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| Order of Service used at the Marriage of the Princess Royal and the Crown Prince of Prussia, 1858 [From my own collection] |
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| The Princess Royal & the Crown Prince of Prussia at the time of their Wedding, 1858 [From my own collection] |
It is in fact a hard bound copy of the spoken words used during the marriage at The Chapel Royal, St James' Palace, London on the 25th January 1858, of The Princess Royal, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise (Eldest Daughter of Queen Victoria) and HRH Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl (Crown Prince of Prussia and later Father of The Kaiser). The "VR" in gold is Queen Victoria's personal cypher along with the Crown. All attendees at the service would have had been given a copy of this booklet to allow them to follow the order of service, with those words spoken by the Royal couple also being highlighted in red.
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| The Wedding of the Princess Royal & the Crown Prince of Prussia, 1858. A watercolour by Efron S. Lundgren [Source : Royal Collection Trust] |
The inside of the booklet included a hand written name in cursive script, reading "B Hall", also with the date of the wedding. With this information I wrote to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle in 2005, receiving a most helpful reply from their Senior Archivist, Miss Pamela Clark. She wrote that, having checked the extant guest list;
"the only persons called Hall listed were Sir Benjamin Hall, Chief Commissioner of Works, and his wife, Augusta....." and that; ...presumably there were other people present as well as the guests, such as the clergy, choir and musicians, and I am afraid that we do not have their names."She did in fact also direct me to The National Archives who held the records for the Lord Chamberlain's Office, being responsible for arranging Royal weddings. I did not however pursure this option as this would have incurred a charge. But, as detailed below, the association with the above-named Sir Benjamin Hall appears now to have been conclusively confirmed.
How this booklet came to end up in New Zealand is rather interesting and also accounts for how it had slipped into obscurity. The "Newport Public Libraries" located within the County of Monmouthshire in Wales (United Kingdom) evidently disposed of a quantity of books from their storage stack, stamping them "Discarded from stock". This also accounts for a mark on the bottom left of the cover where a library number had been affixed. The discarded books, including the 1858 Order of Service, were then (from memory) purchased by a Welsh second hand book shop owner. Their entire stock was subsequently sold to the owner of "Albatross Books", a second hand book dealer based in Dunedin, New Zealand. This large stock of books was then shipped half way around the world to be sold in their shop, an advertisement at the time alluding to the dealer having bought a stock lot of books from the UK.
And it was in this bookshop, and while looking at these books, that I discovered "The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony" although even then I didn't appreciate its full historic significance. But i've always had a keen eye for interesting and unusual items.
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| Sir Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover [Source Wikipedia] |
But it is only now that I have made one further discovery relating to the booklet's provenance. Research confirms that the above-named Sir Benjamin Hall (1802 - 1867), and who attended the 1858 Royal wedding with his wife Augusta, was a Civil Engineer, the first Commissioner of [Public] Works serving from 1855 to 1858, elevated to the peerage as "Lord Llanover" in 1859, and then served as Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire from 1861 to 1867. Through his wife Augusta, a Welsh Heiress, he inherited the Llanover Estate in Monmouthshire which is just only under twenty miles from Newport being where the booklet ended up in their public library. The Hall's resided at Llanover Hall just east of Llanover and while this grand home was largely demolished in 1936, one range remains, now being known as "Llanover House" with the estate gardens regularly opening to the public. But the 1858 Order of Service will have, for some years, resided here at Llanover Hall in Lord Llanover's library.
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| Llanover House, taken late 1800's [Source : People's Collection, Wales] |
One would also assume that other books from Hall's library (Lord Llanover died in 1867 and his wife Augusta in 1896) also ended up at an indeterminate date at the Newport Library. However, back in 2001 I was not, at the time, checking the stock lot of purchased books for any indication of a former provenance.
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| "The Great Bell", commonly known as "Big Ben" after Sir Benjamin Hall, Commissioner of Works. [Source : Public Domain] |
Rather interestingly, Sir Benjamin Hall, and during his tenure as Commissioner of Public Works, also oversaw the later stages of the rebuilding of the British Houses of Parliament including the casting and installation of the 13.8-tonne hour bell, "Big Ben" (actually correctly termed "The Great Bell") in the clock tower, a name which is commonly attributed to him. An article in "The Times" newspaper of the 22nd October 1856 would appear to conclusively confirm this attribution;
“All bells, we believe, are christened before they begin to toll, and on this occasion, it is proposed to call our king of bells ‘Big Ben’ in honour of Sir Benjamin Hall, the president of the board of works, during whose tenure of office it was cast.”
Reportedly being a rather tall gentleman probably also accounted for the title.
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| Sir Benjamin Hall, Lord Llanover From an original pre 1867 photograph [Source : People's Collection Wales] |
Having formerly worked in an Archive, I know that provenance is very important and in this case I have managed to establish beyond any reasonable doubt not only the historical authenticity of the Order of Service, but also the original ownership of this item, and of its subsequent ownership history. From an initial inquiry to the Newport Central Library they had no knowledge of having taken over Hall's library. I think if this had been a significant bequest that they would be well aware of this fact and still have holdings from such a learned and accomplished gentleman's library. Mr Clauzon, their most helpful Reference Librarian was going to investigate further with a retired staff member but I have heard nothing more since then. Should any more information come to hand I will of course update this Blog.
While still not by any means a hugely valuable booklet it is however nice to own an item that had been used by a guest who attended the 1858 Royal wedding and to discover something of the rich and varied life of the original recipient.
All Rights Reserved
Acknowledgements for Valued Assistance :
- Mr Lionel Clauzon, Reference Librarian, Newport Central Library, Wales (2024)
- Miss Pamela Clark, [former] Senior Archivist, Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, UK
Reference Sources :
- Personal collection
- Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, UK
- Royal Collection Trust- Llyfrgell Ganolog Casnewydd / Newport Central Library, Wales
- Casgliad y Werin Cymru / People's Collection Wales
- Wikipedia
- Various Internet resources
