The Bonds of Newbury and London
EPILOGUE
Now that I have reached the end of my account of the Bonds, you may be wondering why I set about it in the first place?
It happened like this. Years ago, there was a pedigree of this part of the Bond family taking us back to Cornwall, in the possession of the St. Quintin Bonds, differentiated thus from ourselves, the "George" Bonds. My father told me about it, and a good deal about the family, but he did not write any of it down, because, as he said ;-- "The St. Quintin Bonds have got the proper thing, and they'll let you see it when ever you want to". And so they would, but when they were moving from a house in Leamington to a flat in London, they packed it in a case with some of their brother Charles' clothes which he had left in their charge, he being in Ayr at the time where he played in an orchestra. They saw that case standing on the pavement beside the pantechnicon, ready to be put into it, but it was never seen again. Only Edith and Bertha were alive then besides Charley, and my father had died in 1925, so all the information was lost.
My second cousins, the St. Quintin Bonds, could only remember the shield, "ar, on a chevron sable three bezants", and the bit about coming from Cornwall. I could remember a few scraps of information my father had told me. It seemed a pity, but I did nothing at the time. About three years ago, having by that time found I was interested in history, I decided to look into it, and see if I could find out how we were joined to the rest of the Bond family, that came from Cornwall. We all seemed to have had the winged horse as crest as long as anyone could remember. I got in touch with the College of Arms, hoping they might have a copy there; they had not, but were very helpful in suggesting how I should set about searching. They offered to do it, but at a price, and I decided to try myself.
It grew into a most fascinating hobby. I went over and over again to London; to the British Museum, to Somerset House, to the Guildhall, to the County Hall, The British Museum Library, the Record Office, Greenwich Museum, several church vestries, to St. Helen's Bishopsgate to see the tombs of the London Bonds; to Cornwall, where I visited both Earth and Holwood, saw the floor slab at Saltash and the War Memorial, and Trematon Castle.; To Looe, to see Thomas Bond's house and inscription in St. Martins Church, and to Calstock where that branch of the family used to live. To Newbury, to the city to see the site of the bank and the Leadenhall Street office, and to Bunhill Fields to see the graves, also Highgate to see my grandfather's grave, with some of his family and the original Minets.
I got much information about the Bonder and the De Earths from Dr. Bond's book, about which a member of the Purbeck family kindly told me. As there was so little to start with, I worked my way up every branch of the family. And it was curious how as I progressed, sayings of my father's that I had forgotten, kept coming up in my mind, and they all proved right! After nearly three years of searching, I found I had enough information about every branch of the family to write this account of the whole thing. It is a family to be proud of. It has kept steady for six hundred years and more, and all its members seem to have been good, useful people, ready to think for themselves, and stick to what they happen to believe.
I have had to write to many public bodies, such as the Port of London Authority, various schools, city companies, and the Bankers Institute, (this last for conformation as to the paying in full of the bank obligations), and the other places I have mentioned. And they have all been most helpful and courteous. It had been thought that George Bond the musician had played in the court Orchestra. To find out this, and so try to trace him at an early stage, I wrote to the secretary to the domestic staff at Buckingham Palace. He sent on my letter the same day to the librarian at Windsor, who not only replied by return that George had not been in the orchestra, but actually sent me a book on loan from the Castle Library so that I could see how the musicians were entered! I first traced the bank through that book! An amazing piece of kindness from such a place. If there is any truth in that George did ever play in that Orchestra, it could only have been as a substitute, perhaps if some other player were ill.
Now I am going to ask you, my cousin, to do something too! Will you please keep these papers carefully, not letting them be thrown away, and when you pass on in the course of nature, will you see that they go on to another member of the family who will also take care of them? (And of the pedigree that will accompany them).
And also, if in the course of time, this paper shall crumble or the ink fade, will you type it out again, so that our people shall not be forgotten?
If there should be no member of your immediate family left, when you go, perhaps you could send it to another branch that has branched out more freely?
