Emma Harriet Tyrwhitt, 12th Baroness Berners (18 November 1835 – 18 August 1917) was a suo jure Baroness in the
Peerage of England.
Early life
Portrait of her grandfather, the
10th Baron Berners, by Robert Scott Tait, 1841
Harriet was born on 18 November 1835. She was the daughter of the Rev. Hon. Robert Wilson (1801–1850) and his second wife (and cousin), Harriet (née Crump) Sheppard. Her father served as Rector of
Ashwellthorpe. His father's first wife was Emma Pigott, a daughter of Col. Piggott of Doddershall Park, and her mother's first husband was John Sheppard. She had an elder brother, Harry William Piggott Wilson, who died in 1853. After her father's death in 1850, her mother married Very Rev.
Edward Hoare,
Dean of Waterford.[1]
Lady Berners was known to be "extremely religious", holding household prayer services for her staff, and "violently
low-church," describing herself in Who's Who as "distinctly low".[4]
Personal life
Caricature of her eldest son, the Hon. Harry Tyrwhitt-Wilson, by "Spy" (Sir
Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, 1886
Hon. Clement Tyrwhitt (1857–1939), who married Annie Webb, a daughter of John Webb, of
Adelaide, Australia, in 1884.[1]
Hon. Rupert Tyrwhitt (1859–1940), a Major who married Louisa Isabel Frances Wells, eldest daughter of Walter Fox Williamson Wells of the
Indian Civil Service, in 1900.[1]
Hon. Philip Bourchier Tyrwhitt (1861–1938), a
Sub-Lt. in the
Royal Navy who married Grace Agnes (née May) Gallagher, widow of Hugh Gallagher,[3] and daughter of John May, of Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, in 1905.[1]
Hon. Thomas Knyvet Tyrwhitt (1864–1886), who died unmarried.[1]
Hon. Sybil Grace Tyrwhitt (1866–1962), who married James Volant Wheeler, second son of Edward Vincent Wheeler DL, of Newnham Court, in 1895.[1]
Hon. Hester Efa Tyrwhitt (1869–1949),[12] who died unmarried.[1]
Hon. John Tyrwhitt (1876–1937), a surveyor and civil engineer who married Florence Collins, a daughter of Richard Collins, of
Victoria, Australia, in 1905.[1]
In a autobiography, a descendant referred to her appearance as "not unlike
Holbein's portrait of
Bloody Mary with just a touch of
Charley's Aunt."[4]
Lady Berners died at Ashwellthorpe, Norwich on 18 August 1917.[13] As her eldest son predeceased her, the barony passed to her second son, Sir
Raymond,[3] who had already inherited the
Tyrwhitt baronetcy upon her husband's death in 1894.[2]
Descendants
Through her third son Hugh, she was a grandmother to
Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, better known as
Lord Berners, the composer, novelist, painter, and aesthete,[4][14] upon whose death her husband's baronetcy became extinct. The barony, however, passed to her granddaughter,
Vera,[15] the eldest child of her fifth son, Rupert.[2]
^
abcdG.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes,
Gloucester,
U.K.:
Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 560; volume II, page 158.
^Hammond, Peter W., editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud,
Gloucestershire,
U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 89.
^Fasti Wyndesorienses, May 1950. S.L. Ollard. Published by the Dean and Canons of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle