The Wooster Family Tree:

Tying up some loose threads

By Prof. Yasmine GOONERATNE

Like many other readers of P. G. Wodehouse, I fell under the spell of the Master when I was still a child. In my case, the spell arrived in the form of a Christmas gift, when my book-obsessed parents presented me with a copy of The Code of the Woosters. After that beginning, the Bertie-Jeeves combination exerted a potent charm that continued throughout school and university days.

I subsequently became a teacher of literature with a particular attachment to the novels of Jane Austen, and that made me very attentive, when re-reading Wodehouse, to the setting in which Jeeves and Bertie live and move and have their being.

‘3 or 4 Families in a Country Village is the very thing to work on’, wrote Jane Austen, while advising her novel-writing nieces and nephews on the choice of a suitable subject. The families of Bertie’s world are ‘county’ families, and they inhabit stately homes all over England. Brinkley Court, Market Snodsbury, that earthly paradise inhabited by Bertie’s favourite aunt Mrs Dahlia Travers and her second husband, Tom, is a large mansion in Worcestershire, the county in which resides also Dahlia’s younger (step-) brother the Hon. Clive Wooster.

Easeby, owned by Bertie’s Uncle Willoughby, is in Shropshire. Woollam Chersey, Steeple Bumpleigh, the property of Bertie’s Aunt Agatha (Lady Worplesdon), is located in Hertfordshire (although in one novel, Joy in the Morning, the Wodehouse typewriter seems to make a rare slip, for it places this splendid house in Hampshire). As if this scattering of Woosters all over England were not enough, their tentacles – and especially those of Aunt Agatha – extend into the homes of their relatives and friends. Lady Malvern, author of a book on social conditions in India and a resident of Much Middlefold, in Shropshire, is a close friend of Agatha’s. So are Miss Mapleton, headmistress of St Monica’s, a girls’ school at Bingley-on-Sea; the widowed Lady Wickham (mother of ‘Bobbie’ Wickham), who lives at Skeldings Hall, Hertfordshire; and Dame Daphne Winkworth, who dominates her sisters at Deverill Hall, King’s Deverill, Hampshire. Kathleen Travers, Dahlia’s sister-in-law, is married to a baronet, Sir Reginald Witherspoon, Bart., of Bleaching Court, Hampshire; and Sir Watkyn Bassett, CBE, Metropolitan Police Magistrate, resides at Totleigh Towers, Totleigh-inthe- Wold, Gloucestershire.

The Woosters of the novels live in stately homes, visit others, and are visited in turn by their owners. One of Bertie’s first cousins, the Hon. Algernon Wooster, is among those present at a house party in Blandings Castle, Lord Emsworth’s home in Shropshire. Since, on this occasion, there is “nobody in the house who did not belong to the clan” (Something Fresh chapter 7), the possibility arises that Clarence, 9th Earl of Emsworth, and his two sons, Lord Bosham and the Hon. Freddy Threepwood, are related to the Woosters. Dahlia Travers, too, does her share of country house visiting, notably to Eggesford Hall, Maiden Eggesford, Somerset, home of Colonel James and Lady Elsa Briscoe, who own a racing stable.

The reader is confronted by an intricate social network that has its roots in the landowning county families of England, but ultimately reaches as far as South Africa (where Bertie’s cousins Eustace and Claude, twin sons of his pig-rearing uncle, the Hon. Henry Wooster, are forced by their Aunt Agatha to emigrate in order to make a living); and the United States, where Bertie’s (step-)cousin Augustus Mannering- Phipps (‘Extricating Young Gussie’) is dispatched for the same reason, and by the same person.

When my daughter gave me a present of the Folio Society’s set of the Bertie-Jeeves novels, my fascination with this family network led me to try my hand at constructing a family tree for Bertie. Very soon I came upon a major problem: the absence of names or titles for his parents. But, quickly realising that the idea of building a family tree must have occurred to other readers beside myself, I called for help.

A tentative inquiry to Wooster Sauce editor Elin Murphy brought the delightful news that a family tree for Bertie did indeed exist, the ingenious construction of John Fletcher, who published an article on the topic in Plum Lines in June 1990. Elin kindly sent me a copy of Mr Fletcher’s ‘tree’, which, though it did not yield actual names for Bertie’s parents, satisfactorily indicated where they fitted into the Wooster clan.

What follows is intended to complement, rather than replace, the work done by John Fletcher in ‘disentangling’ Bertie Wooster’s relations. Readers who have not encountered Mr Fletcher’s useful work might like to know that its cornerstone is his wellfounded theory that Bertie’s grandmother (whose name is never revealed) was twice married: first to a member of the Mannering-Phipps clan, and second time around to a Wooster (Lord Yaxley). Her first marriage produced three children: Agatha, Cuthbert and Dahlia Mannering-Phipps. Of these three.Cuthbert married Bertie’s ‘Aunt Julia’, an English vaudeville artist, and fathered a son, Augustus (Gussie) ManneringPhipps. The two girls took on their stepfather’s surname (Wooster) when their mother remarried.

So far, so good. But is that all there needs to be said? Some threads appear to be loose in the fabric created by Mr Fletcher, and readers like myself who would like to try tying them up soon come upon some problems. I believe I have discovered three. First among these: the fact that though familiarity with the novels allows us without difficulty to trace names for eight aunts and uncles of Bertie’s and an older halfsister resident in India (together with titles, where they exist), even Mr Fletcher’s ‘tree’ does not reveal the names of Bertie’s parents.

Well, here, for what it’s worth, is a simple solution: is it not probable that Bertie’s father would have passed on his name to his only son? I think it very probable. Consequently, in the list on the next page, I have styled Bertie’s father ‘the Hon Bertram Wooster’. This would make the Hon. Bertram the second in age of the six male children from the second marriage of Bertie’s grandmother Mrs ManneringPhipps (to a Wooster, Lord Yaxley). His elder brother would have been George Wooster (Lord Yaxley, aka ‘Piggy’), and his younger siblings would have been Willoughby, Henry, Clive, and James Wooster.

Grey area

A second grey area: where does Bertie’s extensive fortune come from? Stiffy Byng mentions it when, forbidden by her guardian to marry the clergyman she loves, she threatens to marry Bertie instead, and “take a whack at the Wooster millions”. She is referring to Bertie’s inheritance which enables him to exist ‘beautifully’ for all time, free of financial worries of any kind.

What is the source of his wealth?

I suggest that it comes to him from his ‘Uncle Willoughby’ Wooster, at whose country house in Shropshire he is expected to spend a week or so each summer. Bertie tells us that he must be on his best behaviour while at Easeby, for he is down in Uncle Willoughby’s will ‘for a substantial chunk of the right stuff’. Was ‘Uncle Willoughby’ a Wooster, or a Travers?

He could have been either: Mr Fletcher suggests that he is the brother of Bertie’s (unnamed) mother, which would make her a Miss Travers, and make him Sir Willoughby Travers, Bart. I, on the other hand, prefer to think of ‘Uncle Willoughby’ as Sir Willoughby Wooster, Bart. My reason for this divergence from Mr Fletcher’s theory is based on the fact that neither Agatha nor Dahlia have high opinions of their nephew’s intellect, and that Jeeves even goes so far as to describe his employer as “mentally negligible”.

Bertie’s parents, making allowance for the intellectual shortfall in their only son, and dying young (as they obviously did, since they are no longer around when the novels begin), could have appointed Sir Willoughby Wooster, younger brother of Bertram (Sr.), to take charge of Bertie’s inheritance until Bertie came of age.

Choice

Willoughby would not, of course, have been an ideal choice as a guardian of the young – he is the author of Recollections of a Long Life, a raffish autobiography– but he is kindly, hospitable and richer than his male siblings. Readers will recall that Jeeves enters Bertie’s employment just before one of Bertie’s visits to Easeby. Since ‘Uncle Willoughby’ fades out of the picture very soon afterwards, leaving Bertie a bachelor of independent means with a flat in London and Jeeves as a permanent fixture in it, we could assume that Jeeves has replaced Sir Willoughby Wooster as Bertie’s ‘keeper’.

Finally, where does Algernon Wooster, guest at Blandings Castle in Something Fresh, fit in? Mr Fletcher suggests that he is the younger brother of Bertie’s father, and is therefore Bertie’s uncle; accordingly, Algernon is listed as ‘Hon. Algernon [Wooster]’ in Mr Fletcher’s family tree.

However, though Algernon is mentioned twice in Something Fresh, on neither occasion does Wodehouse award him the title of ‘Hon’ (which he certainly would have done if Algernon had been, like Bertie’s father, the son of an Earl). I prefer to think of ‘young Algernon Wooster’ as Bertie’s cousin, rather than as his uncle, and would suggest that he is the son of Bertie’s clergyman uncle, Rev. the Hon. James Wooster.

Readers who have not fallen under the master’s spell might well question the time and effort spent by John Fletcher, myself, and (very probably) numerous others in tracing the forebears of a fictional invention such as Bertie Wooster. I can only reply that I offer what follows, not so much as a family tree for Bertie Wooster, which has already been convincingly supplied by Mr Fletcher, but as a guide for fellownovelists who, like myself, might care to observe the detail with which P. G. Wodehouse (a ‘writer’s writer’ if ever there was one) builds the world which his principal character inhabits. TThhe e WWoooosstteer r CCiirrccllee: : A TTeennttaattiivve e GGuuiidde e

The fictional English family that bears ‘the fine old name of Wooster’ in the novels of P. G. Wodehouse is an ancient one, a Sieur de Wooster having presumably come over from France with William the Conqueror in 1066. Some members of the family fought at Agincourt, and others “did their bit in the Crusades”.

Also part of Bertie’s inheritance and background is the ManneringPhipps family, seemingly even more ancient than the Woosters, for they “were an olde stablished clan when William the Conqueror was a small boy going round with bare legs and a catapult” (‘Extricating Young Gussie’, 1917).

Battles

Proud in the knowledge that his ancestors fought at the battles of Crécy and Joppa, and later under Wellington in the Peninsular War, Bertie Wooster’s ideas about noblesse oblige and the ‘feudal spirit’, like his determination to live up to his image of himself as a preux chevalier in the noble WoosterWooster Sauce – March 2012 family tradition, are possibly derived from the example set by these distinguished ancestors. So is his code – i.e., “A Wooster never lets a pal down”. (Cf. The Code of the Woosters, chapter 8.)

(11) The Wooster family circle

The list below (starting with Bertie’s formidable Aunt Agatha) gives the members of Bertie Wooster’s immediate family in what I believe is likely to have been the order of their seniority, together with selected details drawn from the Wodehouse books that illustrate their characters and the nature of their relationships with Bertie and with one another. The second gives in alphabetical order the names of persons who, having married into the family or being distantly related to some of its members, may be regarded as family connections of the Woosters.

Agatha a Mannering Phipps (later Wooster). Also known (to her nephew Bertie, who lives in terror of this particular relative) as ‘The Pest of Pont Street’ and ‘The Curse of the Home Counties’. Une femme formidable. Having voluntarily adopted, on her mother’s remarriage, her stepfather’s surname of Wooster, Agatha is married twice –

(1) To Spenser Gregson of the Stock Exchange’.

Agatha and Spenser Gregson are the parents of one son, Thomas (‘Thos’’) Gregson, dedicated film fan and, following her husband’s demise and her own remarriage.

(2) To a peer, Percival Craye Lord Worplesdon , father , by a previous marriage, of one daughter, Lady Florence Craye, son of Edwin Craye, a keen Boy Scout.

Lord Worplesdon is also a guardian of one ward, Zenobia (‘Nobby’) Hopwood Cuthbert Mannering- Phipps. A lavish spender. He and his wife, Julia, a vaudeville artist, have one son, Augustus (Gussie), official head of the family Mannering-Phipps family, married to Ray Denison, an American musical comedy actress.

Remarriage

Dahlia Mannering-Phipps (Later Wooster), Bertie Wooster’s favourit aunt, “ the genial [Step] sister of my late father”. Voluntarily adopting, on her mother’s remarriage, her step father’s surname Wooster, Dahila is married twice-

To (name not known)

To Thomas Portarlington Travers. Dahila and Thomas Travers are the parents of one daughter, Angela, engaged to Hildebrand (‘Tuppy’) Glossop

One son, ‘Bonzo’(still at school)

George Wooster, Lord Yaxley. Official head of the Wooster family. Clubman. For many years a bachelor, George (‘Piggy’) eventually marries his first love and old flame, Maudie Wilberforce (former barmaid at the Criterion Bar, London)

Hon. Bertram? Wooster (Sr). Married twice. He and his wife (name unknown) are the parents of one daughter (Mrs Scholfield). Mother of three daughters. Resident in India.

He and his wife (formerly Miss Travers?) are the parents of one son , Bertram Wilberforce (‘Bertie’). Elegant ‘insouciant boulevardier’ of independent means, the darts champion of his London club (The Drones)

Sir Willoughby Wooster, Bart. Residence: Easeby, Shropshire. Author of Recollection of a long life, was possibly appointed to administer Bertie’s inheritance until Bertie came of age. Leaves his money to Bertie.

Hon. Henry Wooster. A pig-father. Married to Emily Wooster. They have three sons-

(1)amp; (2) The twins Eustace Wooster and Claude Wooster, six years younger than Bertie, elected members of the Seekers Club at Oxford, and

(3) their younger brother, Harold Wooster

Hon. Clive Wooster Resident in Worcestershire, possibly a bachelor.

Rev. the Hon. James Wooster. Presubly, the father of one son, Algernon Wooster (Who makes a brief appearance as a guest at a Blandings Castle house party in Something Fresh, chapter 7 and 8)

Wooster family connections

Clarence, 9th Earl of Emsworth. Owner of Blandings Castle, in Shropshire. Lord Emsworth and his two sons, Lord Bosham and the Hon. Freddy Threepwood, are relatives of the Woosters.

Hildebrand (‘Toppy’) Glossop. Engaged to Angela Travers, daughter of Dahila and Thomas Portarlington Travers.

Percival, Lord Stockheath (‘Poor Percy’), a cousin of Algernon Wooster

George Travers, Bachelor, possibly a brother of Kathleen Travers Witherspoon and Thomas Portarlington Travers.

Kathleen Travers. Sister of Thomas Travers Married to Sir Reginal Witherspoon, Bert .., of Bleaching Court, Hampshire.

Thomas (Tom) Portarlington Travers. Keen collector of old silver. Wealthy husband of Dahila Travers. Father of Angela and ‘Benzo’ Travers Maudie Wilberforce. Former barmaid at Criterion Bar, London. Marries George Wooster, Lord Yaxley.

Percival Craye, Lord Worplesdon. Second husband of Agatha Wooster Gregson. A shipping magnet and owner of the Pink Funnel Line.