), husband of Anne Powell Canning;
(1) death registration Rotherhithe 1851, "Found dead in bed" written right on it, and coroner's inquest held, age "about 54," Occupation "Engineer," died of "Natural Decay", living at 5 Surrey Place, Lower Queen Street, Rotherhithe, London;
(2) marriage of his son Raftan Canning to Mary Anne O'Connor in Paris, January 1862, lists Alfred as "Civil Engineer";
(3) birth of his son Baltriune in 1837 lists Alfred as "Civil Engineer";
(4) Marriage Alfred D. Canning and Anne Powell on June 2, 1817, Saint Martin, Worcester, Worcs. (not conclusively ours; no parents' names, places of birth; but date of marriage corresponds well to our records)
Alfred Canning (1858 Paris - France?): Eldest son of Baltriune Canning. Consular Birth Registration, Paris; Info reads Alfred, boy, born Nov. 16, 1858, Father Botrinne Canning, Gentleman, Mother Margaret Hook, Informant's signature "B. Canning", residence L. Boulevart de l'Etoile Fernes [=Ternes], registered Dec. 23, 1858
Arthur Rafton-Canning (1865 Paris -1952 Vancouver, BC): (Rafton's third son) --
(1) Birth Registration from British Consulate at Paris; Name, Arthur Canning; Date of birth, May 7, 1865; Father, Rafton Canning; Mother, Mary O'Connor; Profession of mother's father, Clerk; Informant, Louisa Butler, Dressmaker [Note: possibly related to our Angel-Butlers of Guernsey], 117 Faubourg St. Honore, Paris; When registered, Nov. 7, 1866 [Note: months after Rafton's death].
(2) Death registration from the Archives at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Died Dec. 15, 1952 at Age 86, at Vancouver
Baltriune Canning (1837 Rotherhithe, London -1865 died at sea): Rafton's brother (see "George P. Canning" following).
(1) Birth certificate in Rotherhithe, London, born July 15, 1837, in a "Cottage on the Rector's Island" (=Seven Islands, now Southwark Park), father Alfred Canning, Civil Engineer, mother Anne Canning formerly Powell, residence of informant (father) "Cottage on the Island", registered August 25, 1837;
(2) birth certif of his first son, Alfred Canning 1858 Paris (qv), listing him as "Gentleman";
(3) birth certif of his second son, Rafton Boutrenne, 1860 Arcis-sur-Aube, Champagne, France, "no profession"; both boys' mother is Margaret Hook (Hucks).
Eugene Hilary Davidson (1839 Calcutta - 1918 Toronto?) Marriage certificate to Mary Anne O'Connor Canning, July 9, 1869, Kensington, married in the Register Office, both then living at 48 Ledbury Road, Bayswater, London, his father Charles James Collie Davidson, Colonel in the Indian Army; her father Dennis O'Connor, Clerk.
George Canning (c. 1864 where? -1938 Ft. Worth, buried Cleveland): (no birth record; supposedly Rafton's 2nd son) ~~~ death certificate from Ft. Worth, Texas, (certified copy) d.o.d. March 31, 1938, d.o.b. August 27, 1863, saying his father's name was George Canning, mother's name Mary Ann O'Conner, and that he, (George) was born in France. We have found no birth registration for George, in the British Consul's records.
George P. Canning (1837-1865): (Rafton's brother Baltriune Canning, which fact is established by an officer's journal from the CSS Shenandoah, wherein it is described how Rafton Canning, owner of an "ale and stout depot in London," responds to newspaper ad seeking George's relatives in Nov., 1865) ~~~ evidence consists of historical military documentation from the journals of the officers of the CSS Shenandoah (photocopy of stamped official photocopy), the warship which destroyed the US whaling fleet in the Bering Sea, 1865, with George P. in charge of the Marine group and the guns ~~~ the crew learned he had a wife in Paris (but he would tell no one of her name or whereabouts), a brother in Australia, and that his friends were in "St. Germain"; he was accompanied on board by an older Negro servant named Edward Weeks/ Wickes to whom he was very close and for whom he insisted on equal pay; he said he was wounded at Shiloh, as an Aide de Camp for General Polk (but no record exists of him there); he died on board ship Oct. 30, 1865, of phthisis, and was buried at sea with a Roman Catholic ceremony.
Marinus Francis Alfred Canning (c. 1828 where? -1911 Perth): (proposedly was Rafton's brother) -- (1) Death certificate from Perth, Western Australia (certified copy): Date of Death, Nov. 13, 1911, at 83 years of age; Father's name, Francis Canning (deceased); Mother, Ann Powell; Born in Paris, France; Buried, Anglican Cemetery at Kerakatta (?) on Nov. 15, 1911; followed by a listing of his issue [children] in order of birth w/ ages: Ada 5(4?), Letitia 52, Arthur 50, Edmond 45, Eleanor 44, Blanche 42, Algernon 40, George 38, 1 male 4 females (deceased).
(2) Much biographical information from the Battye Library in Perth, Western Australia, where he was Member of Parliament, including records of voyages, stating (possibly from a passport) that he was born in England, and
(3) Obituary [the West Australian, Nov 14, 1911] stating "Mr. Canning was a son of Mr. Francis Canning, a member of an old English county family, the Cannings of Foxcote, Warwickshire, famous in English history. He himself was educated at l'Ecole Charlemagne, Paris, and privately in England. He had always been a politcal student, was a classical scholar..." and
(4) Biographical Register of MP's of WA: "Canning, Marinus Frederick [sic] Alfred: Educ. priv. in Engl. and at Ecole Charlemagne, Paris. arr. Q 1855; storekeeper in 1856; bank mngr early 1870s to Tahiti; 1875 joined Bank of NSW; 1877 to Noumea office and later possibly to Tas.; 21 Feb 1883 arr. in WA to found Perth br. of bank; 1884 left bank and founded WA Mortgage & Agency Co., 1888-95 mngr; sec. AMP 1886, Comm. agent 1887-89. founded WA Stannaries; 1893 JP: 1891-1911 member Perth Public Library Cttee."
Mary Ann O'Connor Canning Davidson (1832 Rathkeale -1925):(Rafton's wife) ~~~ (1) unreferenced newspaper obituary clipping (photocopy) titled "One in the Court of Napoleon III Dies," describing her sons (steel brokers in Cleveland), her adoption at age 16 into the court of Napoleon III by a French duchess, "many years of colorful court life", and her escape from France at the fall of the Court of the Second Empire, "...as a friends drove her to the coast from which location she made it safely to England" (2) death certificate, 92 years old, died March 2, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, was widow, wife of Eugene H. Davidson, born in Rathkeale, Ireland, father Jeremiah O'Connor (b. Ireland), maiden name of mother Unknown (b. Ireland), informant George Canning of 16861 Homer Ave. East, Cleveland, died of broncho pneumonia.
Rafton Canning (c. 1832 where? -1866 Clerkenwell, London): (1) Death registry from London, Apr. 3, 1866 (certified copy) age "about 34"; address at time of death at 48 Spencer Street, Clerkenwell (which is a baker's establishment - home? shop?) on a street containing several jewellers and goldsmiths; Occupation "Beer and spirit merchant"; person in attendance -- his brother-in-law John O'Connor of "14 Denmark Terrace, Islington"; cause of death -- "Phithisis, Certified [sic]". (2) Consular birth registry of his son Achilles Botriune in 1862 (see below), which lists father "Raftan" (not "-ton") Canning, residing at 4, rue de Villejust, Paris, Profession -- "Commercial Agent." (3) Consular birth registry of his third son, Arthur, in Paris, 1865, (4) Marriage record to Mary Ann O'Connor, January 1862, Paris -- spelled Raftan in this record, (5) reference to a letter received from a Rafton Canning, "owner of an ale and stout depot in London," by the officers of the CSS Shenandoah, when they advertised seeking George P. Canning's family; See the Rafton Mystery
Rafton Boutrenne ("Paul") Canning (1860 Arcis-sur-Aube - France?): Son of Georges Boutrenne Canning and Margaret Hook
mentioned in letter (original, ink on thin paper, 8 pages) dated Aug. 3, 1877, from Louise Canning Pierrot to "sister" Mary Ann (O'Conner Canning). As Louise thinks she is dying ("I cough blood"), and Mary Ann has left for America, mention is made of every male child, of the generation following that of Rafton and Marinus, whom Louise has cared for. No mention of the father of Paul and Alfred is made. However, Paul is described as one who must have been a teenager "feeling his oats" and gets kicked out by Louise, preferring to lodge at the Chantilly stables where his heart lies. And Alfred is mentioned with him, as of good character, but hindered by his epilepsy, which is described as being serious. These two are contrasted by Louise with the "good" boys, sons of Mary Ann; Have 3 documents: (1) French birth record, 1860, Arcis-sur-Aube, parents Georges Boutrenne Canning 26, no profession, and Margrette Phillipis [sic] Hook, 27, no profession, born in the residence of the shire officer; (2) Letter, 1877, from Aunt Louise Canning Pierrot to Mary Anne O'Connor Canning, delineating "Paul's" behavior and mentioning all the boys she is raising (see above); and (3) 1881 census in England, Rafton Canning age 20, working in Sussex as a servant ("Boots") at a hotel in East Grinstead, Sussex, born in "Arrusn Aube" (Arcis-sur-Aube), France
For fuller details, see the Biographies
To see scans of the complete set of all documents found to date Click Here. WARNING: Very large file!