Sarah Monckton (Pattle) Prinsep (1816 - 1887)

Born 16 Aug 1816 in Calcutta, India

Ancestors

Wife of Henry Thoby Prinsep — married 14 May 1835 in Calcutta, Bengal, India

Descendants

Died 15 Dec 1887 at age 71 in 6, Montpelier-villas, Brighton, Sussex, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Deborah Spooner [send private message]

Biography

Sarah Monkton Pattle was born August 16, 1816, in Calcutta, India. She was the fifth child of James and Adeline Pattle. She married Sir Henry Thoby Prinsep on May 14, 1835. Together they had five children. Their first three children were born within the first five years of marriage.

• Their first child Henry Thoby was born May 3, 1836, in Bengal, India. He married Lilla Livingstone Smithe on December 13, 1887.

• Cameron Valentine was born February 14, 1838, baptized April 3, 1838, in Calcutta, India. He was a British painter. Cameron married Florence Leyland. They had three children Frederick Thoby Leyland, Henry Anthony Leyland Val, Nicholas John Andrew Leyland.

• Arthur Haldimand was born January 24, 1840, in Calcutta, India. He married Julia Caroline Degasher October 24, 1888, in London, England. He became a Major-General in the Bengal Calvary.

In 1843 when Henry retired from service the Prinsep family moved to England. The British painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts helped the Prinsep’s obtain a 21-year lease for The Little Holland House, a dower house of Holland House in Kensington, Middlesex, England. Sarah noted of G.F. Watts “He came to stay for three days; He stayed for thirty years.” With her sister, Julia Margaret Cameron, the home became the hub of Authors, Poets and Artists. Besides Watts the talented group included Alfred Tennyson, William Makepeace Thackeray, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and the poet Robert Browning. Great grandniece Virginia Adeline Woolf described a Little Holland House afternoon as “filled with the sound of music, poets’ recitals and a display of Watt’s beautiful paintings.”

• Their child Alice Marie was born June 6, 1844. Alice married Charles Henry Gurney and became Alice Marie Gurney Stracey-Clitherow. Charles and his family were a huge influence with the English quakers.

In 1845 when her mother Adeline died at sea. Sarah and Henry took on the responsibility of her two younger sisters, Sophia, and Virginia, they remained at Little Holland House until they were married.

• The couples last child, Virginia, was born April 13, 1848, and baptized August 1, 1848. She died when she was 22 months old. She was buried on the same day and place as her 89-year-old, Grandmother Sophia Prinsep.

Sarah and Henry also adopted several children. Among them was thirteen-year-old May Prinsep. May became one of photographer Julia Margaret Cameron’s favorite sitters.

In 1871 after the Prinsep’s moved, little Holland House was demolished. They then leased a large piece of land off Melbury Road. On this plot of land G.F. Watts commissioned an architect to build a new home, and he christened it New Little Holland House.

Henry would die seven years later of bronchitis in Freshwater, Isle Wight at the home of one of his closest friends, G. F. Watts. He was eighty-four years old.

The 1881 censes of England list Sarah living in Lewes Crescent, Brighten, Sussex with her eighteen-year-old niece, Blanche Margaret Clogstoun and granddaughters Laura and Rachel Gurney who were fourteen and thirteen. Brighten is where Sarah died on December 15, 1887. She was seventy-two years old. ~Deborah Spooner 2022

Sources

• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/89711464/person/262109106249/facts

The Peerage.com (F, #238384)

Press cutting - Morning Post London 20 Dec 1887 DEATHS On the 13th inst., at 6, Montpelier Villas, Brighton, Sara, relict of Henry Thoby Prinsep in her 72nd year.

Cenaua

1881 census of England
24, Lewes Crescent, Brighton, Sussex, England