William George Otto Cronhelm
[1748-1813]
William George Otto Cronhelm was born at Cleve (or Kleve),
Rheinland [12th May 1748].
Son of Johanna Erdmuth von Diebitsch and Ernst Philip von
Cronhelm [1713-1778], a Colonel of the King's Hanoverian Army
who commanded the Goldackrahen Regiment under Prince Ferdinand of
Brunswick at the battle of Minden [1759].
His father Ernst Philip von Cronhelm had married 3 times:
(1) Unknown,
(2) Charlotte Tugendreich von Kliest,
and
(3) Johanna Erdmuth von Diebitsch [in 1738]
William George Otto was
Soldatenkind (boy soldier) in the King's Hanoverian
Army [1756],
Fahndrich in the Regimental von Goldacker [25th August
1769],
before he left Luneburg to go to Minorca, he was Secretary of
the Freemasons Lodge Zur Goldener Traube – his elder brother
Georg was the Master [16th January 1773],
a Lieutenant in the King's Hanoverian Army and Adjutant of
Engineers under General Murray in the defence of St Philip's
Castle in Minorca against the combined Spanish and French armies
[18th February 1782],
and
demobilised in Plymouth, England [1783]
He was born William George Otto von Cronhelm but dropped
the von when he came to England.
In England, he was
A language teacher: a series of advertisements in Exeter
Flying Post shows William Cronhelm's French Academy:
Languages (German, French, Italian and Spanish) & Mathematics, in
Exeter starting April 1783 [this operated from 1783-1793],
Running the Military & Commercial Academy in Fore Street,
Exeter [September 1784],
An advertisement of advertises Mr Cronhelm's Academy in
Bartholomew Street, Exeter which offered inter alia instruction in
Book-keeping [1789],
Running the French Academy Bartholomew Row, Exeter
[1789-1796],
Advisor to Sir Henry Edwards, Woollen Magnate, at Pye Nest,
Halifax [for 20 years],
and
Author of Few People Good Judges in Politics an address
to the people of England in Equality, the main source of their
happiness – [published in Huddersfield 1799]
On 3rd April 1783, he married (1) Caroline Bennett Clarke
[17??-1785] in Stoke Demeral, Plymouth, Devon.
They had no children.
On 2nd July 1786, he married (2) Sarah Clarke at Exeter
Cathedral.
Sarah was the daughter of Rev Henry Vaughan Clarke,
Vicar of Rockbeare in Devon
Sarah was (probably) the sister of his first wife
Children:
- Frederick William
- Henry Clarke [1789-1837]
- Louisa (Elizabeth) [1791-1810]
- Charles Augustus [b 1793]
- George Otto
- Edward Theodore
The family lived in Exeter before moving to Yorkshire about 1794.
He died in Gorton, Manchester [28th May 1813].
He was buried at St James's Church, Birch-in-Rusholme, Manchester
©
Malcolm Bull
2021
Revised 15:13 / 15th May 2021 / 5605
Page Ref: MMC2579