William John Birch

{{Short description|English Writer}}

William John Birch (1811–1891) was an English rationalist writer.{{cite book |title=The Freethinker |date=1895 |publisher=G.W. Foote |pages=106–107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nnkvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA106 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=McCabe |first1=Joseph |title=A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists |date=1920 |publisher=London, Watts |page=column 78 |url=https://archive.org/stream/modernrati00mccauoft#page/41/mode/1up}}

Background and early life

He was the son of Jonathan Birch (died 1848, at age 76) of St Pancras, London, and his wife Mary Elizabeth Morrice (died 1822),{{cite book |editor-last=Howard |editor-first=Joseph Jackson |title=Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica |date=1884 |publisher=Hamilton, Adams, and Company |page=126|volume=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qiQFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA126 |language=en}} daughter of William Morrice. His family background was largely clerical.{{alox2|id=Birch, William John|title=Birch, William John}} Jonathan Birch had been an East India Company ship captain, making a number of voyages.{{cite book |title=Report from the select committee on East India maritime officers: Appendix and index |date=1837 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUZDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA68 |language=en}} A brother and two sisters of William John died young.{{cite web |title=St. Pancras Church, British History Online |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol24/pt4/pp1-9 |website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}

Jonathan Birch resided in Gower Street, London, and at Pudlicote House, near Shorthampton in Oxfordshire, built in 1810, which he purchased in 1822.{{cite book |title=History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the County of Oxford |date=1852 |publisher=R. Gardner |page=838 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=edVUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA838 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Edward Gillam |title=The register of electors to vote in the choice of ... members to serve in parliament for the county of Oxford. (Banbury division). |date=1844 |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NBAIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA149 |language=en}} He died at Alford, Lincolnshire, in 1848. After his death, his brother George made a case on the interpretation of his will of 1845 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.{{cite book |last1=Thornton |first1=Thomas |title=Notes of Cases in the Ecclesiastical & Maritime Courts |date=1849 |publisher=Professional Books |page=581|volume=VI |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YYpMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA581 |language=en}}

File:Pudlicote House - geograph.org.uk - 1563070.jpg

William John Birch was educated at Balliol College, Oxford and New Inn Hall, graduating B.A. in 1832, M.A. 1835. He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1832 and was called to the bar in 1841. He did not practise the law.{{cite book |title=Notes and Queries |date=1891 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=320 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZaGh8I4sD98C&pg=PA320 |language=en}}

In 1840 Birch was an Owenite lecturer in Manchester.{{cite journal |last1=Royle |first1=Edward |title=Mechanics' Institutes and the Working Classes, 1840-1860 |journal=The Historical Journal |date=1971 |volume=14 |issue=2 |page=317 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00009626 |jstor=2637958 |s2cid=162940679 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637958 |issn=0018-246X}} Pudlicote House descended to him in 1848.{{cite book |last1=Dutton, Allen & Co. |title=Dutton, Allen, & co.'s directory & gazetteer of the counties of Oxon, Berks & Bucks |date=1863 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hMHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA48 |language=en}} He was involved as an organiser in the National Parliamentary and Financial Reform Association of the late 1840s, with Edward Miall, Thomas James Serle and others.{{cite book |title=The People's Charter ... Third edition, revised |date=1842 |publisher=J. Watson |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A9UVtmRMYuEC&pg=PA9 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Cole |first1=G. D. H. |last2=Filson |first2=A. W. |title=British Working Class Movements: Select Documents, 1789-1875 |date=25 December 2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-86219-1 |page=411 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBOwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA411 |language=en}}

Freethought activist

Birch was a significant funder of freethought.{{cite book |last1=Royle |first1=Edward |title=Victorian Infidels: The Origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791-1866 |date=1974 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-0557-2 |page=307 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rclRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA307 |language=en}} With William Henry Ashurst, he was a major backer of the Anti-Persecution Union set up in 1842 by George Holyoake and Emma Martin, and also of the Theological Utilitarians.{{cite book |last1=Royle |first1=Edward |title=Victorian Infidels: The Origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791-1866 |date=1974 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-0557-2 |page=221 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rclRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA221 |language=en}}{{cite ODNB|id=45460|first=Barbara|last=Taylor|title=Martin, Emma}} He supported The Plebeian, founded in 1844 by Matilda Roalfe and William Baker.{{cite book |last1=Royle |first1=Edward |title=Victorian Infidels: The Origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791-1866 |date=1974 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-0557-2 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rclRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA86 |language=en}} He supported also "The Library of Reason", the penny pamphlet series sponsored by Henry Hetherington.{{cite journal |last1=Dodd |first1=Valerie A. |title=Strauss's English Propagandists and the Politics of Unitarianism, 1841–1845 |journal=Church History |date=1981 |volume=50 |issue=4 |page=431 |doi=10.2307/3167395 |jstor=3167395 |s2cid=154689836 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3167395 |language=en |issn=1755-2613}} When in 1845 Holyoake was seriously ill, and under financial strain with the Movement, his publication, Birch with others found him in London after he returned from a period in Leicester with Josiah Gimson, and saw him back to health.{{cite book |last1=McCabe |first1=Joseph |last2=Goss |first2=C. W. F. (Charles William Frederick) |title=Life and letters of George Jacob Holyoake |date=1908 |publisher=London : Watts & co. |page=107|volume=I |url=https://archive.org/details/lifelettersofgeo01mccauoft/page/107/mode/1up}} Birch contributed to the Movement, as did Sophia Dobson Collet, and others grouped as "middle-class freethinkers" (George Gwynne, Arthur Trevelyan).{{cite journal |last1=Rectenwald |first1=Michael |title=Secularism and the cultures of nineteenth-century scientific naturalism |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |date=2013 |volume=46 |issue=2 |page=236 |doi=10.1017/S0007087412000738 |jstor=43820386 |s2cid=145566942 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43820386 |issn=0007-0874}}

Birch became interested in Auguste Comte and positivism. From 1850 he gave weekly support to The Reasoner, the founding secularist organ of George Holyoake from 1846. At this period he met George Eliot.{{cite book |last1=Dodd |first1=V. |title=George Eliot: An Intellectual Life |date=1990-03-12 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-37286-3 |page=193 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RpR_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA193 |language=en}}{{cite ODNB|id=33964|first=Edward|last=Royle|title=Holyoake, George Jacob}} Holyoake introduced him to Robert Owen, in company with Michael Foster and Percy Greg;{{cite web |title='Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life' (2). |url=https://minorvictorianwriters.org.uk/holyoake/c_life_2.htm |website=minorvictorianwriters.org.uk}} and dedicated to him his The History of the Last Trial by Jury for Atheism in England (1850).{{cite book |last1=Holyoake |first1=George Jacob |title=The history of the last trial by jury for atheism in England: a fragment of autobiography |date=1850 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mnVbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP7 |language=en}} According to Annie Besant, Birch frequented the house of Thomas Scott (1808–1878), the freethinker.{{cite wikisource|wslink=Autobiographical Sketches/Chapter VIII}}

In December 1851, when secularism was a neologism, the Secular Society held a Free Discussion Festival, at which Holyoake was the main speaker;{{cite book |last1=Grugel |first1=Lee E. |title=George Jacob Holyoake: A Study in the Evolution of a Victorian Radical |date=1976 |publisher=Porcupine Press |isbn=978-0-87991-619-0 |page=62 |language=en}} Birch was in the chair. That year John Chapman took over The Westminster Review, the quarterly journal of the radicals, and Birch gave it financial support.{{cite book |last1=Dodd |first1=V. |title=George Eliot: An Intellectual Life |date=1990-03-12 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-37286-3 |page=199 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RpR_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA199 |language=en}}{{cite ODNB|id=5123|first=William|last=Baker|title=Chapman, John (1821–1894)}}

Birch was a close friend of John Allen Giles;{{cite book |last1=Wheeler |first1=Joseph Mazzini |title=A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations |date=1889 |publisher=Progressive Publishing Company |page=150 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhxLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA150 |language=en}} Giles recorded riding north from Bampton through Wychwood to Pudlicote on 26 March 1852.{{cite book |last1=Giles |first1=John Allen |title=The Diary & Memoirs of John Allen Giles |date=2000 |publisher=Somerset Record Society |isbn=978-0-901732-34-7 |page=296 |language=en}} At this period Giles was planning a biblical commentary to be written with Thomas Wilson, a Cambridge graduate who had left the Church of England in 1847: working title the "Bampton Bible". Samuel Wilberforce, Giles's diocesan bishop, had got wind of the project. Birch advised Giles to leave the editorship of the project to Wilson.{{cite book |last1=Giles |first1=John Allen |title=The Diary & Memoirs of John Allen Giles |date=2000 |publisher=Somerset Record Society |isbn=978-0-901732-34-7 |pages=293–294 |language=en}}{{acad|id=WL827T|name=Wilson, Thomas}} Giles's name was still associated with Wilson's work that appeared the following year.{{cite book |title=The Christian Remembrancer |date=1853 |publisher=F.C. & J. Rivington |page=511 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsERAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA511 |language=en}}

Later life

According to an 1895 article in The Freethinker by "J.M.W." (Joseph Mazzini Wheeler), Birch had a "large fortune" but lost most of it. After university, he had invested in Cornish mines, choosing that course rather than entering politics. His financial position was hard hit when the industry slumped in the middle of the century.{{cite book |title=The Birch Family History: Descendants of Rev. Jonathan Birch, Vicar of Bakewell, Derbyshire, England and His Sons : Rev. John Neville Birch of Leasingham, Lincolnshire : Dr. Charles Birch of St. Kitts, British West Indies : Rev. Thomas Birch of Thoresby, Lincolnshire |date=1998 |publisher=Genealogy Pub. Service |page=328 |language=en}} In May 1853 John Allen Giles attended a shareholders' meeting for a mine, on behalf of Birch. He concluded that Birch was the only investor likely to put in the additional money required to make it viable.{{cite book |last1=Giles |first1=John Allen |title=The Diary & Memoirs of John Allen Giles |date=2000 |publisher=Somerset Record Society |isbn=978-0-901732-34-7 |page=298 |language=en}}

In 1853 Birch was on the London management committee of the Upper Canada Mining Company.{{cite news |title=The Upper Canada Mining Company, advertisement |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001652/18530107/001/0001 |work=Globe |issue=17002 |date=7 January 1853}} He gave land in Canada to Holyoake, for a freethought settlement, which Holyoake later returned.

Birch was one of Giles's bail sureties at the time of his being charged with offences related to a marriage ceremony carried out in 1854.{{cite news |title=The Bampton Marriage Case |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000989/18541209/068/0005 |work=Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette |date=9 December 1854|page=5}}{{cite book |last1=Giles |first1=John Allen |title=The Diary & Memoirs of John Allen Giles |date=2000 |publisher=Somerset Record Society |isbn=978-0-901732-34-7 |page=336 |language=en}} When Giles wrote to Birch with the bad news that the Cornish mine would require a "thumping call" to continue, in May 1855, it was from Oxford Castle where he was imprisoned.{{cite book |last1=Giles |first1=John Allen |title=The Diary & Memoirs of John Allen Giles |date=2000 |publisher=Somerset Record Society |isbn=978-0-901732-34-7 |page=325 |language=en}} The following year, Birch bought the advowson of Draycot Foliat, with the intention of nominating Giles to the living. But Samuel Wilberforce, by refusing to counter-sign the documents, brought the plan to nothing.{{cite book |last1=Giles |first1=John Allen |title=The Diary & Memoirs of John Allen Giles |date=2000 |publisher=Somerset Record Society |isbn=978-0-901732-34-7 |pages=334–336 |language=en}}

On 27 September 1856 Birch and his wife Margaret Fanny gave a farewell dinner at 21 Henrietta Street, London, attended by John Allen Giles, before they set off on a voyage to the USA. She died in Philadelphia, on 11 January 1857. The circumstances, as related to Giles in a letter from Frances May Eddy, a cousin of Birch, involved a pharmacy mistake of black drop, based on opium, for black draught based on senna.{{cite book |last1=Giles |first1=John Allen |title=The Diary & Memoirs of John Allen Giles |date=2000 |publisher=Somerset Record Society |isbn=978-0-901732-34-7 |page=336 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=American Vital Records from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1868 |date=1987 |publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com |isbn=978-0-8063-1177-7 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MNz0xpd8M1EC&pg=PA28 |language=en}} Birch put his Oxfordshire estate on the market for sale in 1858.{{cite news |title=The Desirable & Beautiful Freehold Estate, Known As Pudlicot |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000360/18580114/027/0001 |work=Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette |date=14 January 1858|page=1}}

Birch spent many winters in Florence, where he was on good terms with Walter Savage Landor. He was a supporter of the Mazzinians.{{cite book |last1=Glass |first1=David Victor |title=Population Policies and Movements in Europe |date=1967 |publisher=A. M. Kelley |isbn=978-0-678-05049-1 |page=425 |language=en}} Ultimately Birch moved to Florence, living there with his daughter Pauline. His Italian literary friends there included Angelo de Gubernatis and Giuseppe Ricciardi.

Birch died in 1891 in Florence. He left a portrait to Wheeler, and when he moved to Italy his manuscripts.

Works

Birch published:{{cite web |title=TheCurranIndex |url=http://curranindex.org/articles?search%5Bcontributors%5D%5B%5D=173 |website=curranindex.org}}

  • The Real and the Ideal: Or, Illustrations of Travel (1840), anonymous.{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=James |display-authors=etal |title=Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature |date=1971 |page=23|volume=V |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOZBXJ2eCiwC&pg=PA23}}
  • An Inquiry into the Philosophy and Religion of Shakespeare (1848); it argued that Hamlet was a sceptic.{{cite book |last1=Urban |first1=David V. |title=Religions in Shakespeare's Writings |date=2020-12-10 |publisher=MDPI |isbn=978-3-03928-194-7 |page=115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HgkOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 |language=en}} Birch extended his reasoning to Shakespeare himself.{{cite book |last1=Foulkes |first1=Richard |title=Church and Stage in Victorian England |date=1997-06-28 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-45320-2 |page=103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfAKKd3oxI8C&pg=PA103 |language=en}} Edward Dowden criticised Birch's method as trying to show Shakespeare was an atheist through short proof texts.{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Patrick M. |title=The Tempest: Critical Essays |date=2013-10-28 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-60115-6 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4VnYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |language=en}}
  • Paul an Idea, Not a Fact (1855), anonymous{{cite book |title=Paul an Idea, Not a Fact. By a Master of Arts, Formerly of Balliol College, of the University of Oxford |date=1855 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3aohMwEACAAJ |language=en|last1=Apostle) |first1=Saint Paul (the }}{{cite book |last1=Wheeler |first1=Joseph Mazzini |title=A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations |date=1889 |publisher=Progressive Publishing Company |page=44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhxLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA44 |language=en}}
  • An Inquiry into the Philosophy and Religion of the Bible (1856), translated into Dutch by "Rudolf Charles" (Rudolf Charles d'Ablaing van Giessenburg).
  • The Jesus Christ of John Stuart Mill (1870), under the pseudonym "Antichrist", published by Edward Truelove.{{cite book |title=The Jesus Christ of John Stuart Mill |date=1875 |publisher=E. Truelove |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8zHAGwAACAAJ |language=en}}
  • Bible Bestiality, and Filth from the Fathers (1888) as "Aulus Cornelius Celsus"{{cite book |last1=Celsus |first1=Aulus Cornelius |title=Bible Bestiality, and Filth from the Fathers |date=1888 |publisher=R. Forder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dWsBywEACAAJ |language=en}}
  • Will Shakespeare, Tom Paine, Bob Ingersoll and Charlie Bradlaugh (1890), on diminutive names.{{cite book |last1=Birch |first1=William John |title=Will Shakespeare, Tom Paine, Bob Ingersoll and Charlie Bradlaugh |date=1890 |publisher=R. Forder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u8yAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}

He edited with Maltus Questell Ryall the 1843 defence The Man Paterson of Thomas Paterson, the printer and editor of The Oracle of Reason.{{cite book |last1=Royle |first1=Edward |title=Victorian Infidels: The Origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791-1866 |date=1974 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-0557-2 |page=329 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rclRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA329 |language=en}}

Birch was a prolific contributor to Notes & Queries. In 1882 a series of articles under his name in the National Reformer, entitled "The Christ of Dr. Aveling" referring to Birch's correspondent Edward Aveling, was made the subject of a parliamentary question by Henry Tyler. Tyler called on Sir William Harcourt, the Home Secretary, to look into a prosecution for blasphemy.{{cite web |title=Commons Chamber - Thursday 23 March 1882 - Hansard - UK Parliament |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1882-03-23/debates/af3fdca7-0d27-41d2-aeb5-eeebda79980d/CommonsChamber |website=hansard.parliament.uk |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Royle |first1=Edward |title=Radicals, Secularists, and Republicans: Popular Freethought in Britain, 1866-1915 |date=1980 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-0783-5 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xMhRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA124 |language=en}}

Family

Birch was married, to Margaret Fanny (surname not available). She was born in Dublin, and was aged 38 in 1851.Census record, England 1851. They had four children. There were two sons:–

  • Azim (1837–1923), born in Syria, middle name given as Salvatore, Salvator or Salvador, ran with his younger brother for a period a New Zealand sheep farm of {{convert|115000|acres}}.{{cite web |title=IPENZ Engineering Heritage Record Report Springvale Suspension Bridge|page=6 |url=https://d2rjvl4n5h2b61.cloudfront.net/media/documents/springvale_suspension_bridge_report.pdf}} He was married in 1878 at St Stephen, Kensington, London to Dora Davison.London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P84/STE/002
  • William John Birch the younger, born 1842, emigrated to New Zealand and became a pioneer sheep farmer in Rangitikei.{{cite web |last1=Beck |first1=Martin |title=Hastings – The Development|page=39 |url=https://knowledgebank.org.nz/text/hastings-the-development/ |website=knowledgebank.org.nz |language=en-NZ}} He married in 1875 at Hathern, Leicestershire, Ethel Larden, youngest daughter of the late Rev. George Edge Larden.{{cite news |title=Loughborough |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000205/18751224/034/0007 |work=Leicester Journal |date=24 December 1875|page=7}} Her mother Mary Lydia Fanny Bucknill (died 1901) married Larden in 1847. Ethel — forenames Lydia Etheldreda — is known as an artist as Lydia Larden.{{cite web |title=Lydia Larden |url=https://collection.sarjeant.org.nz/persons/8877/lydia-larden |website=Sarjeant Gallery Whanganui |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002193/18471023/045/0004 |work=St James's Chronicle |date=23 October 1847|page=4}}{{cite web |title=Ethel Birch |url=https://collection.sarjeant.org.nz/persons/10128/ethel-birch|website=Sarjeant Gallery Whanganui}}

The brothers built the Birch Homestead together in 1868, and divided their sheep station in 1897. Azim retired and sold out to Thomas Lowry and Edward Watt. He returned to England. William retired to Marton, and died in 1920.{{cite book |title=Faith & Farming 1 |date=1998 |page=288 |url=https://issuu.com/blackdogdesign/docs/f_f_1998_1 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Birch Homestead, Heritage New Zealand |url=https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/2736 |website=www.heritage.org.nz}}

Antonio Caccia (1801–1867) from Milan was a political exile. He was in England in the late 1820s and married in 1829 (Martha) Sabina Lamb, daughter of the Member of Parliament Thomas Phillipps Lamb (died 1819).{{cite web |title=Caccia, Antonio in "Dizionario Biografico" |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-caccia_(Dizionario-Biografico) |website=www.treccani.it |language=it-IT}} They had two sons, Mario and Fabio, named in a monumental inscription reproduced in Caccia's biography.{{cite book |last1=Caccia |first1=Antonio |title=Biografia di Antonio Caccia |date=1867 |publisher=Tip. Pier Capponi |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zBUu9iDARZkC&pg=PA1 |language=it}} These sons married the two daughters of William and Margaret Birch, Pauline and Clara.

Fabio Caccia, the younger son, middle name given as Guiliano or Juliano or Julian, married Pauline Birch, the elder daughter. Their son William Charles Birch Caccia went to New Zealand in 1884, and in 1897 took over the portion part of the sheep station owned by his uncle William John Birch, who had no heirs and adopted him. He had changed his surname to Caccia-Birch by deed poll in 1891. Caccia Birch House is named for him and his wife Maud.

Azim was the maternal grandfather of Harold Caccia, Baron Caccia.{{cite ODNB|id=39889|last=Sherfield|title=Caccia, Harold Anthony, Baron Caccia}} Lord Caccia's father, Anthony Mario Felix Caccia, was another son of Pauline. The "youngest son of Mr. F. G. Caccia of Florence", he married Fanny Theodora Birch in 1901.{{cite news |title=Mr. A. M. F. Caccia to Miss F. T. Birch |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003340/19011005/250/0043 |work=Gentlewoman |date=5 October 1901|page=43}}

Clara Arabella Caccia née Birch died on 2 August 1875.{{cite book |title=Notes and Queries |date=1908 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=444 |language=en}} Her 1869 marriage was recorded as "At Florence, Cavalier Mario Caccia Major in the Italian Army, to Clara A., daughter of Mr. W. I. Birch, Dec. 27."{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000098/18700107/043/0010 |work=Pall Mall Gazette |date=7 January 1870|page=10}}

Notes