Topic: A Document with Personality.

I have a mysterious GGGfather named Thomas Darchy, born in February 1820, who as a young boy was under the care of a guardian, a Dr. Sacc, in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Dr. Sacc in turn had been authorised by a Dr. Broadfoot, a Scottish Army doctor on half pay, apparently acting for the mother’s family. In 1828 when Thomas was approaching ten years of age Dr. Sacc was ordered to hand him over to another person sent from England to collect him. This person, Julius Charles Hare, had links to English nobility and was quite well-known in Ecclesiastical circles, being a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge between 1822-1832 and then Rector of Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex. He was known as a ‘most erudite English scholar’ who took in pupils to cram for university. He was also said to be of a romantic and helpful nature, and perhaps somewhat unworldly.

In other words the ideal tutor/companion to the young Thomas Darchy whose early language would have been Swiss-German possibly plus some French.

A legal document was drawn up in London on 12 September 1828 by a French clerc (notary) between Broadfoot and Hare. A passport was issued to Hare, acting on behalf of Broadfoot, by the Ambassador of His Majesty the King of the Low Countries – which was puzzling as Hare was a British subject and a respected member of the prestigious Trinity College. It was used as proof of Hare’s identity and is mentioned in another legal document. I have copies of all these documents except the passport.

The “document with personality” however is a letter which Hare wrote to Dr. Sacc on 7 Nov 1828. It is in French, in a curiously schoolboyish hand, and the translation is:

Monsieur,
I think that our friend Mr. Broadfoot has told you that I intend to go to Neuchatel during the summer. Unforeseen circumstances prevented me from carrying out this project, and I have been obliged to postpone my journey until (the) next spring. Then I hope to have the pleasure of your acquaintance and of receiving from your hands the child Thomas Darchy to place him where his mother has destined him. Until then I have the honour to be your obedient servant.
J.C. Hare.

Thomas Darchy was indeed collected by Hare, as attested by yet another document dated 17 Sept 1829. But after that date his whereabouts still remain unknown until he turned up on board a sailing ship in Australian waters, aged 20, a wealthy young Englishman with a mysterious past.