House Party, Rectory: The Reverend Wynter Thomas Blathwayt (1825-1909), The Reverend Richard Vesey Blathwayt (1827-1905), Mary Sarah Hibbert Oates, Mrs Wynter Thomas Blathwayt (1834-1925), Ann Maria Elizabeth Williams, Mrs Richard Vesey Blathwayt and Mary Blathwayt, Mrs Vivian Eccles Skrine (1858-1919)
Category
Photographs
Date
1878 - 1880
Materials
Photographic paper
Measurements
190 mm (Width); 121 mm (L)
Order this imageCollection
Dyrham, Gloucestershire
NT 454091
Caption
Framed by the foliage of an ornate climber, Rev. Wynter Thomas Blathwayt (1825–1909) sits on the left in this group portrait. His second wife Mary Sarah Hibbert Oates (1833–1925), born in Jamaica, stands behind him. Mary Sarah was the illegitimate daughter of plantation owner and enslaver George Hibbert Oates (1791–1837), who had several children by enslaved women and five with Margaret Cross (1806–?), Mary Sarah’s mother. On his death, Hibbert Oates’s children by Margaret, recorded in his will as a ‘free woman of colour’, received legacies and funds for their education. Mary Sarah was sent to live in the UK with her grandmother Mary Hibbert and aunt Anna Maria Hibbert at Sion Hill in Bath. When Anna Maria died, the executor to her will was family acquaintance and recent widower Rev. Wynter Thomas Blathwayt. A few years later in 1876 he married 42-year-old Mary Sarah. This photograph was taken at Dyrham Rectory, where they were then living. Accompanying them here are Blathwayt’s brother Rev. Richard Vesey Blathwayt, seated on the right in this picture, his wife Ann Maria Elizabeth Williams and their daughter Mary. In 1889 Rev. Wynter Thomas inherited the estate of Dyrham Park from his elder brother Captain George Blathwayt (1824–99). Mary Sarah became the lady of the house. Other photographs in the collection show her on the terrace at Dyrham, and later with her stepson Robert Wynter Blathwayt (1850–1936). She died aged 91 and is buried next to her husband in Dyrham churchyard.
Summary
Photograph, House Party, Rectory: The Reverend Wynter Thomas Blathwayt (1825-1909), The Reverend Richard Vesey Blathwayt (1827-1905), Mary Sarah Hibbert Oates, Mrs Wynter Thomas Blathwayt (1833-1925), Ann Maria Elizabeth Williams, Mrs Richard Vesey Blathwayt and Mary Blathwayt, Mrs Vivian Eccles Skrine (1858-1919). House Party, Rectory, 1878-80. Left to right, seated Rev. Wynter Thomas Blathwayt, Rev. Richard Vesey Blathwayt (WTB's brother), and standing Mary Sarah Hibbert (Oates), wife of WTB, Anne Maria Elizabeth (Williams), wife of RVB, and Mary daughter of RVB. Mary Blathwayt was the second wife of Vivian Eccles Scrine; they married in 1916.