Portrait photograph of Arthur Forbes with his two older children
Enriqueta’s adopted children
Enriqueta adopted two children, Arthur Forbes and Maria Castiglioni.
"She was all to us that a mother could be"
Diary of Charles Silvester Horne 1895, published in William Boothby Selbie, The Life of Charles Silvester Horne, 1920, p. 100.
All the pages containing personal information were cut out after Enriqueta died, these included accounts relating to Maria Castiglioni and Arthur Forbes. You can see where some pages have been removed.
Maria Castiglioni
Maria Castiglioni was born in Rome in 1874. We don’t know who her parents were, but Enriqueta adopted her before she was seven. In a will written in 1894 Enriqueta left her grand London house, £40,000 and most of her jewellery to her adopted daughter, Maria Castiglioni Rylands.
In 1900 Enriqueta changed her will so that Maria would lose her inheritance if she married a Roman Catholic. It is a mystery why Enriqueta changed her will. She herself was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church, but later became a Protestant.
A few months later, a friend wrote to Enriqueta about a “change for the better” in Maria. He hoped that Maria would “see before it is too late what a great injustice she has done you, and what love and solicitude she was depriving herself of”. In the final version of her will, Enriqueta left only £1,000 to Maria Castiglioni. Maria moved back to Italy, but we do not know what happened to her after this.
You can see where Enriqueta has crossed out two sections. On the left hand side she has written “Wish merely a settled sum bequeathed to her £2000”.
This book was kept by Enriqueta’s solicitor Lewis Orford. His son gave it to the Library in 1968 with other family documents. Enriqueta also wrote a will in 1889 after her husband died, but this has not survived.
This is the only proven piece of Maria’s handwriting held by the Library. It is a receipt for the £1,000 left to her by Enriqueta. As she was a “stranger in blood” not a relative, the gift was subject to a 10 percent inheritance tax.
Arthur Forbes
Arthur Forbes was born in London in 1877 – he may have been a distant relative of Enriqueta Rylands. By the age of four he was living with John and Enriqueta in London as their adopted son. They looked after “Arty” and provided him with a good education.
When he was 17, Enriqueta arranged for Arthur to sail to South Africa. He may have had health problems which would be helped by the climate. A few years later Enriqueta bought two farms there for Arthur. He became famous for importing and breeding race horses.
Arthur was a wealthy man when he married Hilda Flemmer in 1902. They had two children named Hilda and Joseph.
When Enriqueta died in 1908, she left Arthur the two farms and a large sum of money. Enriqueta gave some of her jewellery to Hilda. Sadly for Arthur, his wife died less than a year after his adoptive mother. Arthur married three times and lived to old age, like his adoptive father John Rylands.
Arthur's descendants generously shared copies of these family photographs.
This Bible belonged to Arthur Forbes and it contains three knots of hair, possibly belonging to his children.
Private collection (Forbes family)
Private collection (Forbes family)
Portrait photograph of Arthur Forbes with his two older children.
Private collection (Forbes family)