Venebuus Vinco - "I conquer with hunting spears"[]
The Complete History starting from 1066 to 1801[]
The History of the Venables family goes all the way back to 1066 and William the Conqueror, the family originally came from Normandy, and settled in Chelshire in 1069 after William became regent, the first of the Venables to travel to Scotland was William De Venables, who settled in the north of Scotland in 1078, in a place called Dunbrae, where he built the first castle which was demolished in 1345 and rebuilt in 1378.
They changed their name from De Venable' to simply Venables sometime around 1400.
The Venables kept a low profile in Dunbrae for five centuries, and only became a rather public family in 1567. Before 1567 the Venables where a quiet, well meaning family with a decent income and Lordship over most of the lands surrounding Dunbrae, which was granted to them by Mary, Queen of Scots in 1560 to the 1st Earl Venables, Edmund Venables, who lost favour when James, replaced his mother as regent in 1567, Edmund and his wife Samantha, where forced into exile for seven years by the young kings council of lords, who percieved, the Venables as a threat to their rule, Edmund, who had been a supporter of the queen, fled to France, where he was welcomed with open arms, and would come to his death in 1572, his wife died six months later of a broken heart.
In this time their only child, two year old Edward Venables was raised by his grandmother, Lady Mary Venables, who brought him up as a strict catholic and also saw him enter a career in the army at an early age, when Mary died at the age of 82, he inherited the entire Dunbrae estate, and became the 2nd Earl Venables, he was just fifteen years old.
Edwards life was a short one filled with pain and suffering, in what became known as the curse of the Venables, By the age of twenty he was the sheriff of Dunbrae and was courting Lady Susan Cambell, whom he married in 1591, in the small friary of Killycanty, it was a blissful period for Edward, he was given to hiers in 1592, John and Fraser Venables, though Fraser died on pnuemonia at the age of three, this was the first of the incidents of the Venables curse, the second was the death of Lady Susan, who died in childbirth with their third child, who survived and was named Malcolm. The third misfortune to befall Edward was the death of John, who was killed by a crazed maid who drowned him in a bath, at the age of nine. Shortly after this Edward himself, only fourty one years old, died whilst ridding on his estate, in 1601.
At this point Malcolm Venables was only five and fell into obscurity till 1623 when he died, in a drunken brawl with a fisherman, before this he had fathered a bastard son in 1621, to his fiance, Geraldine Fraser, whom was named George Venables.
Georges life was one bound by the turbulant times of the English Civil War and the rise of Oliver Cromwell, George was an officer in the Royalist army, and was involved in the Battle of Worcestor on the 3rd of September, 1651. After this he remained in Scotland until the return of Charles II in 1660. George then became member of parliment for Dunbrae until his death in 1672. He had two sons and a daughter, William, Harold and Jane.
William Venables became the 5th Earl Venables, and had great favour in King James II, and was a officer in James armies until 1689, when he was charged with supporting the rebellion led by John Graham, Viscount Dundee, and was exiled with James for 30 years. He travelled to France and bought an estate in Normandy, which also came with the title of Count De Valentine, and so William was Count De Valentine and 5th Earl Venables, he recieved favour from James, whom William remained loyal to till his death in 1734.
In 1702 how ever his wife Eliose, gave birth to twins, the eldest Richard, and the younger Israel, who died in the jacobite rising of 1715, Richard though was brought up to the life of a French aristocrat, and had a fine childhood learning the ways of the gentile society and also military tactics, and by the time he was 21, he had been given a captaincy in the French Royal Army and was a favourite of the Marquis de Morosse' only child, Sarah, whom he maried in 1724, In October of 1724 he recieved permission to return to Scotland and so in December, 1724 he returned to Scotland and the Dunbrae Estate and bought a majors commission in the Royal Highland Regiment, and was recieved a number of postings, during this time he had four children, twins Ishamel and Jennifer, and Richard Jnr. and Rosanna.
By 1738 he had attracted the attention of Prime Minister Johnathan Goldtimbers, who confirmed his promotion to Lieutenant General and sent him on HMS Swiftsure to India to become Lord Governor of the British Raj, he held this station till 1749, he was noted for the fact that he brought great peace and stability to India and eventually conquered the Mahrattas and the Kingdoms of Mysore, and that he had also founded a new, purely Scottish Regiment, the 78th Highlanders in 1745, so that by his retirement in 1749, the British East India Company held a firm grip over India, until the French Indian War of 1754, when Robert Clive re secured EITC rule.
During the Jacobite uprising of 1746, Richards estates where seized by the rebel clansmen and used as a forward base of deployment, Sir McRoberts accused Venables of treason, due to his father and brothers loyalties, but Lord Goldtimbers knocked the accusations aside stating that Venables was in India, so how could he have anything to do with it? Government forces reclaimed Dunbrae in 1747 and returned it to Richard in 1749 when he returned to Britain.
Richard returned to Britain and was given a knighthood and went into politics, and a key member of the Torries and became a loyal supporter of Johnathan Goldtimbers, and important figure of Government, writing many documents such as the India Policy of 1746, the Sepoy Recruitment Policy of 1752 and the Bengal Treaty of 1757.
Richard finally died in 1783, of a heart attack, he died in Bern, Switzerland on a diplomatic mission with King David of Switzerland, the successor of King William II who was a personal friend of Richard and had awarded him the title and estates of the Duke of Jura in 1751.
His son Ishamel became the 7th Earl Venables in 1786, due to the fact he was posted in Antigua at the time, hunting pirates who plagued merchant shipping, when he returned home, he found the Sir Richard had been given a large funeral with many in attendance, including HRH, the King of Switzerland, PM Lord Goldtimbers, HRH, King George II, and Lord Andrew Mallace, etc. Ishamel visited his fathers tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral, and then returned to Scotland where, he erected a memorial in the local church, though some old veterans who had served with Sir Richard, actually had given Sir Richard's old Regimental standards to the church, and these where displayed along with the memorial.
Ishamel though soon moved on and was posted to see again, sailing to meet a French officer who was escaping the terror of the French Revolution, it was sometime after this in 1793 when war broke out with France that Ishamel was made into a Rear Admiral of the Blue, and sent to Calcutta, where he died of fever in 1801.
His son Roderick Venables, became the 8th Earl Venables and wisely invested into a career in the EITC instead of the army or navy. He died in 1842 of Typhoid in Madras.
Gallery of Family Portraits[]
