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A recent comment by a reader of a blog piece I did back in 2014 on “A Misleading Apcar Line -Charles Apcar Was Not Armenian” made me go back and revisit it.
*NOTE: The hyperlinks in square brackets [ ] do not work in this blog, please scroll to the bottom to read the links.*
The comment was made by Clare at Arrunga Design who said:
“This is facinating and thank you for your efforts in chasing the paper trail. A word of caution though. Ida starts her divorce application in 1888 after a year of marriage with non consumation. She does have a son in 1894 but maybe by John Apcar. She gives birth in France away from London Society and scandalous wispers. By putting her soon to be divorced husband on the birth record as the father she protects her son from illegitimacy and ensures his legal rights to his faux fathers title and wealth .
John Apcar was a barrister and this would have been the way to handle this delicate situation.
I am inclinded to think Charles was an Apcar and wished to acknowledge his true heritage through Naturalization.
Best wishes Clare”
It has taken me a while to further investigate any
potential possibility to this angle of the original story but I am now able to
reply to Clare as follows:
Looking again at my research a little wider has given a much
better view of this family story. I am still of the opinion that Charles was
born of de Soveral genes as per the evidence in two important documents (1) the
baptism register and, in particular (2) the highlights from the naturalisation
application.
Your speculative theory is interesting, and I’ve taken
some time to expand my research on this story with further documentary evidence
of various events within the family. A rather time consuming and costly
exercise but fascinating nonetheless.
As has already been highlighted Charles was born and
baptised with the surname [de] Soveral, (see original blog article for a copy of
the baptism record), coupled with the naturalisation documentation, stating he
was ‘Soveral but known as Apcar’
(his desire was to be naturalised as a British subject rather than stay a
French citizen), the latter document being the key to his exact identity. IF he
had “wished to acknowledge his true
heritage” as you put it, I believe he would not have put “Portuguese” as his nationality in the
first place. IF John Apcar had been his natural father, it would be mentioned
somewhere on the naturalisation application as important supporting
information.
 |
| Snapshot of the naturalisation application of Charles Soveral |
I also note Charles is listed as “Soveral” on the census
return for 1901. However, speculating
myself now, I would suggest the following scenario. That having married Ida Kreeft in 1899,
 |
| Marriage of John A. Apcar and Ida Vicomtesse de Soveral |
John Alexander Apcar was clearly an influential father
figure in Charles’s life from an early age. I argue that upon marriage to Ida
John decided to adopt five year old Charles to make the family complete. The natural father of Charles as stated on the
baptism record being Edward de Soveral who was deceased at the time of Ida’s 2nd
marriage to John. Worthy of note here is that Ida had also been adopted as a
child herself by Siegerich Kreeft and his second wife Anne[1],
Siegerich having lost his only natural daughter aged seven in 1865 a year after
her own mother Emma (Siegerich’s first wife) had died.
Charles’s entitlement to any Apcar inheritance would have
been secure anyway because he was adopted, it would not have relied on
naturalisation to inherit. Ida had previously sued her estranged husband Edward
de Soveral in 1892 for a sum in excess of £9,000 (a purchasing power value
today at over £800,000) to the extent that he was publicly humiliated and
declared bankrupt a year later. In one newspaper report Edward is noted as
absconding from a hotel in London without paying his £100 bill, something he
was pretty adept at doing. After their wedding, Edward and Ida honeymooned in
various locations in France visiting family and friends. Edward encouraged her
to spend a great deal of money on extravagant and luxury items in exclusive
stores and boutiques, and on more than one occasion he was unable to settle
their hotel accounts. Ida’s mother Anne was summoned to France to bail the
couple out. Edward professing a financial hiccup declared he would go Paris to
obtain money to repay Anne but the money didn’t materialise. Ida had no option
but to sue him for her losses resulting in shame and embarrassment for both him
and his aristocratic family, as well as bankruptcy.
I would further suggest a couple of possibilities. That
there may have been some sort of temporary (but probably strained) brief
reconciliation between Ida and Edward that resulted in Charles being born in
France. I also think that Edward’s son (from his first marriage, spouse
deceased), the Marquis de Soveral pulled a few strings and minimised the amount
of newspaper coverage his father would have otherwise taken up had the Marquis
not been part of His Majesty the King’s inner circle of friends. I am convinced
the Marquis spoke quietly to newspaper editors to minimise the coverage of Ida
and Edward’s troubles.
 |
| Courtesy of The Royal Archives: Marquis de Soveral with King Edward VII |
I say this because although the situation where the
Vicomte Edward de Soveral’s apparent desertion of Ida was reported in the
English newspapers, those articles were greatly muted, and actually barely
given space, compared to the reports of the same scandal in the European papers[2],
whose columns swam with metaphorical titters. Effectively they said a foolish
old man fell for a beautiful blonde. Whilst wooing her, he alluded to having
great wealth which he didn’t. Her canny mother
didn’t do anything to discourage the burgeoning fast-moving relationship, and
after a whirlwind romance they all fell into the local registry office in
Surrey and later a Roman Catholic church to formalise the union. He was around
65 years of age she was 26, although as can be seen from the marriage
certificate he started married life with a lie, stating he was 56 years of age.
(During the Court hearing in London into his bankruptcy in 1892 he confirmed
his age at 70, thus his year of birth was circ 1822. There is a Portuguese reference to a date of birth of 21 May 1822[3]
in São João da Pesqueira Municipality, Viseu District, Portugal).
 |
| Marriage of Ida Kreeft and Edward Vicomte de Soveral |
Prior to the marriage, Ida’s mother Anne was keenly aware
of this well known Portuguese royal related surname of de Soveral and in
particular Edward’s son the Marquis.
Having tasted society’s highest echelons herself, Anne was no stranger
to the world of Foreign Consuls. As already mentioned she had been married to Siegerich Kreeft who was the Consul for Mecklenburg-Schwerin
in London. She became widowed in 1885 leaving her with the urgent matter of
finding a suitable husband for Ida. Siegerich
had been an engineer working on the railway development in Italy and, search as
I might, I could not find a marriage in the UK of Siegerich and Anne. Searching
European records I found Siegerich Kreeft had married Anne Kuzel in France in
September 1866. It would seem that Ida was Anne’s daughter whom Siegerich
adopted after marriage.
Ida saw the circles the de Soveral’s moved in. You can’t
get any higher than royalty, and as I have already stated, the Marquis was a
very close friend of King Edward VII, and Anne did everything to encourage
romance. However, when the Marquis met
Ida who was now his new step mother, he was less than impressed and thought her
a gold digger. What Ida didn’t know was that Edward de Soveral was not wealthy
and relied upon his son the Marquis for an allowance. Edward promised her a settlement for life but
could not fulfil it because his son would not put up the full amount. At first glance, what is odd is that the
divorce document of Edward and Ida does not indicate it went to Nisi or
Absolute and I believe this is because the Marquis probably paid Ida off to go
quietly. And this is where I speculate
that perhaps the 69 year old Edward may not be the father of Charles, but
rather his promiscuous and rampant son the Marquis de Soveral. He was well
known in society to engage in close relationships with ladies and was by all
accounts suave, popular and charming with females. Perhaps whilst negotiating with Ida the best
way for her to desist from dragging his father Edward through the Courts any
further, he got just a little too close, and Charles was the result. The Marquis’s life knew no bounds and he was
a rascal socially (although very reverent in the King’s presence and incredibly
discrete), being part of the hedonistic set that included Alice Keppel. Baptising
Charles with Edward’s name was the best way to save the Marquis and therefore
also saving his friend the King from potential salacious newspaper headlines
and embarrassment.
It would be interesting to get the Will of Edward de Soveral to see if Charles was mentioned, assuming Edward died before Charles.
To give you an idea of how the Marquis was an integral part
of London life and how he could certainly hold the attention of a gathered
audience. Quoting from the book “Edward VII: The Last Victorian King”
Christopher Hibbert wrote:
“…….finding Cassel on occasions a trifle dispiriting, the Prince [of Wales, later King Edward VII] never tired of the Marquis de Soveral, the lively, stimulating Portuguese Minister in London whose charming presence was welcome at every party. Known as the ‘Blue Monkey’ because of his animated manner, blue-black hair and dark complexion, Luis de Soveral was recognised, indeed, as being ‘the most popular man in London’, except at the German Embassy, where he was known as ‘Soveral-Überall’ and strongly disliked for his known anti-German sentiments. The Princess of Pless, the former Daisy Cornwallis-West, treated him as a rather distasteful joke.
“…….finding Cassel on occasions a trifle dispiriting, the Prince [of Wales, later King Edward VII] never tired of the Marquis de Soveral, the lively, stimulating Portuguese Minister in London whose charming presence was welcome at every party. Known as the ‘Blue Monkey’ because of his animated manner, blue-black hair and dark complexion, Luis de Soveral was recognised, indeed, as being ‘the most popular man in London’, except at the German Embassy, where he was known as ‘Soveral-Überall’ and strongly disliked for his known anti-German sentiments. The Princess of Pless, the former Daisy Cornwallis-West, treated him as a rather distasteful joke.
“He
imagines himself to be a great intellectual and political force and the wise
adviser of all the heads of the government, and of course, the greatest danger
to women!...[but surely] even those stupid people who believe that every man
who talks to a woman must be her lover, could not take his Don juan-esque
pretensions seriously. Yet I am told that all women do not judge him so
severely and some even find him très séduisant. How disgusting!”
The
Princess of Pless apart, virtually everyone in London, even the husbands of his
mistresses, and both the Prince of Wales and Alice Keppel, delighted in the
sight of his tall figure approaching, a white flower in his buttonhole, a
monocle firmly fixed in one glittering eye, his large moustache neatly brushed,
his regular teeth revealed in a warm and happy smile, ready to greet an old
friend with enthusiasm or to charm a new acquaintance. ‘As a talker he was
quite wonderful in keeping the ball rolling’, Henry Ponsonby’s son, Frederick
thought. ‘And without being exactly witty his conversation was always sparkling
and amusing. It was only when he had to
talk seriously that one realised how clever he was.’ Yet he did all he could to
disguise his cleverness, having found by experience that ‘both men and women
fight shy of a clever man.’…….”
It would be interesting to get the Will of Edward de Soveral to see if Charles was mentioned, assuming Edward died before Charles.
Clare, turning now to John Apcar and your thought that he
might have fathered Charles. From the moment he passed the Bar exam in 1871 up
to the 1890s John Apcar was a High Court
barrister in Calcutta. Although not impossible for John to have fathered a
child, it is highly unlikely given that he spent most of his career in
India.
Having had Charles in May 1894, Ida returned to England
from France within a month of giving birth[4].
There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest Charles was the natural son of John
Apcar. If your theory Clare were correct
and John Alexander Apcar had been the father, I simply don’t see why Ida would
go to the trouble of naming her son after her down-beat, bankrupt estranged
husband de Soveral. The Apcars were a
large family with a great many things going on, an illegitimate child would not
send them cowering into a corner. (see De Vine Intent, Sarah Apcar was a cousin of John living in London and she and her family took scandal and illegitimacy on the chin), and IF Charles had been the illegitimate son of J.A. Apcar he
would have been baptised with the Apcar name and openly acknowledged as an
Apcar. They were no shrinking violets.
The naturalisation document of Charles de Soveral states
his father was Edward de Soveral and that he was of “Portuguese descent”. The
de Soveral family were most definitely Portuguese and I am utterly convinced
this application was completed truthfully.
Meanwhile Chevalier Siegerich Kreeft had died in Surrey
in November 1885 having made his will in Turin, Italy in February 1884 in
favour of his wife Anne.
 |
| Snapshot of the Will of Siegerich Kreeft |
Anne Kreeft died in Surrey in 1889 having made her will
in December 1885 in favour of her adopted daughter Ida de Soveral.
 |
| Snapshot of the Will of Anne Kreeft |
If you have any documentation or further evidence to
support your suggestion I’d be most interested to see it, but I think the main
thread of my original blog story stands firm and Charles was not a natural born
Apcar but the offspring of a de Soveral.
[1]
The Will of Anne Kreeft 2 December 1885, see image above.
[2]
The scandal was covered in a number of papers, including La Matin, 16 Avril 1892 “Un
Scandale a Londres. Les dangers de la vie d’hotel – Le père d’un
minister – La carte à payer"
[3] Resenha Las Familias Titulares, Grandes
de Portugal – Albano da Silveira Pinto + Visconde de Sanches de Baèna
[4]
The naturalisation application of Charles de Soveral, National Archives, Kew.
