family portraits of the blount family of mapledurham
TRANSCRIPT
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Family Portraits of the Blount Family of Mapledurham
by Philippa Hunter (copyright)
The original collection of fourteen Family Portraits once hung in the drawing room belonging
to the solicitor, Alfred Francis Blount (elder brother of the architect Gilbert Blount) who died
at 1, Montagu-square, London, on 17th March 1895. His widow, Charlotte, married Alfred
Ashley Westby and died in the Auvergne in 1923. The portraits were eventually bought by
Alfred’s niece, Emma May, nee Blount.
Patrick Rogers wrote about Alfred Blount in the Westminster Cathedral Magazine, ‘Oremus’
in 2001:
“That land is for sale, I wish you to buy it.” Cardinal Manning was addressing his solicitor,
Alfred Blount, in November 1882. What both men were looking at, from the Cardinal’s
residence at the bottom of Carlisle Place, was Tothill Fields Prison. Blount formed a company
and bought the site in 1884. The western half was immediately sold to the Cardinal at cost,
the remainder to a property developer. On the land sold to the Cardinal now stands
Westminster Cathedral.
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For more information about the family of Joseph Blount of Mapledurham and his wife, Mary
Canning, please see the article entitled ‘Mary Blount, nee Canning’: https://wp.me/p4BX9P-
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(Should you wish to reproduce these images please apply to the webmaster at
Michael Blount I was born on 26th March 1693 at Mapledurham and married Mary Agnes
Tichborne (1695-1777). He died on 2nd November 1739 at Winchester and was buried at
Tichborne near Alresford, Hampshire. Michael and Mary Agnes were the Great II
Grandparents of Gilbert Blount.
Mary Agnes Blount nee Tichborne (1695-1777), Wife of Michael Blount I
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The first portrait is marked “Lady unknown”, it is almost certainly Mary Agnes Tichborne
{1695-1777}. She was a wealthy co-heiress of her father, Sir Henry Joseph Tichborne. They
were an old catholic family who lived at Tichborne, Hampshire and she married Michael
Blount I {1693-1739} in 1716. They lived near her family in Hampshire most of the time,
because her husband’s home, Mapledurham, was in a very poor state of repair. After her
husband’s death, she moved to Mapleduham and is buried there. He was buried in St James’
Cemetery, Winchester. Her great, great, grandson, Gilbert Blount {1819-1876} was to design
alterations to the family house and garden in the 1850’s.
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Michael Blount II {1719-1792}
Michael Blount II {1719-1792} was the son of Michael I and Mary Agnes. He married Mary
Eugenia Strickland {1723-1765} in 1742. He was a hoarder of nearly 3,000 letters and
documents, obsessed with health issues and a hypochondriac.
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Portraits at Mapledurham: Above Michael Blount II [1719-1792] with his wife, Mary Eugenia Strickland [1723-
1765] and below is her father, Mannock Strickland.
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Michael Blount III (1743-1821) brother of Mary Eugenia Blount and great uncle of Gilbert Robert Blount. There
is a similar portrait of him at Mapledurham House.
Michael Blount III {1743-1821} is marked “Man no name”, but it is a copy, or the original of a
painting by George Romney which is at Mapledurham House. He was the son of Michael
Blount II and he married Elenora Fitzgerald {1761-1782} in 1781, however, she died four
months after the birth of her daughter, Maria. His second wife was Catherine Wright {nee
Petre} {1760-1845}.
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Portrait of Michael Blount III at Mapledurham with his wives, Eleanora and Catherine
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Mary Eugenia Blount {1746-1828}
Mary Eugenia Blount {1746-1828} was the daughter of Michael II and his wife Mary Agnes
Strickland. She married Charles Stonor {1737-1781} in 1765. They had seven children. In 1774
they moved to Bath and were there at the time of the Gordon Riots escaping back to Stonor
House early in the morning leaving “the Catholic Chapel in flames”. They moved to Gravelines,
Normandy in 1781, Charles dying three months later. Very quickly she married Thomas
Canning {1755-1825} in 1783, by which time she was totally blind. She had another two
children and they lived at Purley {on the opposite side of the river Thames to Mapledurham}
until Thomas died. She died at Stonor and is buried in the Canning Vault at Purley.
She was Great Aunt of Gilbert Blount, sister-in-law (twice over) of Mary Canning of
Cheltenham. and mother of the first Lord Camoys.
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Thomas Canning (1755-1825), the husband of Mary Eugenia Blount (above)
Thomas Canning {1755-1825} was the second husband of Mary Blount – see above. He was
the son of Francis Canning of Foxcote House, nr Chipping Campden, Glos. He was an
impoverished solicitor – Mary removing the contents of Stonor House, as her first husband
did not leave a will.
Their two sons were Thomas {1785-1824} who also became a solicitor and Edward Thomas
{1788-1854}. Both were born in London.
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Thomas Cannng {1785-1824}
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Edward Thomas Canning {1788-1854)
Edward married Louisa Georgina Spencer {1792-1854}- grand daughter of the 3rd Duke of
Marlborough, 22 October 1832 at the British Embassy Chapel, Paris. She died 1854 and was
buried at St James’, Reading. Edward continued living in Cunningham Place, London until his
death in 1857 and was buried with his wife at Reading. He was the last male descendant of
the Foxcote Cannings.
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Mother Anne-Marie Canning {1748-1820}
Anne-Marie Canning {1748-1820} was the elder sister of Thomas Canning who married Mary
Blount and Mary Canning {1754-1843} who married Mary Blount’s brother Joseph. She was a
nun in Paris and later became superioress of the Convent “Dames Anglaises”, which later
became know as the English Augustines. It was the only “English” convent to survive the
French Revolution and it was to play an important part in her sister’s life after her husband
Joseph died in 1793.-see article Mary Canning and her family.
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Mary Canning {1754-1843}
Mary Canning {1754-1843} sister of Anne-Marie and Thomas Canning. She was born at
Foxcote House and married Joseph Blount {1752-1793} in the house chapel 1776. They had
seven children. The eldest, Mary died at her aunt’s convent school in Paris aged 14 and the
twins, Anne and Martha died within a month of their birth 1785. After her husband’s death,
she went to live in the convent in the Fosse St Victor, with her two surviving daughters and
sister. Her two sons were to join her just before the French revolution started and they were
all held prisoners until finally escaping to England in the early 1800’s. Mary settled initially in
Cheltenham with her daughter, Frances, but could not resist the fascination of Paris and
returned. When the 1830 riots broke out, she returned to Cheltenham and died there in 1843.
She was one of the first to be buried at St Benet’s, Kemerton, Gloucestershire. The picture
was painted in September 1839 by Williams of Cheltenham.
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Joseph Blount {1752-1793}
Joseph Blount {1752-1793} was the second son of Michael II and married Mary Canning
{above}. He went to school in France-Douai College, to study philosophy and on his return in
1770, was fortunate enough to become a protégé of Charles Woolfe, a lawyer. After their
marriage, the family leased Britwell House nr Watlington, Oxon, from Thomas Weld, and the
last four children were born there. The family moved to France, following a very generous
legacy from Charles Woolfe. Joseph died on New Year’s Day 1793, and is buried in St Cyr, near
Lyons. The portrait was painted by C. Borne in 1765, presumably while he was studying.
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Elizabeth Blount {1778-1849}
Elizabeth Blount {1778-1849}, the second child of Joseph and Mary Blount, married Ralf
Riddell of Felton, Northumberland in 1801. They had seven children. The eldest, Thomas, was
to use his mother’s nephew, Gilbert Blount, to design and build a church at Felton {1856}. She
was instrumental in gaining Gilbert, a place in the office of Anthony Salvin for his architectural
training. She was a major benefactor of Bishop Ullathorne’s cathedral – St Chad’s, in
Birmingham. She died at Leamington and is buried at Kemerton, Gloucestershire, next to her
mother. This was painted by T. Chevenin of Paris in 1793, as were the following three pictures
of her siblings.
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Joseph Blount {1779-1863}
Joseph Blount {1779-1863} was the eldest son of Joseph and Mary Blount. He married Jane
Satterthwaite [1779-1807] in Lancaster in 1807 but she died only six months later. He married
for the second time, Anne Martin {1786-1820} of Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire. They had
a daughter Frances [1819], who after her mother’s death went to live with her aunt and
grandmother in Cheltenham. Joseph was a confirmed radical and became known as The Poor
Man’s Friend putting out food on the wall outside his house in Hurstbourne Tarrant. When
he died he requested to be buried in the middle of the road so that the carts and carriages
could drive over him. This was not allowed so he was buried with his second wife, with a large
flat top stone so children could play marbles!
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Frances Blount [1780-1861}
Frances Blount [1780-1861] was the third daughter of Joseph and Mary Blount and lived in
Cheltenham. After her mother died in 1843, she moved to Clifton where she died in 1861. She
too, is buried at Kemerton next to her mother and sister. Her nephew, Gilbert, designed all
three headstones which are still there.
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Michael Joseph Blount [1783-1868]
Michael Joseph Blount [1783-1868] youngest son of Joseph and Mary Blount. He married
Catherine Wright [1780-1856] – daughter of his uncle’s second wife by her first marriage to
Francis Wright a banker, in 1816. They had two sons, Alfred {1817-1895] and Gilbert [1819-
1876] the architect, and two daughters, [1820-1855] and Louisa [1823-1857]. He was High
Sheriff of Oxfordshire 1832, and is buried in the Blount family vault at St James’ Church in
Reading with his wife and sister Louisa. His son Gilbert with his wife Sophia and three
unmarried daughters were to join him.
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Gilbert Robert Blount {1819-1876}
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Sophia Margaret, nee Brown, wife of Gilbert Robert Blount with (left to right) Emma (who later married
William May), Louisa and Marjorie (1876)