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Note: This is most likely the correct person from the father's name and profession: at Francis's marriage, his father described as a master mariner (deceased). His daughter was also named Harriet Matilda, presumably after her two grand mothers. His father was at sea from 25/1/1836 to 6/9/1836: he was probably born in this period, probably in the latter part and christened when his father returned from sea. He is described in 1881 as being born in Middlesex, and aged 42, but in 1851, he (presumably from information from his mother who should have known) is given as being 14 and born in Liverpool, probably the port from which father sailed. There are connections with Liverpool: his father used a solicitor there as his executor (and a witness to his will was a resident of Liverpool) as did his paternal grandfather. His younger brother was born in Jamaica, and so he must have been there as a child, but was probably back in England by 1847 when his mother remarried.
Between 1851 and 1875, he called himself a grocer, residing at various addresses in London. By 1881, he had entered the tea trade, firstly as a clerk, and when he died, a tea merchant. This is notable: his uncle, Septimus (only 15 years older, and who died 1902 - see Jamaica Maitlands for Septimus' details) was also a teamerchant. Francis' brother, John Andrew was a successful trader in the Far East and was an executor and co-heir of Septimus; this and/or the tea trade connection probably encouraged NGM & his brothers to seek their fortunes in China and Japan. Herbert Poole states that Francis never left England, but family lore has it that he went to some or all of the gold rushes of the late 19th Century: DSM has a vague memory of talk of the Lower Transvaal (in the 1850's). His family was in Newcastle in 1871: where was he in that Census?? DSM: could have been in South Africa (Barberton gold fields) from birth of EWM in 1865 to after 1871, but HMM born 1872 followed by NGM in 1875. Note that Ann Chapman's maternal grandmother's father was of Southwick, Surrey or Bermondsey: was this the connection - how they met? His son, NGM, employed a nanny, Emily Scottrell, who always said that Francis 3 was "no good", having started work with Francis & Ann Maitland. He left �136 to his wife in his will. Emily said that he had been on the Klondike and Australian Gold Rushes and that he was a waster, drank too much and possibly strayed from marriage! Emily, however, was a spinster and probably new little about such things. No trace of him has been found in the Post Office directories between 1875 & 1900.
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