Guest post by Jim Symington – Catherine Clements and Selina Diana Catherine Milner

Today, it is my pleasure to welcome Jim Symington to All Things Georgian. Jim contacted me a while ago about an article I had written  ‘Art Detective: the Portrait of Catherine Clemens and her son, John Marcus Clements’ {1}. This prompted his curiosity about the history of Catherine Clements and her granddaughter Selina Diana Catherine Milner (1804 -1834). Jim retired as a Consultant working in health policy, who now spends his time on many outdoor interests in the countryside. He also enjoys music, collecting and researching paintings and working as a guide in an originally Tudor house in Northamptonshire.

After that introduction I will hand over to Jim to share his finding with you:

As Sarah suggests, Selina is likely to be the relative that Catherine Clements wished to be buried near to, as expressed in her short Will and as subsequently recorded in the Kensal Green Burial register entries for Selina {2} and for Catherine {3}.

Catherine’s daughter, also called Selina, (1780-1805) was buried in the Milner family chapel at Bolton Percy, Yorkshire. She was born in Woodville, Dublin, Ireland, the family home of her father Lt Col Rt Hon Henry Theophilus Clements MP for Cavan and Leitrim, on 17 August 1780.

Selina Milner, nee Clements (1780-1805) described as ‘Miss Clements’ by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Her portrait is now in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields {4}.

This is likely to be a pre-wedding portrait, made prior to Selina’s marriage to Mr William Milner at St George’s Hanover Square on 13 July 1803. The subject of this painting was described in the 1913 catalogue of paintings by Lawrence as Miss Clements, “Probably some member of the Leitrim family” {5}. In the 1950s the sitter was at one time thought to be Harriet Clements (1774-1845) {6}. This was not accepted within Lawrence’s catalogue raisonne:

This identification will not hold, as stylistically the portrait cannot have been painted much before 1800 if at all, and the sitter does not wear a wedding ring. She can conceivably be her half-sister Selina, who in 1803 married Sir William Milner, 4^th Bt. Sir William’s mother was painted by Lawrence in the 1790s” {7}.

Selina was born on 17 August 1780. She died on 28 May 1805, not long after the birth of her second daughter, Catherine Francis Nanette on 31 March 1805 {8}.

Selina Diana Catherine Milner, the first daughter of the 1803 marriage, was born on 15th April 1804 {9}. She was named after her mother and after each of her grandmothers, Catherine Clements and Lady Diana Milner, wife of the third Milner Baronet. Selina lost both her mother and her paternal grandmother a year after her birth. It is not difficult to think that these sad events may have strengthened the bond between Catherine and the then infant Selina.

The lost paternal grandmother, Diana, lived a privileged life. Her graceful childhood as a scion of the landed Sturt family of More Critchell, Dorsetshire, is recorded in two pastille drawings by Katherine Read (1723-1778) {10}.

Diana Sturt by Katherine Read, circa 1770

In 1774 Diana married Sir William Milner, 3rd Baronet. She is the mother-in-law of Selina Milner, nee Clements, and paternal grandmother to Selina Diana Catherine Milner.

Lady Diana Milner, nee Sturt, (pre-1761-1805) was painted by George Romney between 1786 and 1791 {11} and by Nathaniel Hone {12}.

She was also named in a handwritten poem by Sir Thomas Lawrence, recalling his teenage infatuation with her (and other beauties from his time living and working in Bath) {13}. Princeton University own a Lithographic reproduction of Diana “drawn at Bath by Thomas Lawrence when he charged L1 s1 for his portraits” {14}.

When Lawrence came to London in 1787, Lady Milner was amongst the first people he was paid to paint {15}.

Diana Sturt, Lady Milner by Sir Thomas Lawrence (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).

Diana died on 15 January 1805. There is a short notice in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ of January 1805:

“At Exeter, Lady Milner, wife of Sir William M. Milner, M.P. for York. A few years back her Ladyship was admired as the finest, most beautiful, and accomplished woman in the fashionable world, of which she was once the ornament and leader. For two years past her Ladyship had been in a very declining state of health and obliged to withdraw from those scenes of elegant life over which her taste and accomplishments had so long shed a lustre. She had lately been at Dawlish, but increasing illness induced her to remove to Exeter, which was supposed to afford better medical advice and attendance” {16}.

The infant Selina Diana Catherine Milner, her new baby sister and widowed father were the immediate family in 1805.

Their closest extant relatives were the then widowed Catherine Clements, her adult children and the widower Sir William Milner, 3rd Baronet, with his two other sons and two daughters. By this time, Catherine’s son Henry John Clements (1781-1843) had succeeded his late father as MP for County Leitrim (1805-18) and later for Country Cavan (1840-43) {17}.

This remained the family’s situation until 28 May 1809, when William married his second wife, Harriet, a daughter of Lord Edward Bentinck and granddaughter of the 2nd Duke of Portsmouth. William and Harriet went on to have eight daughters and two sons. William’s father died in 1811 at which time he succeeded, as the fourth Baronet of Nun Appleton, to extensive land holdings in Yorkshire. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Yorkshire {18}.

Meanwhile, John Marcus Clements, Catherine’s second son, left his career as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 18th Hussars {19} and took back the parliamentary seat lost by his brother. He was the MP for County Leitrim between 1820-26 and 1830-32. There are mixed reports concerning his political acumen.

The Irish Secretary, Goulburn, said of him “Clements is a very good friend and attends very regularly, having come up from Yorkshire by return of post to attend a division a short time since” {20}. Another contemporary description was less complimentary, stating that he “seldom votes and never speaks – a valuable Member!” {21}. Soon afterwards he lost his seat in the 1832 election.

Selina Diana Catherine therefore grew up in a wealthy, influential and ever-increasing family with her sister and many half siblings. As an adult she appears to have led a conventional life for a young lady of her social position, though she did not marry.

Selina Diana Catherine Milner, attributed to Sir Thomas Lawrence, circa 1820 {22}.

Sir William, Lady Milner and the “Miss Milners” attended the Christmas Bazaar of 1829 (Catherine Frances Nanette had married in 1827, making Selina the eldest Miss Milner) {23}.

Lady Milner and “Miss Milner” accompanied Sir William to the Grand Dress Ball with Yorkshire gentry in January 1834, as did the then 22-year-old Miss Charlotte Milner (1812-1894) and members of the Markham family which Catherine Frances Nanette had married into {24}.

Selina Diana Catherine Milner, by William Egley (1798-1870), circa 1830 {25}

Sadly, Selina died on 1 September 1834 at 13 Wilton Place Crescent, London, the home of her uncle, John Marcus Clements, and the residence of Catherine Clements. She was 30 years old.

13 Wilton Crescent, Knightsbridge, London

John Marcus Clements died on 17 November 1834, aged 45 years.

Catherine Clements died at the same address on 7 January 1836, aged 74 years. In accordance with her Will of 11 February 1835 she was buried in a grave “on the Harrow Road near my dear Selina’s.” (now Kensal Green Cemetery).

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Sarah Murden of All Things Georgian for inspiration and for advice concerning burial records at Kensal Green Cemetery.

Thanks to Dr Annette Schlagenhauff, Curator of European Art at Newfields, Indianapolis Museum of Art for generous advice and for information concerning Lawrence’s portrait of ‘Miss Clements’.

Sources

1. All Things Georgian 29 May 2022
2. Kensal Green Burial Register No 224. 5^th September 1834
3. Kensal Green Burial Register No 654. 14^th January 1836
4. https://collections.discovernewfields.org/artwork/41142 Accessed 15.1.2024.
5. Lawrence, Sir Walter Armstrong, Methuen & Co., London 1913, Page 122
6. A Checklist of The Collection of Mr and Mrs Herman C. Krannert, Catherine Beth Lippert, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1976, Item 113
7. Sir Thomas Lawrence, Kenneth Garlick, Phaidon Press, Oxford,1989, Miss Clements Page 169
8. Visitation of Ireland, Vol 111, Page 2 and The County Families of Yorkshire, Vol 2, Joseph Foster, W. Wilfred Head, London, 1874
9. Ibid.
10. http://www.pastellists.com/Essays/Read_Gardner_Sturt.pdf Accessed 15.1.2024.
11. https://www.mahmah.ch/collection/oeuvres/portrait-de-lady-diana-milner-1757-1805/1985-0059 Accessed 16.1.2024.
12. Sotheby’s’ sale, Portrait of Diana Sturt, wife of Sir William Milner, 3^rd,28^th October 2015
13. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/archive/verses-in-the-hand-of-sir-thomas-lawrence  RA Content Description “On being left alone after dinner at Lady M’s”; while left alone Lawrence recalls a youthful infatuation with {Lady} Milner, experienced while he was still living in Bath. Accessed 16.1.2024.
14. https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/9634 Accessed 16.1.2024
15. The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence Kt, D.E. Williams, Vol 1, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, London 1831 Page 127
16. The Gentleman’s Magazine, Sylvanus Urban, Gent., January 1805, Page 93
17. Quinn, James (October 2009). “Clements, Henry Theophilus”. Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 19.1.2024.
18. Illustrated London News, 31^st March 1855.
19. Burke’s Irish Family Records, London 1976 Page 245
20. https://historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/clements-john-1789-1834 Accessed 19.1.2024
21. Ibid
22. Symington-Tinto Collection: (By descent then: Sotheby’s Sale, London, 17^th September 2002 Lot 97, Chantry Fine Arts to 2021)
23. Yorkshire Gazette, 19^th December 1829 Page 2
24. Yorkshire Gazette 18^th January 1834 Page 3
25. Bonhams Sale, London, 3rd February 2004, Lot 143: (Selina Milner (1804-34) seated, wearing white dress with yellow waistband, ruff and pale blue shawl. Labelled on the reverse with the sitter’s name and artist, gilt-mount.