The well-loved British author Daphne du Maurier author, famous for novels such as Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek and Rebecca, was inspired by her love of Cornwall where she lived. Her parents were a knight of the stage – who claimed French aristocratic connections, but was in reality related to an ancestor who had fled France under a cloud – and an actress.

Daphne was born on 13 May 1907 at 24 Cumberland Terrace, Regent’s Park, London as the middle of three daughters of the prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his actress wife Muriel Beaumont. Daphne’s grandfather was the author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, who created the character of Svengali in the 1894 novel Trilby. Her uncle, Guy du Maurier, was also a playwright at the same time as being an army officer, having penned the play An Englishman’s Home .

From the Births, Marriages and Deaths records on TheGenealogist we are able to quickly find Daphne’s birth recorded in the registration district of St Pancras in London during the second quarter of 1907. With this clue as to where we may find her family at the time that she was a child, we can discover her family’s house recorded in the 1911 census on TheGenealogist with a link to detailed maps in its Map Explorer. The du Mauriers can be found in these records living in Cumberland Terrace on the edge of Regent’s Park. Thanks to this resource we are able to see the exact building and its relationship to their neighbours and the Royal Park.

By 1921 Gerald du Maurier, Daphne’s father, is listed in the 1921 London Post Office Directory, which is part of the Census Substitute Records on TheGenealogist. By this time it appears from this record that the du Mauriers have moved up to Hampstead and their address is now Cannon Hall, Cannon Place, Hampstead. This is the house that the novelist lived in during her childhood and which was captured in a line drawing by the artist A.R. Quinton.

Using other online records at TheGenealogist shows us additional addresses that Gerald du Maurier had once lived in, such as in Baker Street at 1 Portman Mansions. We can learn this by searching the Harrow School Register that is part of the Educational Records on TheGenealogist. This edition was published in 1901 to record details of Old Harrovians past and present and would probably have noted the latest address that the school had for Daphne’s father around the publication date. What it also gives us is an address for his father at New Grove House in Hampstead, allowing us to see that the family were very much connected to London at this time.

The French connection…
Using the information from this last record we now know that our famous author’s grandfather was G.L.P.B. du Maurier and so we can search for him to take her paternal family tree back another generation. Luckily for us he has a fairly fulsome entry in the Dictionary of National Biography searchable on TheGenealogist, which provides us with a useful insight into his background. Firstly it reveals that his full name had been George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier and that he had been an artist in black and white and a novelist. We also learn that he was born in 1834 in Paris to a French father and an English mother.

The entry in the biography records that the du Mauriers had French aristocratic blood and had been in the glass-blowing trade, which was a business that was the preserve of noblemen only in pre-revolutionary France. This aristocratic lineage has since been disputed and according to the Victorian Web

George’s grandfather, Robert Mathurin, a glass-blower by trade, had fled France in 1789 to avoid charges of fraud against him. To bolster his station in life and to appear highborn he had adopted the name ‘du Maurier’,’ adding this to his original surname of Busson.

At first, Robert worked for the Whitefriars’ Glass Company in London, but it is reported by the Victorian Web that his various confidence schemes got him into trouble in England. By 1802, Daphne du Maurier’s 2x-great-grandparents had six children, but Robert was forced to flee back to France where he worked until his death in 1811 as a schoolmaster in Tours. His fourth son, Louis, was born in 1797 and grew up first in London, but when he was 18 his mother moved the family back to Paris in order that Louis could study opera. Not having the success he wanted, he took up inventing instead. It was in 1831 that Louis then married Ellen, the daughter of a notorious regency courtesan, Mary-Anne Clarke.

The entry in the Dictionary of National Biography from TheGenealogist’s Occupational Records for his grandson George confirms that Louis had married an Englishwoman called Ellen Clarke and he had then become a naturalised English citizen. Their three children grew up bilingual and when George was five years old they came to live in Marylebone, London. The family, however, then returned to France on account of the insecure financial position of Louis, first of all living in Boulogne and then in Paris.

The du Mauriers’ connection with London was re-established in 1851 when George returned to England and became a chemistry student at University College, his father being keen that his son should become a man of science. George’s heart, however, was not in this career and so we read in his entry that after the death of his father in 1856 he changed course. At first he thought of becoming a singer, but then set on art and after a time in Paris he and his widowed mother travelled to Antwerp the following year, where he studied drawing. It was at this time in 1859 that he suffered the misfortune of a detached retina rendering him blind in one eye. He was only 25 at this time and there was the prospect that the other eye could also end up going the same way. His sight was, however, sufficient for him to carry on working as an artist for the rest of his life, though throughout he did have the occasional episodes of eye trouble to deal with that threatened to make him blind.

Having trained as an artist it was in 1860 that Daphne du Maurier’s grandfather returned to London where he began to do book illustrations. By searching on TheGenealogist we learn that George was also the subject of a piece in Harper’s Magazine, which he provided illustrations for. In Issue No. 469, published in June 1889, the artist was himself portrayed in a black and white illustration. TheGenealogist’s Newspapers and Magazines collection is a useful resource which, when an ancestor appears in print, can offer some extra detail to build a family story.

Theatrical family
George married Emma Wightwick in 1863 and a search of the BMD records on TheGenealogist reveals their entry in the index for the district of Marylebone, Middlesex in the first quarter of that year. They have several children including George, Daphne du Maurier’s father, and Guy his brother, who from his appearance in the Who’s Who in the Theatre found in the occupational records on TheGenealogist was a playwright.

Daphne’s father, Sir Gerald, also appears several times in this publication, including as the manager of Wyndham’s Theatre in Charing Cross. He had been knighted in 1922 and so we can see that he is recorded with his title here in that year’s edition.

Earlier, at the time of the First World War, plain Mr Gerald du Maurier was photographed in October 1914 at ‘A consultation at Earl’s Court’. The image was published in A Record of the United Arts Rifles which can be located by a search of the Regimental Records and Histories on TheGenealogist.

From searching the Military Records for Daphne’s family in the First World War we are able to find her uncle in several records and see that he did not survive the conflict. If you have an ancestor who may have died in WW1 then his name may appear in Soldiers Who Died In The First World War, 1914-1918 – they could be noted as ‘Killed-in-Action’ on their campaign medal card; they may be listed in the General Register Index to War Deaths; or appear in a roll of honour or on a memorial, as well as in a casualty list such as those reproduced on TheGenealogist. All of the above apply to Lt-Col Guy du Maurier including images of the war memorials that he appears on at Holborn Viaduct EC1 – St Sepulchre Without Newgate (Royal Fusiliers City of London Regt Chapel) as well as Catherine Street WC2 in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (WW1 Actors, Musicians, Writers and Stage Workers).

Marriage to an Olympian
Daphne du Maurier married in 1932 to Frederick Browning and their marriage is captured in the Marriage Indexes on TheGenealogist. Major Browning was an army officer who would rise to the rank of lieutenant-general and receive a knighthood. Sir Frederick has been referred to as the ‘father of the British airborne forces’ in a book by Richard Mead (General Boy: The Life of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning, GCVO, KBE, CB, DSO, DL. published by Pen & Sword). He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and served in the First World War as well as the Second when he commanded the 1st Airborne Division and I Airborne Corps. ‘Boy’ Browning was also the deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during the famous Operation Market Garden action in Holland that took place in September 1944.

As we can see the marriage took place in Cornwall, a county to which Daphne du Maurier is inextricably linked through its settings for many of her literary works as well as being her home from 1943 till her death in 1969. One such novel, published in 1936, is of course Jamaica Inn, a period piece set in 1820.

The hostelry is an actual pub in the middle of Bodmin Moor and by using the tithe records that are available on TheGenealogist we are able to find it recorded in Boldadventure (Bolventor) in the tithe records of 1841. As theses records are now also linked to TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer we are able to view the plots on georeferenced tithe maps and then select the same points on a modern map to see that the inn still appears marked where it has stood for centuries, though today a major fast multi-laned road skirts close by to the north.

Our ancestors often leave traces of their lives in various records. In this research piece we have seen how TheGenealogist.co.uk can help you explore a vast variety of these, from finding the birth of the author Daphne du Maurier in the General Register Office records in 1909 to discovering her family’s home a few years into her childhood in London in the 1911 census. We used the link that this website provides to its powerful Map Explorer to locate the actual plot that the house occupied on the outskirts of Regent’s Park and then we have been able to use the 1921 Census Substitute to determine the family’s move up to Hampstead.

The Dictionary of National Biography from TheGenealogist’s Occupational Records allowed us to find out more about her French-born grandfather who lived in London and worked as an artist for Punch and also as a writer. The literary theme continued into the next generation where we find from the Occupational Records that her father became an actor and theatre manager and her mother was the actress Muriel Beaumont. Daphne’s Uncle, Guy du Maurier, was also a playwright having penned An Englishman’s Home, though we learn that his main occupation was that of an army officer. The Military Records on TheGenealogist include his entry in the casualty lists and we identified his death in the First World War and inclusion in various memorial records.

Lastly we were able to investigate one of the locations in Cornwall used by our author. Searching for the famous Jamaica Inn we can research its setting in the Cornish countryside both as it is today and at around the period that Daphne du Maurier, sometimes referred to as the mistress of riddles, had set her bestselling novel. {

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Daphne du Maurier

Daphne du Maurier in the 1907 birth records on TheGenealogist

1911 census on TheGenealogist provides a map to show exact location of the du Maurier’s house

1921 Census Substitute from TheGenealogist

Cannon Hall, A.R. Quinton, 1911

The Dictionary of National Biography from TheGenealogist’s Occupational records

At one time Gerald du Maurier had lived in Baker Street at 1 Portman Mansions

George du Maurier himself was the subject of an illustration in Harper’s Magazine in June 1889

Major Guy du Maurier in Who’s Who in the Theatre

A record of the United Arts Rifles found in the Regimental Records and Histories on TheGenealogist

Casualty lists can be found on TheGenealogist in Military Records

Jamaica Inn marked on tithe map on TheGenealogist courtesy of The National Archives

Jamaica Inn tithe plot marked on Bing Hybrid Map on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™

1932 Marriage to Frederick “Boy” Browning in Cornwall from the GRO Marriage Indexes on TheGenealogist