These following letters revolve mainly around four siblings and their descendants. The siblings are: Mary Man (nee Balchen), Eliza Cumberland (nee Balchen), William Balchen and Ann (Nancy) Balchen. William does not make an appearance but his descendants do. The sons of Eliza (Richard and George Cumberland) are the two main protagonists. Details of the families of Mary, Eliza, and William are as follows:

Mary Man (nee Balchen) (1721 -1790), John Man (1718 - 1783), her husband. Their children: Henry (Harry) (1746/7 -1799), John (1749 - 1824) and James (1755 -1823) and Francis (Fanny) (1757 - 1842). Mary Man is sometimes referred to as Aunt Man or Mrs. Mann.

Eliza Cumberland (nee Balchen) (1726 - after 1814), mother of Richard (1752 -1825) and George Cumberland (1754 -1848). Their father George Cumberland had died in 177_.

A. William Balchen (1722 - 1765), his children are: Sarah (Sally) (1751 - 1780), Eliza (1752 - 177?), Susannah (1753 - 1778), Mary (1754 - 1786), and John (1761 - 1783).

B. Ann (Nancy) Balchen (1729 - 1780) sister to Mary, Eliza, and William. She features quite prominently among the letters for all the wrong reasons.

C. Henry Balchen (1698 - 1780), uncle of Mary Man, Eliza Cumberland, and William Balchen. His son John (1745 - 1785), first cousin to Mary, Eliza, and William. And, Henry Balchen's wife Mary.

There are times when the brothers refer to a 'Mr. Balchen' or 'Mr. B' and the referent could be either their great uncle Henry Balchen (1698 - 1780) or his son John Balchen (1745 - 1785). There are also references to a 'John Balchen' or 'J.B.' which could be this John or William Balchen's son John (1761 - 1783). But, usually there is no doubt which John is being referred to since the Cumberland brothers neither liked nor trusted the elder John while they were fond of the younger.

Although William Balchen had died before the start of the letters, and so does not make an appearance, his children played a significant role in the lives of their Cumberland / Man relations. However, by the time the letters conclude in 1784 none of their Balchen cousins are living but Mary who dies in 1786.

Sarah Balchen married her cousin Mr. Read and had three children: Sarah (Sally), Hannah (1779 - 1781), and James. There are occasional references in the letters to the Read family.

A fifth Balchen sibling James (1724 - 1748/9) makes an appearance in the form of a letter addressed to his brother-in-law George Cumberland Senior which appears in the appendix.

Thus the Cumberland brothers had two sets of first cousin on their mother's side, the Mans and the Balchens.

OTHER CHARACTERS

The Balchen family, to which Mary Man and Eliza Cumberland belonged, was a London family. Another family by the same name (variously spelled Baltchin or Balchin), and somehow connected to the London Balchens, is found quite prolifically in the Guildford / Godalming area of Surrey. Various attempts have been made to unite the two families, but so far an explicit documented connection between the Surrey and London Balchens has not been made. This leaves both families in a somewhat awkward position because one of England's great naval heroes, Admiral Sir John Balchen, in unaccounted for with regard to how exactly he fits  genealogically with both the Surrey and London Balchens, although Clementina Black does not hesitate to do so as follows:

"On their mother's side [i.e. Eliza Cumberland] they were of creditable family. The great names among the Balchens were those of Admiral Sir John Balchen and of a certain Richard Cradoc, described as having been a consul in Persia under Charles II, and as having returned to London in the year of the Great Fire, that is in 1666.  A sister or a daughter of this Cradoc appears to have married a Balchen, 'A relative of Sir John Balchen' … " (CB p. 15 - 16).

Clementina Black's convoluted argument to connect Admiral Balchen's branch with the London Balchens throws little light on the relations within the London branch. As to these, Ms. Black gives the following somewhat inaccurate account where I have provided additional material or corrections in [ ].

"We begin with a certain Balchen marrying a Miss Cradoc [no record has yet been found to support this claim] and that two of their sons lived in the Minories, where one William [not William but Richard Balchen (1692- 1738)], was an apothecary and druggist. The other was Henry a 'hozier' who is said to have made a fortune by trade early in life; he married twice and had one son, John, who left one daughter [Susan] 'with a good fortune'. William Balchen [in fact Richard] was the father of two sons and four daughters. The elder son, William, was 'an Indian Captain', and must have been dead by the year 1772 [true, he died in July 1765]. He left a widow (whose maiden name was perhaps Tapp) [no her maiden name was O'Neal]."

"The younger son, James [1724 - 1748/9], died at the age of twenty-four, 'of a decline'. A curious letter from him to George Cumberland, who became his brother-in-law, occupies the first place in the correspondence." [Ms. Black is referring to George Cumberland senior, the father of Richard Dennison and George. The letter is in fact a copy of a letter James had written to the British Consulate in Bremen, it is not addressed to George directly but was enclosed with one that was. See the appendix for details. James Balchen also wrote a journal soon after his sister Mary married John Man, in which he describes a visit to his sister's new in-laws at Hurst, near Reading. This journal is dated April 18th 1747 and has been transcribed].

"The daughters of the apothecary [Richard Balchen] were Mary, who married John Man (the name appears consistently in this form) and had two sons John and Henry, and two daughters, one of whom was named Fanny. A second daughter [of the apothecary's], Susan[na] whose husband was a Mr. Thompson and who had one son; Ann [Nancy] who did not marry; and Elizabeth, who married George Cumberland and was the mother of Richard Dennison and George [ …] Their mother, it appears, lived before her marriage, with a Mrs. Boulter, who appears from the pedigree to have been another daughter of Cradoc, the Persian consul, and is described as 'a lady of large fortune, who resided at St. Mary Axe, was a widow and sister of Lady Blount of Stratford, both their husbands had been directors in the South Sea Company, and the chief of their property devolved to Richard Cross Esq., their nearest relation, a man of large fortune who lived in Grovenore St London, and Richmond Hill and always considered my mother a distant relation.' 'My mother' is Mrs. Cumberland, born Elizabeth Balchen." (CB pp. 18 -19). Clementina Black gives no indication as to which of the two bothers wrote this and with out more context it provides only clues. We do learn three 'facts', the consul Cradoc had three daughters one married a Balchen, one a Boulter and the other a Blount. Ms. Black also refers throughout this discussion of the family's history to a pedigree as if it were some document that she was viewing but what this is exactly cannot be determined.

Ms. Black fails to mention, when listing the Man brothers (Henry and John) above, the youngest brother James, who also makes an appearance in the letters. Mr. James Thompson, whom Ms. Black refers to above, was a widower and the father of Eleanor (Nelly) Thompson who married Henry Man. Thus Henry Man's father in law married his (Henry's) first cousin. The son of this Thompson-Balchen marriage was James. At the time of writing Ms. Black would not have been aware of this relationship. The silhouette (left) is of a young Richard Cumberland.  

It has been noted above that all the children of William Balchen died young. The reason for this according to Ms. Black is the "family tendency to consumption". As far as we can tell there are no male descendants of the London Balchens (nor are there any of the Admiral's) and thus the name from this branch does not continue today.

Ms. Black gives the following character sketch of the brothers Cumberland and their mother:

"Richard, calm, sedate, somewhat cold and passive, but quietly tenacious, fond of the country but, fond too of pleasant company, happy in his little farm, and among its domestic animals, a little touchy with superiors and perhaps with equals, but open, generous and considerate to the poor, and beloved by young people; George, impulsive eager, full of artistic appreciations, half-developed talents, and intellectual interests, energetic to excess and subject to fits of melancholy, the warmest of friends and yet a lover of solitary rambles, always busy for others and coveting leisure for his own pursuits, more keenly happy and more deeply sad than his brother -- the more interesting of the two and the more faulty. In the background stands the figure of their widowed mother, active, thrifty devoted to her sons, but the torment of their daily lives and on no friendly terms with her sister [Mrs. Mary Man] (who to do her justice, appears thoroughly disagreeable). All the elderly ladies on both sides of the family seem to have been tiresome … All characters [appearing in the letters] were as unreasonable and as prickly as Mrs. Cumberland, under whose rule no servant 'above an Ideot' would consent to remain … " (CB pp. 10-11).

Letters 1771 - 1776