George Henry Caunter

George Henry Caunter (24 February 1791 – 6 August 1843) was an English judge and miscellaneous writer. Having been President of the Vice Admiralty Court in Mauritius, he was convicted in France of bigamy and, returning to England, wrote about music and other topics.

George Henry Caunter
Born(1791-02-24)24 February 1791
Dittisham, Devon, Kingdom of Great Britain
Died6 August 1843(1843-08-06) (aged 52)
Gloucester, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Occupationtranslator, interpreter, advocate, judge, writer, editor, music critic, musician
NationalityBritish
SpouseAurélie Bestel (1st), Pauline Brie (2nd)
Children3

Life

George Henry was born into Devonshire gentry in the South Devon village of Dittisham. He was the eldest child of George Caunter of Staverton and Harriett Georgina, née Hutchings, of Dittisham. His father went to the East when his son was about four years old[1] and became acting superintendent of Prince of Wales Island - today Penang, Malaysia. His wife soon joined him and died there in childbirth in 1798.[2]

In 1810 the British captured the Indian Ocean island of Isle de France, which became the Crown Colony of Mauritius. The following year Caunter, who had acquired a mastery of French while living in France as a teenager, was appointed superintendent of the press as well as sworn translator and interpreter to the government in Mauritius.[3][4] He became assistant in the Treasury office in June 1812 and was granted leave in that year to travel to Prince of Wales Island to administer the estate of his father, who had died at the end of 1811.[5][6] He returned to Mauritius and in 1813 married a French politician's daughter, Mauritius-born Aurélie Bestel "who, according to a miniature of her playing the harp, was very beautiful".[7][8] In 1818, Caunter was working as an advocate in the Vice Admiralty Court, and in March of that year the acting governor, Hall, appointed him Judge of the court after having dismissed his predecessor, judge Smith, whom Hall considered reluctant to suppress the trafficking of slaves to Mauritius.[9][10] In his capacity as judge, Caunter was involved in the British attempts to suppress the slave trade.[11][12] According to the newspaper John Bull, he quitted Mauritius when the British government restored Smith to his former office.[13]

In 1819 Caunter travelled to England with his brother-in-law, Nicolas Gustave Bestel, later acting Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of Mauritius.[14] Although his wife and two infant sons remained in Mauritius, he stayed in England over the next years. In 1824 he went to Paris to research an intended publication on musical theory. It was here that he met and proceeded to marry a young woman, Pauline Brie.[15] In October 1825, only months after the marriage, her father found out from Caunter's brother-in-law that Caunter was already married. Charged with bigamy, Caunter alleged that he had originally been married in Madras in 1811, to a woman who was ill when he left for Mauritius. He had kept quiet about her there to avoid opprobrium for having married a Creole woman. He had received news of her death and had married Aurélie Bestel. Finding out later that his first wife had not died until after he had married Aurélie, he considered his marriage to the latter to be legally void. This, he argued, allowed him to marry Mlle Brie legally in Paris.[16][17]

The French court allowed Caunter to seek proof of his Madras marriage from the British colonial authorities, Caunter meanwhile remaining in custody in La Force Prison for three years. As proof was not forthcoming, he was finally convicted in 1828 and sentenced to seven years' forced labour. A witness at the trial declared that "Mr Canning [George Canning, the British Prime Minister from April to August 1827] himself intervened on behalf of Mr Caunter" while the latter was in custody.[18] The Gazette des tribunaux concluded its detailed coverage of the trial with the observation that "The accused, whose features are regular and whose physiognomy is remarkable, maintained the most profound calm throughout the proceedings and even on hearing the verdict."[19] The British embassy obtained a commutation of the sentence to banishment, and in 1829 Caunter returned to England.[20] The case attracted the attention of the international press.[21][22][23]

In the years that followed, Caunter participated in the cultural life of London and was active as a reviewer, editor, composer, music performer, translator and writer. About 1837 he moved to Gloucester, where over the years he gave series of talks on such subjects as mesmerism and the "poetry of sound" to the Gloucester Literary and Scientific Association and the Mechanics' Institution.[24][25] In 1842 he conceived and helped organise a performance of sacred music, at which he played the violoncello, at St Mary de Crypt Church to raise funds for the restoration of the church.[26][27] The following year, Caunter died in Barnwood, Gloucester, of tuberculosis after a long, painful illness; he was 52.[28][29] He was buried in Barnwood (St Lawrence) Churchyard.[lower-alpha 1]

Works

Magazine editorship, music writing and composition

Caunter became well-known in London's literary circles in the 1830s.[30] He was one of the principal contributors to the general-interest magazine The Athenæum, writing reviews of French-language books, and edited The Court Magazine for some years after the editorship of Caroline Norton.[31][32] His younger brother, the clergyman and writer John Hobart Caunter, was at this time writing for some of the same titles.[33]

George Henry's obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine noted that he "was a most indefatigable and able writer, although his name was rarely prefixed to his productions. ... [He] was considered one of the first musical critics in the metropolis."[34] A German obituary noted he was "especially valued as a music critic."[35] He wrote about composers and musicians such as Rossini, Aspull, Dragonetti, Meyerbeer and Beethoven.[36][37][38] He claimed to have been a friend of the latter, reporting that Beethoven used to confide to him that he (Beethoven) was born two centuries before his time.[39] In his 1836 essay on Meyerbeer, Caunter argues that "The opera of "Robert le Diable" is alone sufficient to immortalise the name of Meyerbeer."[40]

Caunter played the violoncello,[lower-alpha 2] being called by the Gloucestershire Chronicle "one of the finest amateur performers on the violoncello in the country".[41] He also published compositions of his own, such as Grand trio pour violon, alto et violoncelle, opéra 10 (c. 1820)[42] and Twelve Fantasias on Favourite Airs by Mozart and Paisiello, for the Piano-forte and Violoncello (1831).[43] The Musical World considered his composition The Banks of the Wye a "melody by no means devoid of grace" and his When Jove from His Throne a "clear, bold, and effective melody", though finding faults in both pieces.[44] Reviewing his composition Think of Thee No More, the Gloucester Journal in 1842 wrote that Caunter had been "long known to the dilettanti and professionals, not of Gloucester only, but of London and the Continent, as a sound, though perhaps occasionally a rather severe, musical critic; and the present composition establishes that he is not amenable to the charge which is sometimes brought against our critics, that they are not always themselves practically acquainted with the subjects on which they venture to pronounce a judgment".[45]

Other writing

Working from the manuscripts of the French Napoleonic Marshal Ney, Caunter produced a translation, Military Studies by Marshal Ney; Written for the Use of His Officers (1833).[46] He contributed articles on cookery to the Magazine of Domestic Economy.[47] The London publisher William S. Orr published a series of handbooks written by Caunter, including The Hand-Book of Medicine, The Hand-Book of Cookery, The Hand-Book of Chemistry, The Hand-Book of the Toilette and The Hand-Book of Bathing (previously published by William Smith as Familiar Hints on Sea-Bathing).[lower-alpha 3]

A review in The Athenæum of Familiar Hints on Sea-Bathing considered the work "not written without ability or without knowledge" and found the author to be "a great advocate for sea-bathing" and "a dashing fellow—rather too dashing perhaps—in his opinions, and the modes of arriving at them".[48] A. Nesbit and sons of Kennington-House Academy considered The Hand-Book of Chemistry to be "well adapted for Schools".[49] The Age considered the handbook to be "elaborate without being obscure, and learned without being pedantic",[50] while The Atlas observed: "considered as a popular essay, the publication will be found too elaborate. The professional student in chemistry will derive great advantage from it, and to such it may be strongly recommended".[51]

Family

Caunter's wife Aurélie Bestel (b. 1795) died in Mauritius in 1855. His father-in-law, Antoine Bestel (1766-1852), had been secretary of the Assemblée Coloniale in Mauritius (then the Isle de France) during the French Revolution. In 1800 he had helped thwart a Royalist conspiracy in the island of Réunion. He remained active in the public affairs of Mauritius under British sovereignty.[52]

Of the three children of George Henry and Aurélie, two died in infancy; the surviving child, Lewis Anthony Henry Caunter (1815-1873), became a lawyer in Mauritius. In 1847 this son was the recipient of an envelope to which was affixed the 2d "Blue Mauritius", which would become one of the most valuable stamps in the world. The extant fragment of envelope with the stamp is known among collectors as the "Caunter fragment" or (based on the envelope's apparent reading) the "Caunten fragment".[53][54][55] Henry Caunter, who died in Paris, has a tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Besides the writer John Hobart Caunter (1794-1851), George Henry had a brother, Richard McDonald Caunter (1798-1879), who like Hobart was a minister in the Church of England and who was billed as the author of Attila, a Tragedy; and Other Poems (1832).[56]

Book publications
  • The Hand-Book of Medicine (London: Wm. S. Orr and Co., and W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh)
  • The Hand-Book of Cookery (London: William S. Orr and Co. and W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh, 1838)
  • Familiar Hints on Sea-Bathing (London: William Smith, 1838)
  • The Hand-Book of Chemistry (London: Wm. S. Orr and Co., and W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh, 1839)
  • The Hand-Book of the Toilette (London: W. S. Orr and Co., 1839, second edition 1841)
  • The Hand-Book of Bathing (London: William S. Orr and Co. and W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh, 1841, reissue of Familiar Hints on Sea-Bathing)

Notes
  1. "He died at Barnwood and was buried in Barnwood Churchyard on the north side of the Church close to the Hedge under a stately Elm next to the Road. My gifted Cousin the late John Jones the Founder of our Local Museum intended to have placed a stone over his remains to his memory but was precluded from doing so by adverse circumstances. I often visited his little mound of earth. The last time I visited it the humble mound had disappeared." - From a handwritten note by the Gloucester historian Henry Yates Jones Taylor (1826-1906), inserted in a copy of Caunter's Hand-Book of Chemistry held in the Gloucester Archives.
  2. Caunter "was a most excellent and an accomplished Musician. He Played the Violoncello admirably, was a composer of Music, and for several years wrote Critiques on our musical Festivals." - From a handwritten note by the Gloucester historian Henry Yates Jones Taylor (1826-1906), inserted in a copy of Caunter's Hand-Book of Chemistry held in the Gloucester Archives.
  3. Only The Hand-Book of Chemistry was published under Caunter's name. The Gloucester historian Henry Yates Jones Taylor (1826-1906), who had known Caunter personally, identified him as the author of "a series of Hand Books for Orr & Co London. Hand Book of Chemistry of Cookery. the Toilet, Household Surgery & Medicine" (from a handwritten note inserted in a copy of Caunter's Hand-Book of Chemistry held in the Gloucester Archives). Gloucestershire Notes and Queries. Volume: VIII (1902) by W. P. W. Phillimore and Sidney J. Madge (Eds.), London: Phillimore & Co., states that "the late Mr. Henry Jeffs collected all the local recipes extant for Dr. Caunter, who was engaged in the production and compilation of "Orr’s Handbook of Cookery."" The Hand-Book of Bathing is ascribed on the title page to "the author of the "Hand-Book of the Toilette."", and The Hand-Book of the Toilette is ascribed on the title page to "the author of "Familiar Hints on Sea-Bathing," the Hand-Book of Cookery, &c."

References
  1. A Late Resident in the East [John Hobart Caunter] (1814). The Cadet; A Poem, In Six Parts: Containing Remarks on British India. To Which Is Added, Egbert and Amelia; In Four Parts: With Other Poems (2 vols.). Robert Jennings.
  2. F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 74.
  3. "'His Excellency the Governor'...". Government Gazette (India). 26 September 1811.
  4. "An Account of all Offices, Civil and Military, appointed by Authority other than the Crown, in the Isle of France; with the Salaries and Emoluments of the same". Accounts and Papers [of the House of Commons]. United Kingdom. 1816.
  5. "Mauritius Appointments" (PDF). Madras Courier. Madras. 1 September 1812. p. 1. Retrieved 12 December 2020. G. Caunter, Esq. Assistant in the Treasury office from the 1st June 1812; during his absence on leave at Prince of Wales's Island on his private affairs, John Salmon, Esq. will act for Mr. Caunter.
  6. Marcus Langdon (2013). Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India. 1805-1830. Volume One: Ships, Men and Mansions. Areca Books. p. 220.
  7. "Communes et paroisses > COE Cathédrale Saint James [Diocèse (Anglican) de Maurice](X) > CAUNTER > George Henry". Cercle de Généalogie Maurice - Rodrigues. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  8. F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. p. 75.
  9. "Proclamation du 25 mars 1818". A Collection of the Laws of Mauritius and Its Dependencies. Volume III. Mauritius: UK Government. 1866.
  10. Papers: One Volume. Relating to Captured Negroes; Also to the Slave Trade at the Mauritius and Bourbon, and the Seychelles; Slave Population at the Seychelles, &c. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 1826.
  11. "In the Vice Admiralty Court at the Mauritius, and Territories thereunto belonging". Papers: One Volume. Relating to Captured Negroes; Also to the Slave Trade at the Mauritius and Bourbon, and the Seychelles; Slave Population at the Seychelles, &c. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 1826.
  12. "Literary Notices, &c". Gloucester Journal. Gloucester. 11 January 1840. p. 4.
  13. "John Bull". John Bull. London. 3 November 1828. p. 5.
  14. "Downing-Street, May 8, 1857". The London Gazette. London. 12 May 1857. p. 1.
  15. "Justice criminelle" (PDF). Gazette des tribunaux, journal de jurisprudence et des débats judiciaires. Paris. 19 October 1828. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  16. "Law.-Bigamy". The Atlas, Or Literary, Historical and Commercial Reporter. New York. 20 December 1828. p. 108.
  17. "Justice criminelle" (PDF). Gazette des tribunaux, journal de jurisprudence et des débats judiciaires. Paris. 19 October 1828. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  18. "Justice criminelle" (PDF). Gazette des tribunaux, journal de jurisprudence et des débats judiciaires. Paris. 19 October 1828. p. 2. Retrieved 7 September 2021. On entend M. Byerley. "Je ne sais rien de l'affaire, dit ce témoin, mais j'ai été chargé par la famille de faire des démarches contre les rigueurs et les cruautés d'une législation qui garde un homme pendant trois ans en prison.... [...] Je me suis adressé à l'ambassade anglaise; j'aurais voulu obtenir la liberté sous caution : M. Canning lui-même a fait des démarches pour M. Caunter."
  19. "Justice criminelle" (PDF). Gazette des tribunaux, journal de jurisprudence et des débats judiciaires. Paris. 19 October 1828. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 12 December 2020. L'accusé, dont les traits sont réguliers et la physionomie remarquable, a conservé pendant tout le cours des débats, et même en entendant prononcer l'arrêt, le calme le plus profond.
  20. "On se rappelle peut-être qu'un Anglais nommé Henri Caunter...". Messager des chambres. Paris. 4 March 1829. p. 3.
  21. "Law.-Bigamy". The Atlas, Or Literary, Historical and Commercial Reporter. New York. 20 December 1828. p. 108.
  22. "Mr. Counter [sic]". Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies. London. July–December 1828. p. 643.
  23. "Frankreich". Regensburger Zeitung. Regensburg. 14 April 1829. p. 3.
  24. "Mesmerism". Gloucester Journal. Gloucester. 2 December 1841.
  25. "Mr. Caunter's Lecture on the Poetry of Sound". Gloucester Journal. Gloucester. 14 May 1842.
  26. "Musical Festival in the Church of St. Mary de Crypt". Gloucestershire Chronicle. Gloucester. 10 September 1842. p. 3.
  27. "St. Mary de Crypt Musical Festival". Gloucester Journal. Gloucester. 10 September 1842. p. 3.
  28. "Died". Cheltenham Chronicle. 10 August 1843.
  29. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  30. "Deaths". The Gentleman's Magazine. London: William Pickering; John Bowyer Nichols and Son. 1843.
  31. "The Curran Index". The Curran Index. The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  32. "Deaths". The Gentleman's Magazine. London: William Pickering; John Bowyer Nichols and Son. 1843.
  33. "The Curran Index". The Curran Index. The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  34. "Deaths". The Gentleman's Magazine. London: William Pickering; John Bowyer Nichols and Son. 1843.
  35. Dr. E. G. Gersdorf [Ed.] (1843). Leipziger Repertorium der deutschen und ausländischen Literatur. F. A. Brockhaus.
  36. "Rossini". London Morning Post. London. 1 November 1832.
  37. "George Aspull". The Court Magazine. London: Edward Bull. January–June 1833.
  38. "Dragonetti". The English Annual. London: Bull and Churton. 1835.
  39. "Beethoven". The Court Magazine. London: Edward Bull. 1832. pp. 143–148.
  40. "The Musical Drama. Meyerbeer, and Robert le Diable". The English Annual. London: Edward Churton. 1836.
  41. "Musical Festival in the Church of St. Mary de Crypt". Gloucestershire Chronicle. Gloucester. 10 September 1842. p. 3.
  42. Grand trio pour violon, alto et violoncelle, opéra 10. OCLC. OCLC 634226251. Retrieved 29 March 2021 – via WorldCat.
  43. "Advertisements". The Harmonicon. A Monthly Journal of Music. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Greene. February 1831.
  44. "Review". The Musical World. A Weekly Record of Science, Criticism, Literature, and Intelligence, Connected with the Art. London. 10 November 1842.
  45. "New Music". Gloucester Journal. Gloucester. 27 August 1842. p. 4.
  46. G. H. Caunter, Esq. (transl.) (1833). Military Studies by Marshal Ney; Written for the Use of His Officers. Translated from the Marshal's Original Manuscripts, by G. H. Caunter, Esq. Bull and Churton.
  47. The author of the articles on cookery in the "Magazine of Domestic Economy." [G. H. Caunter] (1838). The Hand-Book of Cookery. William S. Orr and Co.
  48. "Familiar Hints on Sea Bathing". The Athenæum. United Kingdom. 20 April 1839.
  49. A. Nesbit and sons (1842). An Introduction to the Arts and Sciences; or an Essay on Education. Longman and Co., London; Wilson and Sons, York.
  50. "Literary Notices". The Age. 2 February 1840. p. 2.
  51. "Literary Memoranda". The Atlas. 8 February 1840. p. 11.
  52. Raymond M. d'Unienville. "Un peu d'histoire de l'Ile Maurice-Antoine Bestel (from the Dictionnaire de Biographie Mauricienne, p.873)" (PDF). Cjp.net. Clancy J Philippe & Associates Pty Ltd. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  53. Philatelic Society (1906). The postage stamps, envelopes, wrappers, post cards, and telegraph stamps of the British colonies, possessions and protectorates in Africa. Philatelic Society.
  54. Helen Morgan (2006). Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps. Atlantic Books.
  55. Helen Morgan. "Post Office Mauritius (05), two pence, used (V) (1847)". Blue Mauritius Research Companion. Helen Morgan. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  56. J.A. Venn (comp.) (1922–1954). Alumni Cantabrigienses. Cambridge University Press.
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