Royal Nannies & Governesses


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Louise de Clermont-Tallard, Countess of Tonnerre was a lady in waiting to Catherine de Médicis but was later appointed as the governess to the royal children by the Queen Regent.
Louise was a favourite of Queen Catherine and was well known for her Protestant sympathies but remained Catholic at the behest of the queen.

358px-Louise_de_Clermont_1.jpg
 
Here's an article from the DM with a couple more nannies who cared for Princes William and Harry. The article has a total of five women named. Ruth Wallace and Jessie Webb were the two missing from the earlier post. Jessie Webb also assisted the then Cambridges with Prince George for a few months before Maria Turrion Borrallo was hired.
This Daily Mail article states that Tiggy is Archie's godmother.
 

I was told that during the 1870s & 80s Charlotte Helen Jane Campbell Le Cronier was a French Governess in the Romanov Household. Can you shed any light on this person ?
 
If this is she, Charlotte Helen was apparently born of a French or Channel Islands-born father and British mother in 1841 in Jersey.
 
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Yes – correct …. One and the same … there were three sisters [Charlotte Helen Jane Campbell Le Cronier (1839-97), Caroline Maria Blayney Campbell Le Cronier (1841-1917) & my great grandmother Thomasine Isabella Mary Campbell Le Cronier (1844-1927)]


… “By the time of the 1861 census Caroline and Thomasine were living in St Heliers, though I am unsure with whom but their sister Charlotte is registered to be residing with her cousin John Le Cronier [see image attached] and his family at 17 Broad Street. Her occupation is referred to as Fund Holder. Then, as per the 1871 census, she appears as a French Governess at the Stratford Abbey Boarding School in Stroud. [From 1869 to 1955 Stratford Abbey College was a private school for girls.] This information of her being a French Governess moves towards confirming a story passed down by Thomasine – to her granddaughter Joan Pares – that her eldest sister Charlotte was the Governess to the Tsar of Russia’s children. [The period would indicate that of the children of Tsar Alexander III and it should be noted that the Grand Dukes Nicholas, Michael and George all spoke fluently in both English and French.] Charlotte appears to have been absent from England during this period as she was not mentioned on the 1881 or 1891 censuses but died of Heart Disease Syncope at her sister Caroline’s home on 16th December 1897. She was buried in Kingston Cemetery (Plot:C 2593). …”

There seems to be a gap in Nannies, Tutors and Governesses for the period in question (1870s & 80s):

  • Nurse to Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna 1843 Margaret Hughes
  • Nurse to Tsesarevich Nicholai Alexandrovich 1844 Miss Jane Isherwood
  • Nurse to the children of Alexander II from 1845 Catherine Kitty Strutton
  • Nurse to Grand Duke Alexander Miss Kitty Strutton
  • Nurse to various (Russian?????) princesses 1860s Ellen Innocent

Who was the Governess to the children of Alexander III, in the 1870s & 1880s ???

  • Nurse to Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, daughter of Alexander III from 1882 Elizabeth Sophia Franklin
  • Nurse to the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II 1898-1904 Margaretta Alexandra Eagar
  • Nurse to Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich from 1889-98 Frances Fry
  • Governess to Marina Chavchavadze early 1900s May Southby
  • Nursery Governess to Prince Roman & Princess Nadejda, children of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich early 1900s Mrs Taylor
 

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You’ve probably read this, but the Englishman Charles Heath appears to have been put in charge of the education of Tsar Nicholas and his brothers in the very early 1880s and seems to have been the one who taught him English.

 
You’ve probably read this, but the Englishman Charles Heath appears to have been put in charge of the education of Tsar Nicholas and his brothers in the very early 1880s and seems to have been the one who taught him English.

Yes - I have read it ... what I ask though, is how many "carers" [Tutors, Governesses & Nannies] would the five children of Alexander III have ? ...
... to be fluent in French, they'd need a Tutor or Governess for this alone I'd have thought. From my understanding Charles Heath was only their English Tutor.
 
Yes, however Romanov royal children (and some of the Russian nobility) often, as your above list shows, had British nannies from their earliest years. The parents of these children may have encouraged them to learn the basics of English words, expression and pronunciation from these servants.
Also, in Alexander III’s time and earlier, French was the language of Court life. The children might have grown up absorbing this and learned the basics of French while quite young.
None of this helps in your search for your forebear’s sister of course. However, as there appears to be sparse documentation that Charlotte was Governess to the Romanov royal children for any length of time, is it possible that for a short period she could have been a nursery governess to them but then left her employment with the royal household?

It seems odd to me that while some other English nannies and tutors are mentioned, albeit briefly, her name doesn’t seem to have appeared in any existing Romanov records as her family seems to have believed (been told) that she was a senior governess to the Tsar’s children.
Perhaps Charlotte suffered from intermittent bad health (heart problems) but gained employment with other Russian noble families as a nursery governess in the 1880s.

In any case, much good luck with your search.
 
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Yes, however Romanov royal children (and some of the Russian nobility) often, as your above list shows, had British nannies from their earliest years. The parents of these children may have encouraged them to learn the basics of English words, expression and pronunciation from these servants.
Also, in Alexander III’s time and earlier, French was the language of Court life. The children might have grown up absorbing this and learned the basics of French while quite young.
None of this helps in your search for your forebear’s sister of course. However, as there appears to be sparse documentation that Charlotte was Governess to the Romanov royal children for any length of time, is it possible that for a short period she could have been a nursery governess to them but then left her employment with the royal household?

It seems odd to me that while some other English nannies and tutors are mentioned, albeit briefly, her name doesn’t seem to have appeared in any existing Romanov records as her family seems to have believed (been told) that she was a senior governess to the Tsar’s children.
Perhaps Charlotte suffered from intermittent bad health (heart problems) but gained employment with other Russian noble families as a nursery governess in the 1880s.

In any case, much good luck with your search.
We'll, I don't suppose I'll ever know .... but thank you for your help.
 
You are welcome. As I discovered only the other week, a piece of information I’d been seeking for thirty years turned up in an obscure document so never say die!
 
Maureen Wood (née King) (31 Mar 1938 - 11 Aug 2018) was the nanny of Princess Caroline and Prince Albert.


 
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