Charlotte Lucy Arkwright

Born on 13 December 1839, Charlotte Lucy Davenport was the daughter of John Davenport and his wife Charlotte née Coltman.

She appears on the 1861 census living with her parents and two of her siblings at Foxley Manor, the family’s residence at Yazor in Herefordshire. The household included eleven servants.

On 12 June 1866 she married John Hungerford Arkwright of Hampton Court in Herefordshire, great-grandson of Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the spinning frame and father of the industrial factory system.

The couple appear on the 1871 census living at Hampton Court in Herefordshire. The household included sixteen servants — among them a butler, a valet and two footmen — with many more grooms, gardeners and gamekeepers living nearby on the estate.

When the census was taken in 1881, Charlotte was a ‘Landed Proprietor’ living at 7 Lowndes Square in Knightsbridge with a young son and two daughters, a governess and eight servants.

Charlotte Lucy Arkwright died on 19 February 1904.

‘Mrs John Hungerford Arkwright of Hampton Court, Leominster, wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire, and mother of Mr J.S. Arkwright, M.P. for Hereford, died last week. Mrs Arkwright was the youngest daughter of the late Mr John Davenport, of Foxley, Herefordshire, and Westwood-hall, Staffordshire, and was married to Mr Arkwright in 1866’ (Clifton Society, 25 February 1904).