Career and Will - Charles Hall Shearn

This is the fifth installment of our multipart series on the tw-generation study of the Charles Hall Shearn family and the family of his father, Mark Hall Shearn. If you like, you can also read the previous installments:

1. Two Generations Son / Father
2. Short Marriage Short Life
3. Building a Life Together
4. Long and Prosperous Marriage

Charles spent much of his life in service. He was a groom in 1841 when he was only 20 years old. A few years later, at the age of 28, he had his first child and was near the top of his profession as a butler. Not long after he did reach the pinnacle as a house steward. A groom took care of the horses and stables. As a butler he would have been in charge of the bulk of the household staff. As a house steward he would have been in charge of the entire running of the house from supplies, to staff discipline and hiring, etc.

Charles’ Career

Charles’ work in service began early on as noted previously. He was a groom for the prominent Cordes family in Malpas, Wales. The family owned a nail factory. Charles was 20 years old and unmarried.

Charles’ early servant position at Roderic House was not noted in the record of marriage to Matilda Hart, it only reported that he was a servant, but he must have been very capable because by the 1858 birth of Charles James Hall Shearn, just two years after his marriage, he was running the house as butler at 15 Hyde Park Gardens, Paddington for George Glas Sandeman, a prosperous merchant.

From lowly groom to butler to house steward.

Matilda, Charles’ wife, was running a boarding house and minding the children at 8 Palace St near Buckingham Palace.

By 1881, Charles was house steward in the home of the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, the pinnacle of his career. According to found records, he worked for the Marquess both in Berkeley Square and in the country estate at Bowood in Wiltshire. He may have also traveled to other properties or on trips with the Marquess as his services were necessary.

By 1881 Charles’ had lost two wives and was married to his last wife, Eliza. While Charles was living on Berkeley Square, Eliza had Charles James Hall Shearn her step-son and Robert Austin Shearn her son with Charles, at 17 Half Moon St where the family owned a boarding house.

17 Half Moon Street backed up to 34 Clarges Street. The Shearns kept boarding houses in each.

Charles’ Will

Charles Hall Shearn left a will. His will was probated 23 February 1922 in the amount of £4364 19 shillings 5 pence.[1] The will was written 17 December 1889. He added a codicil on 12 March 1898. In the will he names his wife Eliza and his oldest son Charles James Hall Shearn as his executors. He left all of his possessions in a trust. Eliza was the primary beneficiary. Charles wanted his real estate to be sold. He determined that his investment returns were not to be directed back into the investments as capital, but to be taken as income into the trust. He named his sons to each receive portions of his estate after Eliza’s death based on sixth parts of the trust. Charles James Hall Shearn was to receive one sixth part. Robert Austin Shearn was to receive two sixth parts once he was 21 years old. Albert Henry Shearn was allotted three sixths parts at the age of 21 years. If any of the boys were to die and leave a grandchild, their portions were to be divided equally.

Robert Austin Shearn was disinherited.

In 1898 Charles Hall Shearn made an amendment to his will. The codicil revoked all gifts previously made to Robert Austin Shearn including a watch chain, jewelry, and a silver bowl that was given to Charles by the Marquess of Lansdowne. He gave the watch chain, jewelry, and the silver bowl to Charles James Hall Shearn, and he gave the two sixths parts from the trust fund to Albert Henry Shearn. It was likely that Robert done something very wrong for Charles to remove him from his will. Because the codicil was added in 1898 the incident happened before that date. Robert later appeared in Australian and New Zealand criminal records.

Charles worked his way to the top in his field. From the bottom of service as groom all the way to the top as house steward.

The sum £4364 19 shillings 5 pence was quite impressive particularly for a man from such low means. Charles must have planned very well from an early period, and his wives and children must have helped a great deal in order to maintain the boarding houses as the did. When Charles and Eliza passed away they employed servants of their own. From the bottom of the ladder as a groom mucking stalls to the top of the household service field as house steward for nearly two decades, Charles' career was long and prosperous.