Dear EM Hingston
Thank you for your letter and enclosed receipt. I was so sorry that you were put to this trouble on my behalf. The senders of the receipt are really responsible for the mistake having been made. In spite of the care with which I invariably write my full rank on all business letters, it is amazing how many supposedly business-like people are either too lazy or too ignorant to read and write. They can understand the word Surgeon, and likewise the word Lieutenant; but when they see the two together – separated only by a hyphen – they just give up the bloody ghost altogether!
I was really most pleased to hear from you, because it is seldom that I meet a namesake, and I wonder do you know where your branch of the family came from, or how long they have been in Australia. As a New Australian myself, a good deal of information has come my way and the following notes may be of interest to you. The name Hingston was originally spelt Hingeston, and the main branches of both families have been – for many centuries – landed gentry along the border of Devon & Cornwall. The last chief of the English Hingstons died a few years ago, leaving landed estate valued at over a hundred thousand pounds. A family tree has been left for me, which traces direct back to old English and French Kings, with many high-priced aristocratic connections, including the Earls of Egmont (who produced two Prime Ministers) and the Dukes of Marlborough (who produced Winston Churchill). All of which is very flattering, but no damn use as far as you and I are concerned. Actually, there were hardly any distinguished men in the main family itself. The only one worth claiming was John Hingston, a celebrated musician, who taught the organ at Hampton Court Palace successively to Charles I, Cromwell, Charles II.
A junior branch, from which I come, was started in Ireland by a Devonshire yeoman, called Major James Hingston, who had fought in the Parliamentary Army against Charles I. His grandson, also called James, obtained a grant of land, Aglish in County Cork. Aglish was formally the stronghold of a wild Irish chieftain, Teige MacCormac MacCarthy, King of Muskerry, who – with more valour than discretion – had rebelled against Queen Elizabeth, with the result his head was chopped off and his property was confiscated by the crown. The House of Hingston reigned uncontested at Aglish from the time of Charles II till the turn of the present century. Snobbery and intermarriage, however, gradually weakened their position, and their morals were by no means pure. Practically every generation married a relative; one of my direct ancestors was married to his brother’s daughter. They used to say that they had three types of relatives, call respectively, the front-door, the side-door and the back-door. The front-door relatives were the legitimate and claimable; the side door ones were legitimate but not claimable; and the back-door ones were neither legitimate nor claimable. Unfortunately, in the remnants of the Irish Hingstons at the present time; those of illegitimate origin are much more numerous than their legitimate brethren. The only one to achieve real distinction was surgeon, Sir William Hales Hingston, who migrated to Canada, and become one of the greatest surgeons in that country as well as being three times Lord Mayor of Montreal. A peculiar thing was that, in every generation, the eldest son was called James, and subsequent sons were usually called William and Richard. The last James (my great-uncle) to live in Aglish was disinherited and expelled from the country because he had committed the horrible crime of marrying his father’s cook; he fled to the U.S.A, and subsequently obtained a prominent position on the editorial staff of the New York Times. The property was then left to the 2nd son Richard (my grandfather) who had to leave everything to the mercy of his tenants and he himself settled permanently in England. Aglish was taken over by the Irish Land Commission, which divided it out in grants to the local true-blooded Irishmen. My father returned to live in County Cork in 1935 and I myself spent 20 very happy years there; but all the old social ties have been abolished and not one acre of Aglish is retained by the family – indeed, we did not even dare to speak about it in Ireland.
I seem to have written a terribly long letter – which I never intended doing. I hope, EM Hingston, that I may some day have the pleasure of meeting you; though I might add, to be honest, that it would be undesirable for both us to serve in the same ship!
Faithfully Yours,
Richard. G. Hingston
Surgeon-Lieutenant, R.A.N..