Jemima, William Amhurst, Louisa

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Thomas and Jemima had three children just over three years:

1. Jemima Frances Sophia born on 15 September 1813 in the Southampton suburb of Shirley¹⁾ and died 29 May 1891 at Howden Lodge, Clarendon Road, Southsea, Hampshire.²⁾ The valuation of her belongings for probate purposes was £191/7/0.³⁾ Another indication of her wealth is that she employed at least two servants, leaving Ada and Mary Hodge £10 each as well as one month's wages (respectively £1/10/0 and £1/1/8), ⁴⁾

Legal documents detailing Jemima's estate reveal that Jemima was far from insular in her (at least, financial) outlook, with her financial dealings encompassing the British Empire and beyond. Part of Jemima's and her sister's wealth came from a successful court case (decided in 1873) to establish they were entitled to a share of the estate of their maternal uncle Francis Dickson who died in India in 1822 (another uncle, William Dickson, was in the Bengal Military Service and died in Bengal in 1828.⁵⁾ The valuation of her belongings for probate purposes was £191/7/0.⁶⁾ She had also invested in various overseas bonds - Egyptian (£600), Russian (£1,000), Honduras (£200), Turkish (£300), Costa Rica (£300) and shares in other overseas ventures in USA and Brazil.⁷⁾ The valuation of her belongings for probate purposes was £191/7/0.⁸⁾

These photos are studio ones from TLM-P’s album.⁹⁾ They are labelled ‘Aunt J.’ and ‘Aunt Jemima M.P’. The former has a signature on the back dated 1872; the signature ends with Prior, and is possibly JMPrior - Jemima Murray Prior?

Jemima, like her sister Louisa, remained single. She was pious and both wealthy and generous enough to leave £200 to set up a charity, ‘The Prior Gift’. This Gift contributed to the salary of the verger at the Holy Trinity Church, Shirley, Southampton, as well for an annual distribution of food tokens to 36 ‘deserving poor’.¹⁰⁾ Faced with large scale poverty, philanthropists in the Victorian age normally restricted aid to those considered ‘deserving’, that is, poor through no fault of their own and living blameless lives. The latter requirement alone substantially reduced the call on philanthropists’ purses! Her other legacies included £1,422/6/2 of money and goods to individuals. It included £1,000 and a music box to TLM-P; a green Indian shawl and a half-hoop diamond ring worth a combined £4 to his wife Nora; items including paintings, lace and jewellery worth £62/17/6 to Thomas de M. M-P; and items of smaller value to Florence (Thomas de M M-P's wife), Lizzie Jardine, Hervey M-P, Rosa and Campbell Praed. The later also received £50 probably because she named him as co-executor with her sister Louisa: however, declined the role.¹¹⁾

See photo taken by Andrew Darbyshire at Southampton church, Andrew Darbyshire, A Fair Slice of St Lucia, St Lucia History Group Research Paper No.8. pp.59,60. https://brisbanehistorywest.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/08-a-fair-slice-of-st-lucia-thomas-lodge-murray-prior.pdf

2. William Amherst (1814-15), who was born and died in London when he was about 6 weeks old; he was buried at St. Paul's, London.¹²⁾ and

3. Louisa Elizabeth Catherine (26 December 1816–24 July 1899). She was born at Boulogne, France and died at 'Maroon', 23 Fernlea Road, Balham, Surrey, a suburb of London.¹³⁾ She was baptised on 22 January 1817 by the Chaplain of the 18th Hussars, the Regiment in which her father then served ¹⁴⁾ She was baptised again two years later at Wells cathedral.¹⁵⁾

Rosa Praed was the executor of her estate which was valued at £4,807.35¹⁶⁾

Given the resemblance to the portraits thought to be Eliza Prior, and to the ones below, this miniature and its copy is likely to show the young Jemima or Louisa.¹⁷⁾

These three photos are studio ones from TLM-P’s album, labelled ‘Aunt Louisa’ and 'Aunt Louisa M.P’.¹⁸⁾ The second photo has the inscription on the back ‘For Morres[?] with Aunt Louisa's Love’. Judging from Louisa's large Crinoline, the photos were taken in the mid-nineteenth century.

In 1863, Louisa lived at 18 Oxford Terrace, St Peters, Islington, London ; by 1882 (when her brother visited her) she lived at 23 Fernlea Road, Balham in south London.¹⁹⁾ She was still living there in 1891 when her sister Jemima died.²⁰⁾ The valuation of her belongings for probate purposes was £191/7/0.²¹⁾ She then moved into Jemima's home at Howden Lodge, 14 Clarendon Road, Southsea.²²⁾ Her death certificate described her 'rank or profession' as 'Of Independent means' and having died 14 days after experiencing apoplexy (a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke). Her niece and executor Rosa Praed was there when she died.²³⁾

Middle-class women were expected to play the piano and Louisa was no exception. Some of her sheet music has survived, so we can imagine her at her piano playing these Verdi variations. ²⁴⁾

¹⁾

Thomas Bertram M-P, Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty, ms, n.d, p.5 has 1814; 'Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry.

²⁾

death notice in Hampshire Advertiser, 6 June 1891; Probate Valuation in Rosa Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/42

³⁾ , ⁶⁾

Probate Valuation in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/33 and 42

⁴⁾

Inland revenue receipts for probate duty in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/14-27

⁵⁾

Petition to Chancery by Jemima and Louisa Prior, 26 May 1876, in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/52

⁷⁾

Inland Revenue Succession Duties, 28 August 1891, in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/42

⁸⁾ , ²¹⁾

Probate Valuation in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/33

⁹⁾ , ¹⁸⁾

Provenance: J. Godden

¹⁰⁾

Charity Commissioners letter 27 July 1892 in Rosa Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, MSOM64-01, Box 10/12/8-9

¹¹⁾

legal document 24 June 1891 and Schedule of legacies in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/10 and 14

¹²⁾

‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry; genealogical notes in John & John B. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland: M to Z, London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1846; Thomas Bertram M-P, Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty, ms, n.d., p.5. See also QJO, Praed papers, 10/12/51.

¹³⁾

Envelope, Rosa Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, MSOM64-01, Box 10/12/6

¹⁴⁾

letter by Chaplain to the Forces in Rosa Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, MSOM64-01, Box 10/12/46-49

¹⁵⁾

Rosa Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, MSOM64-01, Box 10/12/45-49

¹⁶⁾

‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry; England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1899 and England & Wales, National Probate calendar, 1899, accessed throughAncestry.com; Death Certificate in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/4.

¹⁷⁾

Professor Colin Roderick obtained numerous material from the Murray-Prior family when he was writing the biography of Rosa Praed. He donated these miniatures to the Mitchell Library (MIN 335), with a note that he thought they were two of the Darvell sisters, one of whom was the grandmother of TLM-P's wife Nora. A keener eye for women’s clothes and jewellery reveals that one painting is a copy of the other. Given the family resemblance they are highly likely to Jemima or Louisa Prior, not Emily Darvall or her sister.

¹⁹⁾

‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry.

²⁰⁾

Inland Revenue Succession Duties, 28 August 1891, in Rosa Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/42

²²⁾

Probate Valuation in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/42

²³⁾

Death Certificate in Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, OM64-01, Box 10/12/4.

²⁴⁾

Provenance: T.A. & M.T.M-P