---

The Corsellis Family of Wandsworth
Research notes

---

For four generations the Corsellises were part of Wandsworth’s legal and civic life. Arthur Alexander Corsellis, born in India, was Clerk to the Wandsworth District Board of Works and vestry clerk of Battersea, and lived at Marney Lodge on East Hill. His son Henry Nicholas Corsellis built some 1,700 houses between the commons. Henry Nicholas’s grandson, the poet Timothy Corsellis, began work in the Town Clerk’s office at Wandsworth in 1939.

These are working notes, with a section for each member of the family, added to as the research goes on. The newest findings are in the research log at the foot of the page.

Contents

• The family in outline
• Origins: Flemish merchants, Essex gentry, and India
• Arthur Alexander Corsellis (1828–1888), clerk and solicitor
• Arthur Alexander’s children
• Henry Nicholas Corsellis (1855–1910), solicitor and developer
• Henry Nicholas’s children
• Douglas Henry Corsellis (1896–1930)
• Timothy Corsellis, poet (1921–1941)
• Corsellis homes in Wandsworth
• The firm: Corsellis & Berney, 94 East Hill
• Notes on the Ancestry tree
• Open questions
• Research log
• Sources

The family in outline

So Timothy was Henry Nicholas’s grandson and Arthur Alexander’s great-grandson. The family names run through all the generations: Henry Nicholas (four times), Douglas (from Hannah Douglas, Major Corsellis’s mother), George Caesar (probably from Sir Caesar Child, whose daughter married into the Essex Corsellises), and the houses called Marney Lodge and Layer Marney, after the Essex manor.

Origins: Flemish merchants, Essex gentry, and India

The Corsellises “came out of Flanders and settled in London about the year 1570”. Zegar Corsellis (died 1625) married Joyce Vanacker, daughter of an Antwerp and London merchant. One son, Abraham, was a brewer; another, Nicholas, founded the family’s line at Wivenhoe and Layer Marney in Essex. confirmed (Stirnet, from Essex pedigrees)

In the Essex line, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Corsellis (1778–1799) married Hannah Douglas. Their son Henry Nicholas Corsellis was born on 23 January 1800 at Bencoolen, Sumatra, and became a major in the Indian army. He married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Rowland Ingram, at Bombay on 26 November 1825. confirmed tree

Their children were born in India: George Henry (Douglas) at Bhuj in 1826 (died at Sukkur, Sind, in 1846); Arthur Alexander at Mhow on 2 August 1828; and Marion Isabel at “Asshurghur” (Asirgarh?) in 1830 (died at Cheltenham in 1926). Sarah died on 30 July 1844 on board the Linden, coming home from India; the Major died at Liverpool on 22 January 1848. tree

Arthur Alexander Corsellis (1828–1888), clerk and solicitor

Our earlier page of newspaper notes on him is A.A. Corsellis.

• Born 2 August 1828 at Mhow, India. tree
• Married 25 January 1851 at Holy Trinity, Islington, Eliza Marsh Hamber (born 1824 in Southampton Buildings, Holborn; died 1893). tree
• In Wandsworth by the 1851 census, aged 22, newly married: the start of the family’s time in the parish. tree
• Marney Lodge, East Hill: his home in the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses, and the birthplace of all his children from 1855 to 1867. It was later numbered 69 East Hill. tree
• Solicitor. Clerk to the Wandsworth District Board of Works for nearly thirty years. The Board, set up under the Metropolis Management Act of 1855, covered Battersea (until 1888), Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting and Wandsworth. to check (dates of appointment and retirement)
• In 1867 described as “Solicitor, Clerk to the Magistrates”: clerk to the justices at the Wandsworth Petty Sessions. tree
• Vestry clerk of Battersea from 1863. In 1865–67 he was attacked at Battersea ratepayers’ meetings and in the South London Press, by George Ayles, John Buckmaster and others, for holding three offices at once (“a sort of Cerberus”). A vestry committee reported on his conduct in 1866; the vestry passed a vote of confidence. confirmed
• As Clerk to the Board, he brought nuisance summonses against the gipsy encampments off Garratt Lane (Wardley Street), around 1880. confirmed
• Also a Freemason, a Freeman of the City of London, and on the electoral registers and overseers’ returns. tree (records to read)
• Addresses at Chiswick in 1878 and 1882: a second home? to check
• Died 27 April 1888 at “Layer Marney”, Chelston Road, Torquay, named after the Essex family manor; buried at Torquay; probate 16 May 1888. Eliza died in the same house on 21 April 1893. tree

Arthur Alexander’s children

All born at Marney Lodge, East Hill. tree

• Henry Nicholas, 5 August 1855 – 24 December 1910: see below.
• Rachel Edith, 12 July 1857 – June 1917 (died in Gower, Glamorgan).
• Helen Ada, 5 July 1859 – 21 November 1942.
• Eliza Douglas, 16 October 1860 – 3 February 1943.
• George Caesar, 7 May 1862 – 15 January 1928 (died at Hitchin).
• Marion Elizabeth, 23 October 1863 – 7 June 1907 (died at Croydon).
• Ethel Mary, 22 January 1867 – December 1916 (died at St Thomas, Exeter).

Henry Nicholas Corsellis (1855–1910), solicitor and developer

• Born 5 August 1855 at Marney Lodge, East Hill; baptised 22 September 1855. tree
• Solicitor by 1880. tree Did he succeed his father as Clerk to the Board of Works, or as clerk to the justices? (“His son H.N. Corsellis takes over”, in our newspaper notes.) to check
• Married 2 August 1877 at St Anne’s, Wandsworth, Ellen Letitia Bayly (born 1856 at Blackrock, Cork). tree
• Homes: 2 Crowland Villas, Aspley Road, Wandsworth (1878–81, where his first children were born); Marney Lodge, 69 East Hill (by 1888, and in 1891); Charlwood, Surrey (1901). tree
• From the 1880s one of the most active developers in south Battersea and Wandsworth: some 1,700 houses on about ten estates. confirmed (Survey of London)
• Grove House, 1889. He bought Grove House, the last of the Five Houses in private use. His surveyor and builder William Stanbury laid out new streets on the site; Rockhall, Oaklands and Howard Roads were built from 1894. confirmed
• Mysore and Elspeth Roads, off Lavender Hill: over 200 houses built by John Stanbury, 1892–4. confirmed
• With John Stanbury as co-developer: 90–126 Taybridge Road (1897–8), Tregarvon Road (1897–9), 65–79 Clapham Common North Side and Jedburgh Street (1898–1900). confirmed
• Also the Lavender Hill Estate, and Bramblebury on West Side. confirmed
• A conveyance by him to H.F. Dobede, Henry Bacchus and W.E. Neale survives at the National Archives; perhaps a mortgage. confirmed
• The tree links Henry Nicholas and Ellen to a file in the civil divorce records (1858–1918). Still to read: who petitioned, when, and the outcome. tree
• Died 24 December 1910 at Bryony Hill, Hambledon, Surrey; probate 12 January 1911. Ellen died on 24 March 1920 at Warrington Lodge, Warrington Crescent, Oxford. tree
• Buried at Magdalen Road Cemetery (Wandsworth Cemetery)? Our earlier notes say so; the tree has no burial. to check

Henry Nicholas’s children

tree

• Arthur Henry Nicholas, born 7 September 1878 at 2 Crowland Villas, Aspley Road; died 4 January 1935 at South Lodge, Sunningdale.
• Kathleen, 19 October 1879 (Crowland Villas) – 21 November 1946 (Ashtead).
• Dorothy Frances, 3 December 1881 (Crowland Villas) – 14 March 1958 (Redhill).
• Henry Douglas, born 28 November 1882, died 9 December 1882.
• George Caesar, born 28 July 1885, died August 1885.
• Joyce, 12 April 1888 (Marney Lodge, 69 East Hill) – 25 December 1967 (2 North View, Wimbledon Common).
• Douglas Henry, born 17 May 1896 at Nutfield, Surrey: see below.

Douglas Henry Corsellis (1896–1930)

• Born 17 May 1896 at Nutfield, Surrey, the youngest child of Henry Nicholas. tree
• Lost an arm (a forearm, according to Wikipedia) in the Gallipoli campaign, 1915. confirmed
• Married Helen M. Bendall (born 1898 at Norbury), daughter of S.J. Bendall. Children: Mary (born 1918 at Grantham), Gillian (born 1919 at Oxford), Timothy (1921), and a fourth child, not yet in the tree. tree confirmed
• In the 1921 census at Eltham: “Chemical Engineer at Gas Products Works”. Later a barrister, according to the published lives of Timothy. tree to check (call to the Bar)
• Died 1 November 1930 in a flying accident at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware. tree

Timothy Corsellis, poet (1921–1941)

• Timothy John Manley Corsellis, born at Eltham on 27 January 1921, baptised 1 April 1921. Educated at Walmer and at Winchester College, which he left in December 1938. tree confirmed
• Wandsworth. An articled clerk in the Town Clerk’s office at Wandsworth (the 1939 Register: “Solicitor Articled Clerk”), and a full-time ARP warden in the Blitz. He found war work in Wandsworth for the poet Stephen Spender. He came to work in the borough his great-grandfather had served for thirty years. confirmed
• He joined the RAF, and then the Air Transport Auxiliary, ferrying aircraft. On 10 October 1941, flying a Miles Magister from Luton to Carlisle, he stalled on the approach and crashed near Annan, Dumfriesshire. He was twenty. Cremated at Oxford (Headington); probate at Oxford, 11 March 1942. confirmed tree
• His poems were collected after his death; the Poetry Society’s Timothy Corsellis Prize for young poets is named after him. confirmed
• To find: did his poems or letters mention Wandsworth, or his family’s past there?

Corsellis homes in Wandsworth

• Marney Lodge, East Hill (later 69 East Hill): Arthur Alexander’s home from the 1850s to the 1880s, then Henry Nicholas’s. Named after Layer Marney, the Essex manor of the Corsellises. Where was it? Does the building survive? to check
• 2 Crowland Villas, Aspley Road: Henry Nicholas’s first home after his marriage, 1878–81. tree
• 94 East Hill: the office of Corsellis & Berney. confirmed

The firm: Corsellis & Berney, 94 East Hill

• Solicitors at 94 East Hill, Wandsworth. Still practising under that name in 1979, when the partners were Allan Frederick Judd and Ivor Ernest James. confirmed (London Gazette)
• Who was Berney, and when did he join? to check
• A firm called Skelly and Corsellis practises today at 77–79 St John’s Road, Battersea. Any connection? to check

Notes on the Ancestry tree

Philip’s Ancestry tree (“Corsellis Timothy”, exported 29 October 2026): 27 people, 31 sources. Three small things worth tidying in it:

• Major Henry Nicholas Corsellis is in the tree twice: once by name, as Arthur Alexander’s father; and once without a forename (“CORSELLIS”), as husband of Sarah Ingram and father of George Henry and Marion Isabel. The two should be merged.
• “Henry M Corsellis, born about 1856, Wandsworth”, a son of Arthur Alexander, is probably Henry Nicholas himself, misread from a census (“Henry N.”).
• Timothy’s younger sibling is missing.

Open questions

• Arthur Alexander: when was he appointed Clerk to the Board, and when did he retire? Where was he trained as a solicitor?
• Henry Nicholas: did he succeed his father as Clerk? What does the divorce file say?
• Was Henry Nicholas buried at Wandsworth Cemetery, or near Hambledon?
• Where exactly was Marney Lodge on East Hill, and does it survive?
• Douglas: when was he called to the Bar? Details of the 1930 accident.
• Who was Berney?

Research log

Sources

• Philip Boys, Ancestry tree “Corsellis Timothy”, exported 29 October 2026 (GEDCOM file in this folder): censuses 1851–1921, the 1939 Register, parish registers, civil registration indexes, probate calendars, directories, electoral registers, law examination records, Freemasons’ registers, City of London freedom papers, divorce records.
• Our page of newspaper notes, A.A. Corsellis (South London Press, 1865–1882, via the British Newspaper Archive).
• Survey of London, vol. 50, Battersea (draft, English Heritage, 2013), chapters 11, 13, 17 and 18.
• Stirnet: Corsellis pedigree, from Berry’s Essex Pedigrees and the 1878 Essex Visitation.
• The National Archives: conveyance by Henry Nicholas Corsellis; record of Arthur Henry Nicholas Corsellis.
• Wikipedia: Timothy Corsellis.
• Winchester College at War: Timothy Corsellis.
• War Poets Association: Timothy Corsellis (1921–1941).
• Poetry Society, Young Poets Network: The life and poetry of Timothy Corsellis.
• London Gazette, 1979 (Corsellis & Berney).

↑ Top of page

---

Send me an email.