History, Europe And Jeremy

Doing a search around the Isle of Wight in 1851 trying to find families that had moved came across Corbyn's. Whether they are anything to do with Jeremy Corbyn's lot is another matter. It is one of those names with varied spelling down the decades so great care is needed.

What did make the eyebrows raise a little was that they were in the Parish of Whippingham, which is good for a giggle. But they were close to Osborne House, the favoured retreat of Queen Victoria where she spend a good deal of time.

It was said that she was kind and considerate to the local peasants, so I wonder if those Corbyn's, decidedly of the lower orders, were ones who benefited. If taken on as servants when The Royals were visiting did they ever polish boots, tug forelocks and stand respectively aside when the carriages came down the road?

The Parish Church was named St. Mildred's after the ancient saint of the past who was one of those holy ladies venerated in her time and for centuries after. Apparently, she was a Gaul and related to the rulers of the Merovingian Empire, see Clovis above.

A Corbyn took in lodgers, one being a William Dashwood. This was the surname of several families on the Island with relations in Hampshire. Which brings us to another famous lady, almost a saint to some, Miss Jane Austen. In "Sense and Sensibility" there is a Dashwood family.

So was that name taken from Hampshire or Isle of Wight locals, or from the Francis Dashwood of the Hellfire Club and the landed ones who lived interesting lives? We shall never know because so many of her papers were destroyed.

The ideals of the Merovingian rulers may be the ones that Jeremy Corbyn follows in his new found desire to be at one with Europe. So is St. Mildred one that he has special feeling for?

Taken with Queen Victoria and Jane Austen, there might be unplumbed depths there.