Mrs Hall-Dare
(1819-1862)
20 November 1861

Volume 5, page 253, sitting number 6506.

[Identified as 'Mrs Hall Dare' in the Silvy daybooks, the previous entry is 'Miss Agnes Hall Dare,' presumably this sitter's sister-in-law.]

Born in or about 1826, Agnes Hall-Dare was the daughter of Robert Westley Hall-Dare (born Robert Westley Hall, son of Robert Hall of Ilford Lodge) and Elizabeth Grafton Hall-Dare (née Elizabeth Grafton-Dare). Robert and Elizabeth had five sons, of whom two died young and one never married. If the woman in this portrait is one of their daughters-in-law, she is either Frances Anna Catherine née Lambart, wife of Robert Westley Hall-Dare, or Agatha née Kekewich, the first wife of Henry Hall-Dare.

Mrs Agatha Hall-Dare appears elsewhere in the Silvy daybooks (sitting number 7567 on 7 April 1862) and is clearly not the same woman as the one seen here. This is therefore almost certainly Mrs Frances Hall-Dare, wife of Robert Westley Hall-Dare.

Born Frances Anna Catherine Lambart, she was the daughter Gustavus William Lambart of Beau Parc, County Meath, Ireland. On 18 April 1839 she married Robert Westley Hall-Dare of Newtownbarry [today called Bunclody] in County Wexford, Ireland. Their marriage produced six children. 

Mrs France Hall-Dare died, aged only 43, on 2 September 1862 at 49 Eaton Place in London. The cause of death was cancer of the womb.

Her husband died a few years later on 23 April 1866, at the age of 49. According to a report on his will in the Chelmsford Chronicle (27 July 1866), he 'was for some time MP for South Essex. He was Deputy Lieutenant for Essex, and a magistrate.'