Miss Matilda Hartopp
(1834-1892)

Volume 1, page 77, sitting number 512. 

Identified on the album page as 'Miss Hartopp,' this is one of the six daughters of Sir William Edmond Cradock Hartopp (1797-1874), 3rd Baronet Cradock-Hartopp of Freathby in the County of Leicester. Several of her sisters appear on the same album page, also photographed by Silvy. 

Convention dictated that only the eldest unmarried daughter of the head of a family was styled 'Miss X' with no first name. All the other unmarried women in the family used a distinguishing first name. 

The 1851 census shows the order of the ages of the baronet's six daughters very clearly. The eldest was Mildred, aged 22, followed by Gertrude (19), Matilda (15), Anna Maria (13), Louisa (9) and Julia (7). By 1860, when this photograph was taken, Mildred, Gertrude and Anna Maria were all married. The eldest unmarried daughter was therefore Matilda. 

Born on 2 October 1834 at Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire, on 22 August 1865 Matilda Jane Hartopp married the Right Honourable Edward William Pelham-Clinton, commonly called Lord Edward Pelham-Clinton, who was the second son of the 5th Duke of Newcastle. The marriage produced no children.

Lady Edward Pelham-Clinton died, aged 57, on 23 October 1892 at her residence, 81 Eccleston Square, London. She left effects valued at £7332. She was buried at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. 

An announcement of her death appeared in the Lincolnshire Chronicle (28 October 1892): 'Lady Edward Pelham-Clinton died on Sunday morning at 81, Eccleston-square, London. A daughter of Sir William Cradock Hartopp, she married in 1865 Colonel Lord Edward Pelham-Clinton (Groom in Waiting to the Queen), second son of the fifth Duke of Newcastle. The late Lady Edward was sister of the Countess of Shannon. Messages of condolences have been received from Her Majesty and other members of the Royal Family.'

[From an album compiled and decorated by the Honourable Augustus Gough-Calthorope, later 6th Baron Calthorpe.]