Ovapedia search :

Charles Seagram lived in Myrtle Cottage in East (then Prospect) Terrace from about 1858 to 1867 (1,2).  He was born in Wylye, Wiltshire the son of John Seagram and his wife Felicia (3).  His father was a graduate of Exeter College Oxford and rector of Godmanston in Dorset and later of Aldbourne in Wiltshire (4).  

Charles had a career in the army (5), and started by joining the 45th Regiment of Foot as an ensign in June 1826.  He became Lieutenant in March 1831 replacing a deceased colleague.  The 45th were in India for some of this period and Ensign Seagram embarked from Gravesend for Madras in February 1827, and Lieutenant Seagram returned from Madras in November 1837.  He was promoted to Captain in April 1842.  The Regiment was involved assisting the civil power during the Chartist riots between 1840 and 1843.  Charles was promoted to Captain in April 1842. At around this time, the 45th was based in Ireland and in 1843 Charles married Sarah Fergusson in Cork.  The same year the Regiment was split into a first and a reserve battalion. 

The 1st Battalion 45th Foot left Cork for the Cape in February 1843 (comment on RootsChat.com) but I suspect Seagram didn’t accompany them at once.  Sarah was pregnant and their first son John Henry Stawell Seagram was christened at his grandfather’s church in Aldbourne in January 1844 (6); John also had a military career.  An embarkation list shows that Captain Seagram left Portsmouth for Cogh in March 1844 (7) accompanied by one other man (? possibly his orderly).  I think this must be a mistake and they actually sailed to Cobh in Cork, Ireland, to join up with the reserve battalion of the 45th.  He later went out to the Cape to rejoin the 1st battalion by 1845. 

In South Africa the Dutch settlers had for many years been trekking up country to get away from British rule and many had settled in Natal.  When on 12th May 1843, just nine days after the arrival of the 45th, Sir George Napier, the Governor of Cape Colony, proclaimed Natal a British Colony, it was considered prudent to send two companies of the 45th to Natal to assist in establishing the Queen’s Authority.   

Initially the Dutch were somewhat antagonistic towards the regiment, but within months the majority of the burghers who had remained in Natal after annexation accepted the Queen’s rule and, as they fraternized with the troops, the Colony settled down to a friendly co-existence.  Later in May 1845 the light company, including Seagram, was detached from Headquarters at Simonstown to reinforce the troops on the Eastern Frontier (8).  

The light company at its base in Colesberg had a tougher time, being involved in keeping the peace between the burghers and the natives and even between warring factions amongst the burghers themselves.  They also took a prominent part in putting down the cattle-thieving activities of the native Xhosa.  

In 1846 they became involved in the 2nd Kaffir War against the indigenous Xhosa people who were aggrieved that their land and water was being taken by the settlers. Seagram was sent with an eighty strong section of the light company to the Tarka Post which was one of the military outposts in a chain of forts along the frontier at that time.  According to one account he was a very effective commanding officer as evidenced by the following passage (9). 

“A finer, a braver a harmonious and happy set of officers and men could not have been found in our, or any other service. In less than a month, they turned the open exposed position into one of the strongest on the frontier, without the assistance of engineer, sapper, or miner: though strictly disciplined, they were cordial, like a family, and of course ever ready for service and danger”.  

He was also highly praised for a raid he led on Mapona’s Kraal during the war killing nine rebels and taking four hundred head of cattle. 

After the war he was promoted to Major in September 1848 and on the 3rd August 1849 he exchanged with a fellow officer and went on half pay.  He seems to have remained as such until late December 1854 when he took up a post as Captain in the 17th Foot.  Later in the London Gazette of 7th September 1855 we find - “Brevet-Major Charles Seagram, 17th Foot, to be Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army”.  This was followed two years later by - Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Seagram, retired full-pay 17th Foot, to be Colonel in the Army, the rank being honorary only. Dated 30th October,1857. 

I suspect that he retired more or less immediately to Budleigh Salterton as he appears in the 1861 census living at Myrtle Cottage with his wife Sarah (aged 43) and son Charles Ferguson Seagram a five year old born in Ireland.  Their eldest son was not at home (he later joined the 95th regiment as an ensign in 1863).   

They are in the 1866 Directory for the town but by 1871 they had moved to Bath and, as their youngest son died there at the age of 16 in 1873, I wonder if the child was perhaps chronically ill because Budleigh and Bath were noted for their health giving properties.  Charles and Sarah both died in Bath, in 1880 and 1882 respectively.  Major John Seagram was executor and was described as “son and only next of kin” in his mother’s entry (10).  

Researched and Compiled by Roger Lendon  © 2011 

(1)1861 census

(2)1866 Kelly’s Directory

(3)www.familysearch.org

(4)Oxford University Alumni from www.Ancestry.com

(5)Army Lists & London Gazette

(6)Aldbourne Parish Register

(7)www.fibis.org

(8)Historical Dictionary of the British Empire.

(9)A History of the Cape ...  by Lt. Colonel E. E. Napiek 1850 Wm. Shoberl. London

(10)England and Wales, National Probate Calendar

134 BS-B-00051 Biography any