George Edwin Pattenden
| George Edwin Pattenden MA BD LLD | |
|---|---|
 George Edwin Pattenden | |
| Born | 1823 |
| Died |
9 November 1897 (aged 73–74) Freckenham Rectory, Suffolk |
| Education | Christ's Hospital, London; Peterhouse College, Cambridge |
| Roles | Headmaster |
| Years at BGS | 1850-1887 |
| Predecessor | Thomas Homer |
| Successor | William White |
| Spouse | Matilda Elizabeth Ann Walbran |
| Children | George Herbert, Florence Matilda, Gertrude Emily, Clara Louisa, Ada Mary, Rosalie Ellen, Charles Robert Edwin, Edith Alice, Frederick William Waldebrand, Beatrice Maud |
| Parents | Robert Pattenden, Sarah Pattenden (As well as being his wife, Sarah was Robert's fourth cousin once removed) |
| Relatives | Harriett Ellen Pattenden (sister) |
George Edwin Pattenden (1823 - 9 November 1897) was appointed as headmaster of Boston Grammar School on 12 August 1850. While at the school he wrote the words to the school song, Floreat Bostona.
Before Boston Grammar School
Pattenden was educated at Christ's Hospital, London, and Peterhouse College, Cambridge.
After Boston Grammar School
Pattenden was Vicar of Chertsey, Surrey 1887-1892. He was then Vicar of Freckenham, Suffolk from 1892 until his death in 1897.
Quotes
Boston Society, January 1900
My great-grandfather, Frederick George Johnson (1850-1909), was Second Master at BGS in 1874, when he married Canon Pattenden's daughter, Rosalie Ellen. His brother-in-law, Richard Hamer, was Fourth Master when he married Rosalie's elder sister, Clara Louisa. I know that a number of Canon Pattenden's nephews were educated at BGS.
Canon Pattenden endured a very public divorce in the late 1860's, reported in great detail in The Times, which wrote that Mrs Pattenden was supposed to have "disgraced herself" with the French Master (possibly Louis Hotsch) and one or more of the Senior boys!
There is also the story, reported to me by a grandson of Canon Pattenden, who was quite certain of his facts, that Canon Pattenden's third daughter, Ada Mary, became pregnant in 1877 by the Chief Constable of Northamptonshire, Thomas Orde Hastings Lees, a charming Irishman of noble descent. She was apparently bundled off to Bavaria, where Mr Lees' brother lived, to have the baby, which was then brought up as the legitimate offspring of Mr Lees. The Pattenden family was exceedingly grateful to Mrs Lees for her compliance in this cover-up, (she was made godmother to my grandfather, who was born in 1880). The illegitimate son went on, incidentally, to join Shackleton's expedition to the South Pole, where he was so unpopular with his fellows that they agreed that, if they ran out of food and had no choice but to resort to cannibalism, they would eat him, because he was so grumpy and pessimistic! His daughter married the philosophers, A.J. Ayer and S.N. Hampshire.
Mark Lemon, founder of Punch Magazine was born in 1809. After the death of his father in 1817 and the remarriage of his mother, he went to live with his uncle, Thomas Collis, hop and timber merchant of Spilsby and Boston who moved from Spilsby to Boston at some point between 1820 and 1827. He remained with him, learning the hop and timber trade, for some years.
Thomas' son, Thomas Collis (1827-1875), was another of my great-great-grandfathers. He married Harriett Ellen Pattenden (1833-1886), sister to Canon George Edwin Pattenden, in 1856. I manage to be descended from both George Edwin Pattenden and his sister by dint of the fact that my grandparents were second cousins!
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