Catherine Penelope Bancroft
- Born: 13 Sep 1781, Chaillot, Paris 1
- Baptised: 13 Oct 1781, Chaillot, Paris 2
- Died: 12 Mar 1866, Southsea, Portsmouth aged
84 3
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Catherine's story follows very much the same
lines as her sister Maria's though in later years she does not seem to
have suffered so much with ill-health. It is interesting that most of
the notes and letters that have survived about her immediate family are
written in her hand and have come down through her nephew William's
side of the family.
It seems that Catherine returned from Coblenz sometime in the 1850s
following her sister's death. No information has survived as to where
she settled on her return but, at the time of the 1861 Census, she is
to be found lodging in St Giles's, Oxford,4 and her probate papers suggest
that she later lived with Thomas and Nancy Lister in Beaumont Street in
that city - Nancy was Catherine's brother Samuel's granddaughter and
Thomas, who was a barrister, was the executor of Catherine's Will.
Catherine died at Southsea in March 1866 aged 84. Her nephew William
and his family are reported to have spent February that year wintering
there5
and it seems likely that Catherine was with them when she died. It
would not be surprising if William had also helped her financially in
her last few years following his return to England in 1864, married as
he was by then, to an "Australian heiress".
Rather surprisingly, given her and her sister Maria's straightened
circumstances following their father's death (he was insolvent),
Catherine left the modest sum of between £400 and £450 when she died.6
Note
A small portrait of
Catherine as a young woman with this caption inscribed on the back has
survived in the hands of descendants of the Allen family: "Kitty
Bancroft - b. 1781 at Chaillot when her father Dr Edward Bancroft of
Westfield, Massachusetts was Sec: to Benjamin Franklin the American
Ambassador in Paris. - per Mrs L. J. Allen". "Mrs L. J. Allen" was
Mrs Julia Louisa Allen (1812-1880) the wife of Revd. John Allen, vicar
of Hawkley, Hampshire, and the daughter of Catherine's sister Julia and
her husband Revd. George Lamb, D.D..
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Sources
1 Edith
Bancroft, "The Bancroft Family"
(An unpublished family history of the Bancroft family by Edith Bancroft
(1862-1941) now in the possession of J R U Green (2023)), Page 79. …
Catherine Penelope [Bancroft], born at Chaillot near Paris in Septr.
13th 1781,
and was baptised at Chaillot on Octr. 13th of the same year. Her
sponsors were
the Honble Thos. Walpole & his daughter Catherine. She died April
12th
1866. – Her great-niece, Miss E. M. Bancroft has a portrait of her
(head &
shoulders) in oils.
2 Edith
Bancroft, "The Bancroft Family"
(An unpublished family history of the Bancroft family by Edith Bancroft
(1862-1941) now in the possession of J R U Green (2023)), Page 79 (see
above).
3 Morning
Advertiser (London), Thursday 22
March 1866, Page 8 — DEATHS. ...
On the 12th inst., at Southsea, in her 85th year, Catherine Penelope,
youngest
and last surviving daughter of the late Edward Bancroft. D.C.L.,
F.R.S., author
of 'The Philosophy Permanent Colours', and other works. … Edward
Bancroft
was a medical doctor (MD) and as far as has been discovered, was never
awarded
the degree, honorary or otherwise, of Doctor of Civil Law (DCL).
4 National
Census, 1861 — Parish: Oxford St
Mary Magdalen; ED: 6; Piece: 894; Folio: 6; Page: 6 — Lodger —
Gentlewoman.
5 Hampshire
Telegraph (Hampshire, England),
Saturday, March 24, 1866, Page 5 Col D — THE SOUTHSEA VISITORS' LIST. …
Wellesley Hall. — Major and Mrs Bancroft and family, from
London; Mrs.
Epsett and Mrs. Woodruffe. … William had been become a Major at the
end of
the previous year. This was the last of several weekly reports of the
Bancroft
family being at Southsea.
6 Probate
Court (England and Wales), "Calendar
of Grants of Probate and Administration", Wills and Admons — 1866. …
BANCROFT Catherine Penelope. 29 March Effects under £450.
The Will of Catherine Penelope Bancroft late of Southsea in the County
of
Southampton and of Beaumont-street in the City of Oxford spinster
deceased who
died 12 March 1866 at Southsea aforesaid was proved at Oxford by the
oath of
Thomas Anthony Lister of 29 Beaumont-Street aforesaid Esq the sole
Executor.
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