In 1810 a valet named Joseph Sellis was murdered in St James's Palace by Prince Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, fifth son of George III. At a managed inquest, Ernest swore that Sellis had tried to assassinate him, was foiled, and had cut his own throat. Sellis was buried in a London street as a suicide.

His widow and four children were thrown out of the palace. They evidently went to the north of England, and here we come to the Sewell connection.

In 1982 Miss Phyllis Sewell of 6 Hapton Street, Levenshulme, Manchester, gave the British Museum some relics of Sellis: his nameplate and key from his suite of rooms in the palace, and the laissez-passer he had used when travelling from his birthplace, Sardinia. I wrote to her, and she replied, 'I appear to be the only member of my family to be interested. I wanted these items to be preserved for posterity.' She also said, 'My paternal grandmother was a niece of my maternal grandmother, both with the maiden name of Foden.'

Recently I have made contact with another Sellis descendant, a woman in Devon who has a small portrait of him. It has come down to her through forebears in Bradford, also named Foden.

The Sellis children were born from 1800 to 1809. It might be possible to trace the family sequence onward to the Foden/Sewell connection.

My interest arises from my having written a biography of the Duke of Cumberland, 'Wicked Ernest' (2002). I would be pleased to have any new details.

John Wardroper
60 St Paul's Road, London N1 2QW