Mary Ann Watkyns

21 Burton Crescent (Cartwright Gardens)
Bloomsbury
London From 'The James, Pyne, Dixon Family Book', publ 1977: reminiscenses of Edith Elizabeth Chaplin

"My Grandmama James lived till I was over fifteen years of age. She had a strong memory and a very lively wit. She was born and brought up in London, where she spent her life. She was a great reader and a very good talker. She enjoyed and appreciated Darwin's Origin of Species when it first came out. I remember her pointing to the book and saying how remarkable it was and that it would have far reaching consequences, or words to that effect. We never knew any of Grandmama's relations, from which I gather she was of humble birth. She was one of twins and had been adopted by her Mother's sister, when twenty months old, and never seems to have had any intercourse with her own family, except with an elder brother, also adopted by the Aunt. He seems to have been stupid and disappeared early from Grandmama's life; whether he died or went under I don't know.

The Aunt who adopted Grandmama was married to a Mr. Andrew Winpany, [WINPENNY is correct spelling and will be used here. ACP] a stock-broker who lived in Sloane Street. Grandmama told me of the beautiful peaches which grew in the garden there. Her Uncle, Mr. Winpenny, was fond of Grandmama and sent her to a good day school kept by the Misses Babington, the sisters of a Dr. Babington, an eminent physician of that day. When Grandmama married, her Uncle Winpenny gave her a Stock Exchange Share of the then value of £100. This share was always kept by my Grandmother as her private property. I believe it was an original share, taken by Andrew Winpenny when the Stock Exchange was built. This share was held by my Grandmama for about fifty years and when she died she gave it to her eldest daughter, Aunt Maryanne. The share, however, became increasingly valuable and realized between £2,000 and £3,000 when sold. (This may have been in the 'seventies'.) Feeling for the claims of family upon property was very strong a century ago. Fond as he was of my Grandmother, Mr. Winpenny left his money to members of his own family, letting Grandmama go empty-handed to her husband save for the Stock Exchange share, which was then only worth £100.

On the other hand, when Mr.James proposed to his penniless niece, he refused to allow the marriage, unless the whole of Mr.James's property was settled upon her - a most unreasonable demand. My Mother who told me the incident related how the young people came to a private agreement; the money was settled to satisfy Mr. Winpenny, but in such a way that my Grandmother was to repudiate the settlement after her marriage, an agreement she honourably carried out. She used later to describe how the Judge before whom she made her declaration addressed her in awe-inspiring and sepulchral tones:- 'DO YOU KNOW, YOUNG WOMAN, WHAT YOU ARE DOING?'.

Grandmama, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Watkins (sic), used to say she was of Welsh origin, and her name Watkin (sic) bore out this idea, though as a child, she was generally called 'little Winpenny'. She was very good company, having a fund of good stories and a terse way of putting them. (She remembered the days of the French Revolution and in particular finding her Aunt crying at the news of the death of the 'Dolphin' - the name by which she called the poor little Dauphin.) She was a clever woman, quick both in temper and understanding, strong in her affections, extremely generous; and I think she was the most wilful woman of my acquaintance. For twenty years or so before her death, Grandmama James was afflicted with a very distressing cough. I remember her always confined to the house and screened from every draught, as any change of temperature might bring on a paroxysm of coughing in which she seemed to be about to suffocate. So sensitive had she become that if I had got wet during a walk to Mudies to fetch her books, I was not allowed to go into her room to take them to her in my wet clothing for fear of giving her cold.

She had married about the year 1809, when she must have been an attractive woman with a considerable share of good looks and the brilliant complexion so much admired at that date. Her portrait as an old lady was in the possession of her granddaughter, Helen Sophia Graham, whose son inherited it.