Charlotte Higgins (née Bulkeley)

Charlotte Higgins née Bulkeley was awarded the compensation for the Blenheim estate in British Guiana as the widow and executrix of Tully Higgins (q.v.) with two co-executors, Alexander Hall and Sir Edmund Antrobus.

1. Charlotte Higgins née Bulkeley, born St Petersburg 1790, daughter of John Matthew Bulkeley and Sarah Cramp. Charlotte m. Tully Higgins Saint Mary Marylebone [sic] 1814; remarried Charles Staniforth after 1832. The will of Tully Higgins of St Marylebone Middlesex had been proved 08/10/1832. He bequeathed (in addition to £300 each to his executors and some small legacies to Catholic charities in Ireland) £40,000 in stock to each of his widow and his daughter Louisa (revised by codicil to £30,000 each); his Blenheim estate in Demerara  was left to his son Bulkeley Higgins, who d. 11/07/1834 aged 19, so Blenheim and residual estate went to Louisa, and formed part of her marriage settlement on her wedding to Percy Barrington, 8th Viscount of Ardglass, in 1845: their son was Walter Bulkeley Barrington, 9th Viscount.

2. In 1851 Charlotte (aged 49 born Rus[sia] B.S.) and Charles Staniforth (transcribed as 'Stamforth') (aged 56, No profession, landed proprietor) were living at 2 Connaught Place London. The death of Charlotte Staniforth was registered at Kensington Q1 1857.

T71/887 British Guiana claim no. 2397 (Blenheim).

1. PROB 11/1806/334. Tully Higgins is shown in William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume One 1809-1839 (London, Social Affairs Unit, 2009) reference 1832/20, bequeathing £140,000. Tully Higgins died at Bryanston Square. 'Nothing could be traced about his fortune in any source', William D. Rubinstein, op. cit. reference 1832/20, p. 360.

2. Ancestry.com, England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 [database online].