Children of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart

Recorded in the Silvy daybooks as the ‘Children of Sir Michael Stewart’, these are the children of Colonel Sir Michael Robert Shaw-Stewart, 7th Baronet, and his wife, Octavia née Grosvenor, daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Westminster. Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart was the MP (Conservative) for Renfrewshire from 1855 to 1865.

The boy seen here is Michael Hugh Shaw-Stewart, born on 11 July 1854. He was later a Captain in the 4th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Conservative MP for East Renfrewshire from 1886 to 1906. In 1883 he married Lady Alice Emma Thynne, daughter of the 4th Marquess of Bath. He succeeded his father to the baronetcy in 1903. He was awarded the C.B. in 1916 and the K.C.B. 1933. He died on 29 June 1942. His nephew succeeded to the baronetcy.

The girl is Elizabeth (sometimes Eliza) Mary Shaw-Stewart, who would have been 4 or 5 years old in 1860 when this portrait was taken. She never married and died on 3 May 1875.

The family appear on the 1861 census living at Ardgowan House at Inverkip in Renfrewshire. Lady Stewart had 17 servants to help run her household. At the time of the 1871 census, the family was living at 11, Grosvenor Place, London. The household there included an impressive 20 servants.

Photographed in 1860 by Camille Silvy of London.