Summary

Oil painting on canvas, Agnes Bedingfeld, Mrs Thomas Molyneux Seel (1798-1870), holding two white doves. She wears a cream dress and head scarf. She has dark hair, and her eyes are looking down at the doves. Inscribed on back of frame 'Agnes Molyneux-Seel nee Bedingfeld'. Also inscribed on back of canvas 'Painted at Rome'. See also OXB/P/99a. Agnes married Thomas Molyneux Seel in Ghent in October 1823 and this portrait was commissioned on honeymoon in Rome the following year. Agnes is modestly depicted with a pair of doves in the guise of Venus, Goddess of Love. The pair commissioned portrait busts of themselves as well as oil paintings (see NT 1210343, 1210481, 1210517).

Full description

Agnes Bedingfeld (1798-1870) was the third daughter of Sir Richard Bedingfeld, 5th Baronet (1767-1829) and Charlotte, Lady Bedingfeld (née Jerningham) (1770-1854) of Costessey Hall, later Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Adelaide. Born at Oxburgh Hall and largely educated by her mother, Agnes relocated with her parents and siblings to Bath in 1809 and then to Ghent, Belgium, in 1815. There are some references to Agnes during her childhood and youth in the Jerningham Letters – an extensive collection of correspondence and journals collated by Charlotte, Lady Bedingfeld, which was published in two abridged volumes by Egerton Castle in 1896 (the original documents are located in the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham). In 1813, a relative of the celebrated Ladies of Llangollen (Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby) visited the Bedingfeld family in Bath and reported their observations to the Llangollen Ladies, including their impressions of 15-year-old Agnes. Two subsequent letters from Sarah Ponsonby to Charlotte, Lady Bedingfeld, refer to Agnes and emphasise her quiet, retiring nature: ‘I have formed Such an idea of that Sweetly diffident, that most interesting little Agnes. Her very Name is to me the Synonime of Perfection’ (Castle 1896, Jerningham Letters, Vol II, p. 27). This impression is underscored by other references to Agnes by family and friends, often describing her as ‘meek’, though also clever and artistic. In 1822 and 1823, her parents remaining in Ghent, Agnes lived for a time with her grandmother, Frances, Dowager Lady Jerningham, in Bolton Row, Mayfair, where she attended parties, soirees, concerts and plays as part of the London Season. By the summer of 1823, she was being courted by Thomas Molyneux-Seel (1792-1881), a landowner from an old Catholic family who owned estates in Lancashire, including Huyton Hey (today part of Liverpool). Their courtship was detailed in the Jerningham Letters, through a series of letters to Charlotte, Lady Bedingfeld from her mother, Frances, Dowager Lady Jerningham (Castle 1896, Vol II, pp. 263-67). On 12th June 1823, the Dowager wrote to tell her daughter about ‘your Little meek Lamb Agnes’, going on to explain that, 'Mr Seele Contrives to make Himself so acceptable in Society, that I hear of His being at all the Parties, and numerous balls that are given. Agnes has been at several Lately; and when I question her the next morning of who she danced with, five or six are named & Mr. Seele always one [….] I then perceived in the evening that He appeared to be attentive to Agnes and that her meek Little Spirits were raised by his notice […] Last Night the Ball was at the Dowr Lady Astleys, in Cavendish Square. Agnes has just enumerated five Partners, Mr. Seele one, now I should not be very much surprised if it finishes by His asking the serious Question’. Lady Jerningham’s concerns were practical, rather than romantic: ‘A serious objection would be if there is any ground for the fear of Insanity, or that His fortune would not be equivalent to her Future Comfort’, but in a letter written to Charlotte on 24th June, she was able to report that ‘the Suitor has above £100,000 in Cash […] a pretty fund and He is said by every one to be a very respectable Character’ (Castle 1896, Vol II, pp.264-265). The couple’s engagement was swiftly confirmed, Lady Jerningham commenting to her daughter in a letter dated 8th August 1823 that Molyneux-Seel, '...has behaved with a degree of delicacy, worthy of Little Agnes’s retiring modest Character […] I really think there is reason to hope she will be happy with Him, tho’ the income but scantily Covers the want of Aristocracy. But her quietness & his good humour will, I trust, assimilate together'. (Castle 1896, Vol II, p.266). It was later discovered that Molyneux-Seel’s fortune was rather smaller than initially anticipated and Lady Jerningham, wife of Charlotte’s brother George, wrote to Charlotte on 1st September 1823 that she was ‘…half angry with Mr Seel’s diminution of income,’ but felt that his personal qualities would nonetheless make him an agreeable husband (Castle 1896, Vol II, pp.276-277). Agnes married Thomas Molyneux-Seel in Ghent on 3rd October 1823, the couple setting off the same day for Italy, where they would spend the winter (‘The Mirror of Fashion’, Morning Chronicle, 7th October 1823). Writing to her mother from Rome on 10th December 1823, Agnes reported that, 'We had some difficulty in finding lodgings but at length succeeded and fortunately found one which exactly suits us. From the drawing room windows we have a delightful view of the magnificent Church St. Peter, which really is quite beautiful and surpasses what I had imagined in my Idea – we generally go to Vespers there, every Sunday, the music is so very delightful. The numbers of English we meet in every Place is astonishing. I was at a Party last night, and could very well have fancied myself in London.' Agnes went on to divulge that, 'Seel is so well known at Rome, and I must also add so great a favorite of the Italians, that we have not the least difficulty in being introduced into any House and they are all particularly civil to us. I had a present of a large Cake sent me a few days ago in the form of a Cardinal’s Hat, accompanied with a very kind note from one of the first families here, the Countess Massimo’. (Castle 1896, Vol II, pp. 284-85). Whilst on honeymoon in Rome, the couple commissioned oil portraits of themselves from the neo-classical painter Ferdinando Cavalleri (1794-1867), the portrait of Agnes depicting her holding a pair of doves in reference to Venus, Goddess of Love (NT 1210343 and NT 1210896). In addition, they commissioned a pair of marble portrait busts (see NT 1210481 and NT 1210517). Agnes gave birth to her first son Edmund (1824-1909) in Paris and arrived back in London with her husband and baby towards the end of 1824 (Castle 1896, Vol II, p.301). The couple had two further sons: Charles Molyneux-Seel (1830-1880) and Henry Harrington Molyneux-Seel (1839-1882). In a recently rediscovered diary for the years 1829-1839, Agnes’s sister-in-law Margaret, Lady Paston-Bedingfeld (1808–1887) repeatedly refers to ‘the Seels’, who during this period were frequent visitors to Oxburgh Hall and spent time living on the estate (NT 1211847). They appear to have played an important role in overseeing the extensive internal and external renovations to the Hall and wider estate initiated by Margaret and her husband, Sir Henry Paston-Bedingfeld (1800-1862), while the Paston-Bedingfelds were abroad. There are several references in Margaret’s diary to Agnes’s poor health. On 5th November 1837, the Paston-Bedingfelds travelled to visit the Molyneux-Seels in Lancashire, Margaret writing that she had ‘...found Agnes just recovering from a bilious attack, looking as usual excessively delicate but clearer & better than I have seen her for some years’. Nevertheless, Agnes lived to the age of 72, dying in Leamington Spa on 7th September 1870. In the year of her death, a new Catholic church in Huyton dedicated to Saint Agnes was built, with funds provided by Thomas Molyneux-Seel. Jeremy WarrenIlana van Dort February 2026