About this project
My name is Tim Lemon
My genealogy interests began in 1997 when I inherited four antique portraits of 18th and 19th century gentlemen with the name 'Lemon'. Two were Cornish baronets, one was a famous humorist (close friend of Dickens), and another a colonial officer photographed in full regalia. A few family myths accompanied the portraits. My father tasked me to prove or disprove the stories.
The 'Great' Mr. Lemon
1696 - 1760
Cornish Mining Entrepreneur
Sir Charles Lemon
1784-1868
Grandson of The Great Mr. Lemon & Cornish MP
Mark Lemon
1809-1870
Co-founder & First Editor of Punch
Arthur Henry Lemon
1864-1933
Colonial Administrator & CMG
The portraits were from three different Lemon family lineages, all originating in the West Country and from very different professions, fortunes and titles. The central myth was that the families were connected - something my family had believed down several generations. My father gave me three family trees he had drafted, related to each portrait, but he had not yet found a link. He had long given up ‘the quest’.
But there was a clue my father had not yet pursued – the meaning behind one small family heirloom, a precious jewel of diamonds (costume stones no doubt). It was impressive but bore no inscription. Around it was wrapped a simple two-line note which referenced one William George Lemon, BA, FGS, LLB, JP (1830-1897), a “grand master” freemason. I call him “WGL” or “William George”. Unfortunately, we had no portrait of WGL and didn't know about a 'black box' of family archives forgotten in my uncle's outhouse. My uncle had died in 1992. This lost box didn't surface until my aunt died in 2015 and my brother sorted through the outhouse.
Mystery heirloom (no inscription)
Discovered ! A black strongbox of lost portraits, documents, letters and keepsakes.
In the meantime I had a hunch that William George would be key in any quest to link up the various West Country family branches. Initial research into dates suggested WGL’s life spanned the reign of Queen Victoria. He was born not far from Kensington Palace (where Princess Victoria was born) and he was at school close to Buckingham Palace when she moved in as monarch.
Because WGL lived and worked at the very heart of the British Empire at its peak, this story may hopefully entertain readers interested in Victorian London, anyone who had an ancestor living in the West End, or near a London park, or Blackheath/Greenwich, as well as Lemon cousins and relations