Mrs Charlotte Elizabeth Bonham

Born on 9 July 1780, Charlotte Elizabeth Morrice was baptised on 11 August 1780 at Banford, Warwickshire.

On 9 December 1802 she married Henry Bonham at St George’s, Hanover Square. The marriage produced eight children.

‘On Wednesday last was married at St George’s, Hanover-square, Henry Bonham, Esq., of Bearhill house, in the county of Berks, to Miss Morris [sic], eldest daughter of the Rev. James Morris [sic], of Flower, Northamptonshire, and Betshanger, in this county’ (Kentish Weekly Post, 14 December 1802).

Henry Bonham was the Member of Parliament for Leominster from 1806 to 1812, for Sandwich from 1824 to 1826, and for Rye from 1826 until he resigned his seat in March 1830, shortly before his death on 9 April 1830.

In 1851 Mrs Bonham was living with an unmarried daughter and six servants at Rowheath Cottage, Chailey, Sussex.

When the census was taken in 1871 she was visiting Ashfold Lodge, Slaugham, Sussex, the home of her daughter Marianne Jane Peters and her son-in-law, the banker and amateur photographer William Peters.

Mrs Charlotte Elizabeth Bonham died, aged 97, at Chailey on 14 October 1877, leaving an estate valued at £3000.

‘On the 14th inst., at her residence, Chailey, Sussex, Charlotte Elizabeth Bonham, widow of Henry Bonham, Esq., M.P. for Sandwich, of 45, Portland-place, and Titness Park, Berks, in her ninety-eight year’ (Morning Post, 17 October 1877).

Mrs Bonham's great-great-great-great-granddaughter is the present Duchess of Cornwall.

Photographer and location unidentified.

[From an album compiled by the sitter's granddaughter Marianne Charlotte Isabelle née Peters, wife of Colonel Walter Raleigh Gilbert of Bodmin, Cornwall.]