Theos-Talk Archives (November 2006 Message tt00799)

Commentary on Leadbeater?s ?Brazilian adventure? may be interesting
insofar as the story provides insights into his views of race, but the
account is clearly fantasy or fraud.

Leadbeater?s story about his alleged time in Brazil is found in ?Saved by
a Ghost. A True Story of an Adventure in Brazil, Near Bahia, 1861-2?
published in ?The Theosophist? (1911), subsequently published as an
off-print edited and annotated by Jinarajadasa with the title ?Saved by a
Ghost. A True Record of Adventure in Brazil, Near Bahia, 1861-1862, of
Charles Leadbeater (Senior), Charles Webster Leadbeater, and Gerald
Leadbeater? (1911), and then included in a collection of Leadbeater?s
short stories, ?The Perfume of Egypt? (1911). Presumably, if it was not ?A
True Record?, Leadbeater had every opportunity correct it, or at least to
prevent the second edition (1912) being published. The published account
can be supplemented by notes left by Jinarajadasa and A.J. Hamerster in
the TS archives at Adyar. Jinarajadasa also undertook research in Brazil
in an attempt to confirm the details, but did not report any success.

Leadbeater claimed that he and his family were in Brazil between 1858-62:
the story in ?Saved by a Ghost? allegedly occurs in 1861-2, biographical
notes made by A.J. Hamerster and corrected by Leadbeater record the family
being in Brazil from around 1858 to 1862, and a ?Memo for a Biography of
C.W.L.? written by Jinarajadasa on the basis of information given to him
by Leadbeater states that the family went to Brazil in 1858 and returned
to London around 1862. However, the 1861 British Census records show
Leadbeater and his parents in England: Charles Leadbeater (35), who
described himself as a ?railway clerk?, his wife Emma (39) and their son,
Charles W. (7) were lodgers in the house of a Mr Allen in Brompton,
London. Emma is described as having been born in Liverpool and Charles W.
in Stockport. The census return submitted by Leadbeater when he was Curate
of Bramshott in 1881 reports that he was 34 (i.e. born in 1854) and had
been born in Stockport, and that his mother was 59 (i.e. she would have
been born in 1822, and would have been 39 in 1861). Unless it is claimed
that the father, as a railway clerk, took his family to Brazil around
1858, and returned with them to London for the 1861 census, and then
returned to Brazil for the ?Saved by a Ghost? adventure in 1861-62, but
came back to London to die in 1862 (when his widow reported his death,
describing Charles, Snr, as ?book-keeper for a railway company?), the
story must be regarded as fantasy or fraud.

Leadbeater claimed that his father was the leading director of a railway
company (which Leadbeater did not identify but which Jinarajadasa, from
his research in Brazil, claimed was The State of Bahia South Western
Railway Company).  Leadbeater?s father must moved from being a ?book
keeper? (1854 baptismal record of his son) to ?railway clerk? (1861
census) to ?leading director? (for the adventures in Brazil) to
?book-keeper for a railway company? (1862 death certificate).

Leadbeater claimed that there was a rebellion under a General Martinez
(?the best swordsman in South America?). However, no standard history of
Brazil includes any reference to uprisings in Brazil, 1850-1889, or to any
general, rebel or otherwise, by the name of Martinez.

Leadbeater claimed that his brother, Gerald, was murdered by the rebels.
However, there is no record of any child other than Charles Webster being
born to Charles and Emma Leadbeater in the period 1840-1870. None of the
major international genealogical search engines produces any result for
?Gerald Leadbeater?. There is no record in the British records of deaths
of its citizens abroad of anyone named Leadbeater. No British press
reports have been located reporting the murder of a British child in
Brazil, 1860-1870.

Leadbeater claimed that his father joined the army in fighting the rebels
and that he (aged either 15 by his account or 8 according to his birth
certificate) went with his father and the army to capture Martinez, and
that both of them were present at the General?s execution.
Leadbeater claimed that he and his father were awarded decorations by the
government for their services to Brazil.

Dr Gregory Tillett