The Honourable Mrs Everard Stourton

[Identified on the album page as ‘Hon. Mrs E. Stourton,’ this is probably the Honourable Mrs Fermina Stourton, wife of the Honourable Everard Stourton.]

Born about 1839 at Dysart, County Louth, the Honourable Fermina Maria Magdalena Bellew was the youngest daughter of Patrick Bellew, created 1st Baron Bellew of Barmeath, County Louth, in 1848. Her mother was Anna Fermina de Mendoza, daughter of Admiral Don José Maria de Mendoza y Rios.

On 7 May 1862 she married the Honourable Everard Joseph Stourton, son of Charles Stourton, 19th Baron Stourton. The marriage produced two daughters and three sons. Three of her children predeceased her.

The Honourable Everard Stourton died, aged 35, on 20 February 1869 at 30 George Street, Hanover Square, London. He left an estate valued at £8000.

‘We have to announce the death of the Hon. Everard Stourton, second surviving son of Lord Stourton, which took place on Saturday last. The deceased gentleman, who was recently captain in the 10th Hussars, was born 18th February, 1834, and married, 7th May, 1862, the Hon. Fermina Maria Magdalena, youngest daughter of Lord Bellew’ (Morning Post, 24 February 1869).

His widow appears on the 1871 census living at Rebourn House in Hertfordshire with an aunt, the Honourable Laura Smythe, her four children, a Roman Catholic priest, and nine servants.

In 1881 she was an ‘Annuitant’ living at 5 Palace Gardens, Bayswater, London.

In 1911 she was living with a widowed sister, Mrs Tower, and two servants at Castlebellingham in County Louth.

The Honourable Mrs Stourton died on 29 February 1932 at her home Thornfield, in Barby Road, Rugby, which she had inherited on the death of her sister Mrs Tower. She left an estate valued at £8344.

‘Aged 93, she had been an invalid for the last three years, as a result of a nasty fall, but prior to that she was often to be seen in the Barby Road district. She was a staunch Roman Catholic, and regularly worshipped at St Marie’s Church, Rugby, and furthermore was a very well-known and respected figure in the neighbourhood. Mrs Stourton came from one of the oldest landed families in Ireland. […] Members of Mrs Stourton’s family have owned property in County Louth for the past 600 years – since before the days of Strongbow, they being descended of Roger of Bellew, one of the first Anglo-Norman settlers in the island. […] She now leaves one son, Mr Everett [sic] Stourton, a clever sculptor in Scotland, and a daughter, Miss Mary Stourton, who lived with her mother. Another daughter died when two years old, and two sons, Alfred, who was in the Cameroon Highlanders, and Athelston, a mining engineer, died many years ago, the former at Malta, and the latter at Rio Tinto, Spain’ (Rugby Advertiser, 4 March 1932).

Photographed by Thomas North of Dublin.

[From an album compiled by Frank Langton (1840-1917), a Roman Catholic who for many years was Private Secretary to a succession of Postmasters General.]