The Brind family (Randolph Caldecott's in-laws).

Randolph Caldecott married Marian Harriet Brind, of Chelsfield, Kent, England, on 18th March 1880.  They had no children.  (Marian was born on 28th March 1850. Source: her grave.)  After Randolph's death in 1886, Marian moved to Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where she eventually died on 12th June 1932.  She is buried in Tunbridge Wells with her sister, Amy Alice Brind.

For a picture believed to be of Marian (from the book Breton Folk), click here.
For another (from The Owls of Olynn Belfry), click here.
For modern pictures of the Brinds' substantial house in Chelsfield, click here.
For a modern picture of this church, see below on this page.

There is a Marion Caldecott who wrote one book:

Source of this info: the British Library's Public Catalogue: http://blpc.bl.uk/  But don't bother to go to see the two copies that they had: both were destroyed by bombs in World War II!  Surviving copies still exist in the National Library of Scotland (an 1874 edition), the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the University Library, Cambridge.

But was the author Randolph's wife?  As they did not marry until 1880, Marian Brind would not have been "Marian Caldecott" in 1874 when the book was written.  But the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, by "Mrs. Marion Caldecott, London", is dated 17th Feb 1885.  The book is dedicated by its author "to my sister, Emily": did Marian Brind have a sister Emily?

In about 1998 an original edition of "The Owls of Olynn Belfry", with pictures by Randolph Caldecott, was found in a long-forgotten chest at Chelsfield Parish Church.  (His sketch of this church, taken from the book, is shown at the top of this page.)  In this copy, the real names of Chelsfield people, whose likenesses Caldecott had used in the sketches, were written alongside each sketch.  "Thus is solved the identities of Marian, her sisters Amy and Maggie, brother Frank and their father."

Marian's brother Frank was an architect.  Sadly his health was not good and he died young.

The 3 people in this picture (from "The Owls of Olynn Belfry") are Maggie, William and Frank Brind.  The wall and gate into the Brinds' garden, and the Brinds' house behind, are still there (at June 2003): for modern views, click here.

(Sources: Geoffrey Copus; Gwen Reichert; Susan Brind.)

For more about the book "The Owls of Olynn Belfry", and to go to its full text, click here.

To see the text of Marian Caldecott's Will, click the "Marian's Will" button.  For recent views of where she lived after Randolph's death, click "Tunbridge Wells"; and for her (and her sister Amy Brind's) grave, click the remaining button: 

For other research into the Brind family, see
http://www.one-name.org/cgi-bin/search.pl?find=Brind&Go=Search

 
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