Family-History Pilgrimage: Day 12

The ruins of Kenilworth Castle
(the oldest section is on the right).

Saturday, June 17, 2023

We enjoyed some historical sightseeing yesterday at Kenilworth Castle in the West Midlands. King Henry I gave the land to his chamberlain and treasurer, who set aside part of it for a castle and grounds and part for an Augustinian priory. The oldest of the buildings dates from the 1120s, with later additions by King John (of Magna Carta infamy) in the early 1200s, John of Gaunt in the 1370s, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in the 1570s – a new wing for his queen and paramour, Elizabeth I. (Much to Dudley’s chagrin, not even this gift earned him a royal marriage.) 

The view Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed
from her apartments at Kenilworth Castle
(imagine glass in the windows and the tower complete). 

The once-stunning structures now stand in ruins, casualties of the English Civil War (1642 to 1649). Puritan/Parliamentarian forces took Kenilworth early in the conflict, though no significant action happened there. But at the war’s end, the victorious Parliamentary forces “slighted” (intentionally damaged) Kenilworth Castle to keep anyone from using it to overthrow them. Ironically, Oliver Cromwell’s authoritarianism did that trick instead, leading Parliament to restore the hated House of Stuart in 1660 as the least bad option. Over the centuries, the castle’s structures were mined for building materials for other projects, leaving the ruins that inspired Sir Walter Scott’s Victorian novel about Elizabeth I and Dudley, as well as many visitors, then and now. We had a beautiful day to enjoy the history and the formal gardens, as well as lunch in the Tudors’ repurposed horse barn.

St. Mary's in Cubbington.

Before leaving the West Midlands, we made one more stop trying to track down my Reading ancestors who were among the thousands of English people converting to Mormonism in the 1840s and 1850s. We visited Cubbington, where Annie Brown Reading was baptized (the first time) in 1835. Unfortunately, the church door was locked, so we couldn’t see the inside. Also unfortunately, we didn’t find any family headstones in the lovely churchyard. Still, it’s been wonderful to spend a little time in these towns of my ancestors (Bubbenhall, Kenilworth, Leamington, Cubbington) and imagine how the Latter-Day Saints spread their good news. Apparently, they were quite good at using the apostolic model – showing up, leveraging existing relationships, sharing their stories authentically, and embodying the kind of passion for God that draws others to want that relationship for themselves. That’s how the Mormon missionaries did their work – and with inspiring results. By 1877, half the Saints in Utah were of British origin; 45,000 converts had immigrated. 

The churchyard at St. Mary's, Cubbington.

Back to my ancestors’ small part of this story: Annie Brown’s family had converted in 1846. John Reading was rebaptized a Saint in 1853, and he married Annie in Leamington in 1856. They settled briefly in Bubbenhall before leaving for the U.S., probably in 1858. If that date is correct, Annie would have been pregnant during the voyage (they had a child in Utah in 1859), and they also brought a toddler with them on the long voyage to the new Promised Land. Eventually, more Browns and Readings converted and made the harrowing journey. Once in Utah, John Reading owned a nursery, and his sons worked for him. In those days of Mormon plural marriage, John also took a second wife, Annie Isom, in 1868. One wonders about the resulting complications, not the least of which being that the wives had the same first name….