Remembering and Forgetting
"The Piglet lived in a very grand house in the middle of a beech-tree, and the beech-tree was in the middle of the forest, and the Piglet lived in the middle of the house. Next to his house was a piece of broken board which had "TRESPASSERS W" on it. When Christopher Robin asked the Piglet what it meant, he said it was his grandfather's name, and had been in the family for a very long time."
- A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
Introduction
The story of the family history of Alfred Boydell Lambe, pictured above right,1 is the story of a family "remembering" a connection to some famous Lambes, a connection that now seems unlikely to contain much truth, while forgetting the descent of our Lambes from a king's messenger and significant land owner, Henry Lambe.
The Story Passed Down
The story passed down to several branches of the Lambe family is that Alfred Boydell Lambe's family is descended from Sir Matthew Lambe, a former Member of the British Parliament, through his second wife, and thus related to Sir Matthew Lambe's son Sir Peniston Lambe, another Member of Parliament. Sir Peniston Lambe's children included 
William Lambe, pictured at left,2 who was Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister. The detailed account of descent of Alfred Boydell Lambe's family from the more famous Lambes was passed down to us in typewritten form, and contains a number of claims,3 many of which can be shown to be false. For example, Sir Matthew Lambe does not appear to have had a second wife,4 and neither Sir Matthew Lambe's will nor that of his brother, Robert Lambe, Bishop of Peterborough, contains any evidence of any male descendants of the two other than Sir Peniston Lambe and his children.5, 6
The claim of a connection has a long history. As early as 1841, Robert Lambe, brother of Alfred Boydell Lambe (and different person from the Bishop of Peterborough) claimed in a letter that he was related to "the present premier" (i.e., the William Lambe discussed above),7 a claim that Alfred Lambe and his family appear to have believed.8 At about the same time as the 1841 letter, Queen Victoria recorded in her diary an account by William Lambe of his ancestry that suggests that he was unaware of any connection of his family to that of Alfred Boydell Lambe.9
The Surprising Truth
The descent of Alfred Boydell Lambe is quite different from that suggested in the typewritten document referred to above. Like his father and grandfather, Alfred Boydell Lambe made his career as a wine merchant in London. He had the following Lambe ancestors:
- Alfred Lambe, wine merchant, and Ann (Philpot) Lambe, the webpage for which includes mention of her Philpot, Boydell and Pickfatt ancestors
- John Lambe and Mary Lambe, wine merchants
- Henry Lambe, king's messenger, and Mary (Staniland) Lambe.
Alfred Boydell Lambe's wife, Mary Eliza Austin, was descended from surveyors and architects. She had the following ancestors:
- George Austin, architect and surveyor, and Eliza (Pedder) Austin
- George Austin, surveyor and foreman.
The remainder of this website is devoted to exploring Alfred Boydell Lambe's actual ancestors, and those of Mary Eliza Austin. A page on their children is also included.
Footnotes
1Alfred Boydell Lambe (younger), date unknown, courtesy of Laurie Wallace and Anna Lambe.
2Landseer, Edwin Henry, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne from Wikimedia Commons, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William_Lamb,_2nd_Viscount_Melbourne_by_Sir_Edwin_Henry_Landseer.jpg, accessed August 8, 2012.
3Lamb(e) Family Tree, typewritten, undated document said to have been prepared by Elsie Lambe.
4See, for example, Dictionary of National Biography entry on Sir Matthew Lamb, London: Elder Smith & Co., 1892, vol. 31, p. 432, in which only one wife (Charlotte Coke) is mentioned.
5Will of Sir Mathew Lamb of Brocket Hall as reported in the records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, catalogue reference Prob 11/943.
6Will of Robert Lamb, Bishop of Peterborough as reported in the records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, catalogue reference Prob 11/952.
7Gluck, Charles Adams and Katherine Elliott (ed.s), "1841 April 24, Letter of R. Lambe, Matagorda Texas, to M.B. Lamar [Austin, Texas]" in The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, vol. 3, Austin, Texas: Von Boeckman-Jones Co., [1921-1927], pp. 515-516.
8Letter from Alfred Boydell Lambe (jr.) to Aldyth Lambe, September 24, 1925, p. 2, courtesy of Hugh van Nostrand.
9Esher, Viscount, The Girlhood of Queen Victoria vol. II, London: John Murray, 1912, pp. 69-70.
