SAID to be the wealthiest man in Liskeard, Richard Hawke of Westbourne House, could well afford to embark on the Grand Tour of the continent, a popular activity among Victorian gentlemen, often lasting several months. Hawke’s passport is contained in a leather wallet bearing his name in gold leaf and is held in the collection of Liskeard & District Museum. The document is stamped by the ‘Direzione Generale de Polizia’ confirming Hawke’s visits to Italy: Florence, Ceprano and Napoli in 1869.

The passport is impressive, issued on March 8, 1869, at the Foreign Office in London and personally signed by George William Frederick, Earl of Clarendon, Baron Hide of Hindon, a Peer of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and among many other posts, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

The aim of the document was to ‘Request and require in the Name of Her Majesty, all those whom it may concern, to allow Mr Richard Hawke (British Subject) accompanied by his wife, travelling on the Continent, with a man servant to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford him every assistance and protection of which he may stand in need’.

The ‘man servant’ was probably 58 year old Footman William Landry; he’s listed in the 1871 census for Westbourne House, employed by Richard Hawke. The rest of the domestic staff living-in at Westbourne consisted of two Housemaids, a Cook and a Kitchen Maid.

By Brian Oldham, museum volunteer and Bard of the Gorsedh Kernow