Alicia Marten

Alicia or Alice Marten was born in about 1740, the youngest daughter of Robert Amberson Marten and his wife Alice Harford. She was probably born in London although no record of the baptism has yet been found.

She married an Irish soldier Burton Bindon in about 1758 and they had at least six children. She spent the latter half of her life in Limerick and died in Clonmel on 21 April 1823. She is referred to as Aunt Bindon in the autobiography of Robert Humphrey Marten and was clearly some presence in family memory later on in the nineteenth century.

The Bindons were a well connected Irish family. Burton Bindon’s uncles and probably his father Samuel Bindon were local MP’s for Ennis and Clare. His mother was a Coote, part of the local Irish aristocracy. Another uncle was the painter Francis Bindon. The name obviously had significant resonance for Robert Giles Marten to baptize his son Edward Bindon Marten in 1832.

Although we do not know Alice’s year or date of birth she must have married very young, probably just before her father died in 1758. Her eldest daughter Ann was born in the Isle of Wight, where her husband was serving in the 33rd Foot regiment. Two years later Betsy Bindon is born in Elland Yorkshire. The steady string of children, some presumably born in Ireland, implies that Burton Bindon was never posted abroad for any length of time, despite the exigencies of the seven years war – which touched both her brother Humphrey Marten out in Canada and her brother in law lost at sea in 1762.

In about 1779 Burton Bindon became Town Major of Limerick until his death in about December 1798. After that Alice Bindon seems to have encountered somewhat straitened times, writing of her lack of money as a widow.

Her eldest son Charles Coote Bindon is mentioned in the 1790 will of her brother Humphrey Marten.

Family of Burton BINDON and Alicia MARTEN

Husband: Burton BINDON

Wife: Alicia MARTEN