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Frances Mary Smith (1807-1890)

Sepia photograph of an elderly Frances Mary Smith, 1880, sitting, from the knees up. She is facing slightly left and looking at the camera with a calm expression. Her left hand rests on an open book on a desk. She is wearing a black dress and a white lace cap. Her white hair is tied behind her head, under the cap.

Frances Mary Smith was born in South Africa while her father, Robert Smith, was stationed there as an apothecary-surgeon with the British army. A few years later, the family moved to Hampshire in the south of England. Educated in high society, Frances Mary often joked that she had a claim to aristocracy since she was directly descended from the Marquis of Hertford on her mother’s side. Photo taken at Elmbank around 1880.