Update: As of 21 August 2025, I’m thrilled to tell you this whole collection is now in the very safe hands of a lady and her family who are descendants📚

Chapter 3

More Bromleys

In Chapter 2, we heard a lot about William Bromley, now I shall introduce you to his 9 children, and since the last Chapter, I found the most probable death for William’s wife Catherine and so I spent £1.50 to take a look at her Will and I’m so glad I did as I also discovered the 3 extra Children through it!

First, the eldest Caroline Bromley, was b 7 October 1813, and when she was 25 in July 1839 she married George Edwards Hering the younger son of a German father, Charles von Heringen who was a bookbinder, he died when George was in his 20s. George had been a clerk in a bank but took up art as his profession, training in Germany after his father died, he became a very well-known landscape painter taking trips to America and Europe to paint. Caroline was also an artist who actually, as well as her husband, exhibited at the Royal Academy, I found this record for entries in 1853 for her. No 360. Mrs G E Hering.

Both photos above are from the National Portrait Gallery, George coming up to the age of 60 and Catherine coming up to 50 years of age.

Over 20 years earlier at 6am on a day in November 1841, their daughter Bertha Heringen Hering had been born.

George and Catherine spent their summers up in Scotland on the Isle of Arran, in their own home ‘Ormidale’ (now a hotel) that George had built, they were a very wealthy and well-connected couple. Ormidale was just around the bay to Brodick Castle, the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The couple were close friends with William A A Hamilton who became the 11th Duke of Hamilton in 1852.

William A A Hamilton married Marie Amelie Elisabeth Karoline Prinzessin von Baden on 23 February 1843 at the Ducal Palace, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. (Marie was the youngest daughter of Napoleon I’s adopted daughter Stephanie de Beauharnais) The couple had 3 children, William b12 Mar 1845, Charles b18 May 1847 and Mary Victoria b11 December 1850 (Queen Victoria was her Godmother). But William also had a mistress, Elizabeth (Hamilton) who lived in Kilbride, County of Bute, Scotland, the next-door Island to Arran, and on 21 Jun 1846, Elizabeth gave birth to their daughter Marion Jane/Jean Catherine Hamilton in Kilbride. I wondered if maybe she used to work on the Isle of Arran and that’s how they met?

Sarah Beattie has written some wonderful Blogs about Brodick Castle, here’s the link to one on the National Trust for Scotland website: 11th Duke of Hamilton

The photo below is of William Alexander Archibald Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton and 8th Duke of Brandon, he was a dashing young man.

When young Bertha Hering tragically died on 9 July 1848 aged just 6, Catherine and George must have been distraught. She was born and died at no 4 Southampton Street. Cause of death, Gastric Fever, gland infection 4 days. Catherine Bromley was present at her death, she gives her address as 31 Fitzroy Square, Paddington.

Southampton St now called Conway St was just along the road to Fitzroy Square, so were they just in the midst of moving maybe when Bertha became poorly as they had been at Southampton St in the 1841 census. On the 1851 census, there was a family called Allen living at 4 Southampton St.

Sometime over the following 2 years, William Hamilton persuaded his mistress Elizabeth that Marion would have a much better life with Catherine and George if they adopted her and obviously persuaded them too, Marion he knew would have a good life with more opportunities than if she stayed with her mother growing up in the County of Bute. Of course, she would also be out of the area, which was more convenient for William as she was a constant reminder of his infidelities, I wonder if he contributed to her upkeep.

A beautiful painting of Arran by George Edwards Hering with Brodick Castle in the distance.

Interestingly I found a record of Marion Jane Catherine Hamilton’s Baptism on 23 February 1851 at Kilbride, County of Bute, Scotland with William and Elizabeth Hamilton the parents, just a month before 30 March 1851, the date of the 1851 census in England. I’m thinking that Elizabeth wanted a written record of her daughter being born at Kilbride, County of Bute, Scotland before she started her new life. There is also the possibility that it’s a different couple with a daughter of a similar name, too much of a coincidence?

Elizabeth (Hamilton) (aged 28) brought Marion aged 4 to London to stay with the Herings and by sheer luck, it was at the time of the 1851 census that they were staying with Catherine and George at their new home at 230 Maida Vale in Paddington, so we have proof! Their new home was in a lovely area next to the canal and close to a girls’ school.

Elizabeth obviously travelled to London with her daughter to settle her into her new life living with George and Catherine. A small snapshot of life back then but what an amazing story it tells.

All must have gone well as Marion became their adopted daughter, I’ve tried to find out what happened to her mother Elizabeth after this but I haven’t been able to find her. On the 1841 census for Kilbride, County of Bute, Scotland there are 2 possible Elizabeths both aged 18 with the maiden names of Mathie and Murray. Could it be either of these or was her maiden name actually Hamilton?

In 1852 when William inherited the title of 11th Duke of Hamilton, he also bought 22 Arlington Street in St. James’s, a district of the City of Westminster, it was just a short distance from where the Herings lived, did he follow his daughter’s progress I wonder or visit her? Marion received an excellent education living with the Herings and also went to finishing school in Germany. I would imagine that she would have been introduced to painting at an early age as her adoptive parents were artists, but she actually became an author using the name of Jeanie Hering, she wrote over 20 books.

When Marion was 28 on 15 April 1875 she married John Adams-Acton (he added Acton, where he was born, as there was another artist by the name of Adams) John was a Sculptor. The couple would have met through Marion’s parents I would think as they had many friends in the art world.

So my theory is that this photo above could be of Marion or possibly John Adams Acton‘s sister Clarissa Adams who was also an Artist. Or in theory, any one of the artists that they were friends with but I do think it’s more likely to be a family member.

Marion and John had 7 children. In the early days of their marriage, they lived at 103 Marylebone Road (1881) They moved to 8 Langford Place, St John’s Wood (1891 and 1901) it now has a strange gothic style house on the land apparently owned by Vaness Feltz. I’m a bit puzzled as to why there is a Blue Plaque at no 14 Langford Place for John Adams Acton, saying he lived there from 1882-1906? His birth date is also incorrect on the plaque? 1831, he was born on 11 December 1830, his birth date is on his Baptism record. This is the 1885 election record describing no 8 Langford Place, St Johns Wood.

When Catherine d1886 and George d1879, passed away Marion inherited their home on the Isle of Arran and they spent lots of their time there with their children. John had a studio there, and another that he built at their home, 8 Langford Place, in London. John died on 31 October 1910 at their home ‘Ormidale’ on the Isle of Arran after being knocked down a year or so previously in London traffic, he never fully recovered.

Marion died on 10 October 1928 at 99 Clifton Hill, St John’s Wood, Middlesex. She was buried with her husband at Brodick Parish Cemetery, Isle of Arran.

And what of their 7 children? Well, one daughter was an Artist, another a Musician and the last married a Stock Broker, 2 of the boys were Sculptors like their father, one became a Historian of Art and a flamboyant Interior Designer, and another went into Law. Another went to America and ended up with a 3-year prison sentence in San Quentin Jail for Robbery, a sensation at the time!

William and Catherine Bromley’s second born was Sarah b27 December 1814 she married John Minton Courtauld in October 1837. He was a member of the famous Courtauld Textile Company.

The following information is from the Braintree Museum Website: Courtauld Company “The Courtauld family business started in 1799 when George Courtauld, an engineer began a silk throwing business in a water-powered mill in Pebmarsh, Essex. (Info Wikipedia: Silk throwing is the industrial process where the silk that has been reeled into skeins, is cleaned, receives a twist and is wound onto a bobbin) George’s eldest son Samuel and his cousin Peter A Taylor founded Courtauld & Taylor in 1817, then in 1818 built Pound End Mill, Braintree. They totally transformed the business and expanded, buying another larger mill in Bocking and renting out their first one. But it was in 1825 when Samuel’s brother George and John Minton joined the firm that the company really took off and became famous. They decided to start making crepe, crimped silk gauze, and the textile in black for mourning wear. The new fashion for mourning encouraged by Queen Victoria after the death of her husband resulted in the huge success of the company that became known as Samuel Courtauld & Co by mid-Victorian times. In the next century, the company pioneered the production of artificial silk, known as Rayon, which transformed fashion!”

Sarah was just 40 when she died. This death record above shows us that her Mum Catherine Taylor was not using Bromley as her surname, understandably after William’s court cases, but had reverted back to her maiden name of Taylor. Although on her Will and death record, it says Bromley. It also tells us Catherine lived in Hampstead, Middlesex.

Sarah and John Minton Courtauld had 2 children, a son Julian b25 Mar 1844-27 Mar 1870. He was just 26 when he died, how sad, was it suicide? The inquest thought not?

Their daughter Edith Marie was b1847 “Edith was artistic and her ambition was to have a career as an artist. After only one term at the National Art School in South Kensington in 1866, her landscape artist uncle George Edwards Hering invited her to use a small studio in St Johns Wood. There she met the leading Royal Academician John Herbert who gave her valuable instruction“. So now I have another possible identity for the lady Artist on the CDV although less likely!

Edith visited Egypt in the early 1870s and that’s where she met Lieutenant Soren Adolph Arendrup, a 38-year-old widower, his wife Louise Camilla (Mourier) had died on 13 February 1868, leaving him with 2 young daughters Anna Harriett b1861 and Ebba Margareth b1864. Soren was a Danish officer who was serving as an artillery adviser to the Egyptian army. The records say they married in Marylebone, London, England but in the Naturalisation record below, it says the couple were married in Paris. So maybe the one in Paris was just a Blessing or they repeated the marriage in the UK after Paris? After their marriage, they lived in Cairo. The couple had two children there, a daughter Agnes b10 June 1874 in Egypt and died 19 August 1874 in Egypt and a son Axel Jerome b1876 in Egypt. Soren was killed on 16 November 1875 leading a small Egyptian army into Ethiopia. So with just her young son, (not her 2 stepdaughters, as I have found in other reports, they lived with their Grandparents Arendrup in Denmark after their mother died) Edith returned to England.

The next record below dated 16 January 1889 is a Naturalization document. By marrying Soren she had become a citizen of Denmark but now as she was on her own with her son she wanted to be a British Subject again. She was an independent wealthy woman so she would have had no problem, in the 1891 census she had her own home in Wimbledon living with her son and a parlour maid, a cook, a kitchen maid and a gardener/coachman.

During her early life, after her husband died, she continued to paint and exhibited three works under the title ‘Christ’s Appeal’ in a private gallery in 1881 on New Bond Street, London.

On 5 April 1896, Edith and Soren’s son Axel Jerome died of typhoid in Madiera, Portugal. “Her family gone, Edith sold her house and joined the religious order of the Daughters of Mary. For the next thirty years, she worked among the poor in the East End of London and in Ireland. She retired to her old home, now a convent run by Franciscan nuns in 1925. Edith died in her sleep on 10 January 1934 following a stroke and was buried in the grounds of the convent. Much more on Edith’s life in R. Milward’s biography Triumph over Tragedy: the life of Edith Arendrup published in 1991″.

William and Catherine‘s 3 sons William b1816, Henry b abt 1820 and Edward born abt 1825 are all a bit of a mystery as I did find references to William working with his father William in business, shared in the previous Chapter, but nothing confirmed for after 1845/46. Unfortunately, because there are no middle names for the sons there are too many possibilities to confirm or deny what records belong to them without lots more work. I do know for a fact that they were all still alive at the time of their mother Catherine’s death in 1855 because of her will here that I have marked up:

William and Catherine’s daughter Letitia b3 September 1818 sadly “at 1/4 to 5, she died of Bronchitis, age 19 and 8 months, brother William Bromley Jnr registered her death” on 5 May 1858, according to her death cert that I ordered online from the GRO for £2.50. The opportunity to find out more now is far too tempting for me!

Their next child was Ellen Bromley born on 25 July 1822 in Bloomsbury, Middlesex. On 5 August 1845, she married Charles Knowlys Grenside (1813-1902) at the Old Church, Saint Pancras in London. Ellen died aged 61 in September 1883 in Erpingham, Norfolk, England.

The couple had three children, Ellen Frances Grenside was born in 1848, and she became a Lady later in life as she married, as his 2nd wife Sir Edward Frankland, and they had 2 daughters. Wonderful information about him here on a family history site: Thompson Family

Ellen and Charles‘s son Charles Evelyn Grenside, (was a Solicitor) married his cousin Anna Harriet Arendrup (one of his Aunt Edith’s step daughter’s) and they had 4 daughters. Ellen and Charles’s youngest daughter Emily Grenside (1852-1921) never married, in the 1911 census she had one of her nieces Catherine Frances Helga Frankland living with her, who also incidentally married a well-known Artist Woodbine Kendall Hinchliff (1874-1947) He was the son of engraver John James Hinchliff.

This family is full of links to art and the law, with many being or marrying Artists or Barrister/Solicitors.

William and Catherine‘s next daughter Elizabeth was born on 23 April 1824. She married Henry John Preston, who was also a Solicitor, in October 1846. The couple had no children and by the time of the 1871 census along with the servants they had widower John Minton Courtauld (her sister’s husband. Sarah, her sister had died the year before) living with them as a lodger, John aged 63 and Henry aged 53 were both retired. They were living at The Gables, Marylebone, London. Henry John Preston died on 12 June 1875 and not long afterwards Elizabeth and John became a married couple in Neuchatel, Switzerland on 11 April 1877, just a month before John’s death on 6 May 1877, he died at 35 Upper Hamilton Terrace with his daughter Edith Arendrup with him, he had Cancer. Online death cert below.

A newspaper report on Elizabeth’s death on 10 April 1893 in Bocking, Essex, at the age of 68.

Some excerpts from the Essex Weekly News – Wednesday 19 April 1893. DEATH of MRS. JOHN COURTAULD of Bocking. It is our sad duty to announce the death of Mrs Elizabeth Courtauld, widow of Mr John Courtauld, which took place last Tuesday at her residence Bridge House, Bocking.
Mrs Courtauld was the second wife of Mr John Courtauld. The deceased lady was left a widow shortly after her marriage to Mr Courtauld who died about 16 years ago. She was the daughter of the late Mr Bromley and her first husband was the late Mr Preston. She leaves no children…..
A long time prior to her death the deceased lady expressed a wish to have her body cremated and her ashes buried at Gosfield Churchyard. Her body was taken to Woking and then Friday it was cremated and on Saturday morning a stone casket containing the ashes arrived back at Bridge House in the charge of an official from Woking…..there was also a bit of a hoo ha because the Vicar where Elizabeth was buried would not allow a Non-Conformist service to be held at the graveside, many of the Bromley family through the generations were non-conformists (Elizabeth’s ashes were buried with John Minton Courtauld and Her sister Sarah, John’s first wife) he had the right to not allow a dissenting service to be held but the Lord’s Prayer was said and the Benediction. His objections were noted that it was to prevent a president from being established in regard to non-parochial dissenters” ……..”Previous to the burial of Elizabeth’s ashes the family had held a funeral service in the drawing room of Bridge House, it was of simple character by the pastor of the Unitarian Chapel, High Garret, Mr R H Fuller”.

Elizabeth and John Minton Courtauld. I looked for a record of their marriage between 12 June 1875 and 6 May 1877. In the newspaper article above it says that they were married but I’ve not found a marriage record at home or abroad. The marriage date above I got from a book written about the Courtaulds that someone had shared on Ancestry. It was against the law in England to marry your dead wife’s sister.

William and Catherine‘s youngest child of the 9 was daughter, Mina Bromley. Mina also married into the Courtauld family, she was born on 14 August 1832 in Upper Clapton, Middlesex. She married George Courtauld on 13 September 1855.

Mina tragically died as a young mother on 18 March 1859 in Essex at the age of 26 just 8 days after their son George had been born. The couple had two children, Katherine Mina (called Min by her family) was born on 13 July 1856 and George Jnr was born on 10 March 1859. George Jnr never married and lived as a Scientist, farming at Waver Farm, Blackmore End, Weathersfield, Essex. (Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900‘Admitted at the Inner Temple, on Jan. 26, 1882; name withdrawn, 1900. Became a Roman Catholic, in 1896. Of Cut Hedge, Gosfield, Essex. Died Apr. 2, 1919‘). George Jnr died aged 60 at his father George’s home ‘Cut Edge’ Halstead, Essex of influenza, he never married.

Their daughter Katherine Mina Courtauld was a remarkable woman, she never married but lived with her life partner Mary Gladstone 1856-1941 for over 50 years at Knight’s Farm, Colne Engaine, Essex. And no Mary was not the daughter of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, as it says in several articles I’ve read! He did have a daughter Mary but she was born 9 years earlier than this Mary Gladstone and the big difference was that the Prime Minister’s daughter married the Reverend Harry Drew in 1886. Katherine Mina’s partner Mary was born on 13 November 1856 in Edgbaston, Warwickshire and was the daughter of Thomas Gladstone and Mary Gibbons Whitfield, Thomas was, according to the 1888 Kelly’s Directory of Birmingham Occupation: Wine, Spirit & Ale & Porter Merchant. (See Mackie & Gladstone): Premises at 88-91 Dale End, Birmingham.

In all the following census records they are living at Knight’s Farm together. I was also quite chuffed to find at the age of 70 they both went on a trip to Barbados:

The more I read about Katherine Mina the more I admired her, yes she had money which meant doors were open to her that wouldn’t normally be to a woman but she made her wealth count, she did her very best throughout her life to make a difference to other people’s lives, especially woman. Here’s a photo of an article from the Braintree Residents Magazine in 2018 which will give you lots more information about Katherine Mina and also more information about how supportive her wider family was:

I’d already discovered the 1911 census below, which Katherine had written in red at the bottom before I found several references to it on various reports on the internet.

A Visitor on the above census return to the Knight’s Farm was a lady Alice Geraldine Annette Cooke (1868-1955), also single, ‘Woman’s Suffrage Organiser’ “National Union of Woman’s Suffrage Society”

This is Katherine Mina Courtauld‘s obituary/will in the Chelmsford Chronicle on 19 July 1935: “MISS K. M. COURTAULD’S FORTUNE £319,000 ESTATE BEQUESTS TO ESSEX INSTITUTIONS £20,000 LEGACY FOR LADY FRIEND. Miss Katherine Mina Courtauld, of Knights, Colne Engaine, Essex, who farmed 500 acres of land there, daughter of the late Mr George Courtauld (son of the founder of the well-known firm bearing that name), and for many years a member of the Essex County Council, who died on June sth last, aged 70 years left estate of the gross value of £319,780/0/4, with net personalty £302,092/8/10, on which estate duty of £90,739/9/5 has been paid. Her personal bequests included £40,000 to her nephew George Courtauld, £20,000 upon trust for Richard Minton Courtauld for life, with the remainder between her nephew Samuel Minton Courtauld and her niece Judith Courtauld, and £20,000, her effects, and debentures in the Sesame Club, Ltd** her friend, Lady Gladstone. In her will she stated that having agreed to defray the cost of providing a water supply for the parish of Colne Engaine and to grant a lease of the works in connection therewith to the Rural District Council of Halstead, she bequeathed the works and necessary easements the Council, on condition that the surplus income produced by the water rents and rates levied by the Council should be applied in aid and for the relief of the general rates of the parish. She also left: £1,000 to the Essex County Farmers’ Union. £500 to the East Essex Hunt Club. £500 to the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution. £500 to Christ’s Hospital, for general purposes, expressing the desire that the Council of Almoners should recommend to the Governors the name of her nephew, George Courtauld, for election as a donation governor for life. £1.000 to the Essex County Council, desiring that this sum should be invested by the Agricultural Education Committee and the income applied in founding an agricultural scholarship, not to exceed £50 per annum, for any person intending to take up farming as a profession or means of livelihood, being a son or daughter of any native of Essex farming not less than 100 acres. £2.000 to her nephew, George Courtauld, directing but not creating trust, that should expend a sum not exceeding £20 per annum in providing coal for deserving poor of Colne Engaine at Christmas, and the balance towards the upkeep of the Village Hall. £1,000 between her indoor and outdoor servants and workpeople. Her yacht, Patrona, her nephew, George Courtauld, and, subject to a few specific bequests and smaller legacies, the residue of her real estate to her nephew, George Courtauld in tail, and the residue of her personal estate to him absolutely”. **The Sesame Club, Dover Street, London was said to be ‘the centre of feminine club land’ The club began in 1895, it was known for its lectures, and members interested in education. The Sesame Club admits both men and women to membership, whereas most other clubs were Men Only. Another description I’ve read says ‘It is distinctly liberal, with, perhaps, a touch of radicalism. Men and women, who compose both the officers and the committees, work together amicably and harmoniously‘ (A Looker-On in London, by Mary H. Krout, 1899 – Chapter 9 -Women’s Clubs)

This is the nicest concise account about Katherine Mina Courtauld after her Blue Plaque was unveiled in 2022: It says the Press Release in March 2022. WrittleUC. It still doesn’t go far enough in my mind and it would also be good if it had been researched properly to get the facts correct. “Mina’s father bought her 243-acre Knights Farm in Colne Engaine where she lived with her long-term companion Mary Gladstone, daughter of Prime Minister William Gladstone” It’s all ok until you get to Mary’s details! Wrong and I find it shocking that no one checked properly before writing this or sharing it as a press release, no excuse as it was only last year!

This very long newspaper article reporting on Katherine Mina’s funeral I found really sad as Mary in normal circumstances should have been Chief mourner with her family and top of the people listed but instead, we find her as Miss Gladstone in image No 2 at the bottom.

“The interment was a simple last rite, which members of the family were the only witnesses. A posy of pinks and forget-me-nots was placed on the casket“.

When Mary Gladstone died on 15 Nov 1941 there were no grand reports in the newspapers of her death and funeral but I did find this when notification of her will was published in February 1942. I do hope someone placed a beautiful posy on her casket.

Katherine Mina was so fortunate to have been born into a wealthy family, I’ve no doubt that at the time there were many many others less fortunate that struggled all their lives to be with the ones they loved. Katherine’s family, especially her father must have been very understanding at the time as because of her love of agriculture he started her off in her early 20s by buying her the 243-acre Knight’s Farm that not only enabled her to fulfil all her ambitions and also help other women in the agricultural world but it allowed her to be with the person she loved for over 50 years and that must have been so precious.

A couple of the stories I was going to share in this Chapter I’m carrying over to the next one as I found way too much for this group of people!

Till next time then……