Biography of Percival Andrée Pickering 1810-1876

On 15th October 1805 [his father] Edward Rowland Pickering (age 26) and [his mother] Mary Vere (age 22) were married. They had eleven children, three daughters and eight sons.

William de Morgan and his Wife Chapter 5. 1808An anecdote of his childhood has survived which at least bespeaks imagination and kindliness of heart. Percy, as he was called, had been receiving religious instruction from his mother, who had imparted to him the sad fate of Adam and Eve, summed up in that melancholy sentence 'Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.' The words sank into the child's mind and made an impression which his elders little suspected. Afterwards, seated at the window gazing out on to the chill March day, he was heard to be weeping bitterly. Kind arms enclosed him, and sympathetic inquiries were made respecting the cause of his woe. But the child wept on unrestrainedly; till at length, pointing to the street where the chill winds were blowing the dust in clouds past the house, he exclaimed tragically, 'Oh! poor, poor Adam and Eve! — how they are blowing about!' The Divine vengeance which had apparently condemned our first parents to drift helplessly— and dirtily — through the ages appalled his tender heart and left him so crushed with despair that for long he refused to be comforted.

On 8th February 1810 Percival Andrée Pickering was born to Edward Rowland Pickering (age 31) and Mary Vere (age 27).

William de Morgan and his Wife Chapter 5. In those days the custom still prevailed of concentrating all care and expenditure upon the education of the eldest son, while furnishing the younger members of the family only with the good solid instruction suitable to whatever profession they were destined to pursue. Edward Rowland (age 13) did not follow this system. Each of the young Pickerings went to Eton, where several were distinguished both as scholars and cricketers, and then to the University. At Eton, Percy was known by the name of 'Mop-stick' on account of his curly hair, and his good looks were proverbial. He became a great friend of young William Ewart Gladstone (age 14), who for many years subsequently kept up a conespondence with him, in which he expressed himself enthusiastically Tory in principle; and only his change of politics, later in life, made a severance between the friends. At Cambridge, after going to Trinity College, Percy, like his elder brother, became a Fellow of St. John's. By and by, at the Bar, he was noted for his eloquence, his penetration and his sense of humour.

William de Morgan and his Wife Chapter 5. But the course of the romance did not at first run smoothly; and three or four years passed before, at his third proposal [Percival Andrée Pickering (age 42) and [his future wife] Anna Spencer-Stanhope (age 28)], his devotion found its reward. After their marriage the young couple lived first in Green Street, in a little house with a bay window, now pulled down, which during a former generation had sheltered another romance, for there had resided the beautiful Miss Farren who became Lady Derby.

On 29th March 1853 Percival Andrée Pickering (age 43) and Anna Spencer-Stanhope (age 28) were married at All Saints Church, Cawthorne [Map].

William de Morgan and his Wife Chapter 5. [his daughter] Mary Evelyn Pickering was the eldest daughter of Percival Andree Pickering (age 45), Q.C., Recorder of Pontefract, Attorney General for the County Palatine and sometime Treasurer of the Inner Temple. He married in 1853 [his wife] Anna Maria Spencer-Stanhope (age 31), who was herself the eldest daughter of [his father-in-law] John (age 68) and [his mother-in-law] Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope (age 60), of Cannon Hall, Yorkshire.

On 30th August 1855 [his daughter] Evelyn de Morgan aka Mary Evelyn Pickering was born to Percival Andrée Pickering (age 45) and [his wife] Anna Spencer-Stanhope (age 31).

On 10th January 1859 [his brother-in-law] John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope (age 29) and Elizabeth King (age 23) were married. She the widow of Captain George Frederick Dawson. They lived at Hillhouse, Cawthorne until their house Sandroyd House, Cobham was completed.

On 29th November 1859 [his father] Edward Rowland Pickering (age 80) died.

In 1863 [his mother] Mary Vere (age 80) died.

On 26th August 1865 [his daughter] Anna Maria Wilhelmina Pickering was born to Percival Andrée Pickering (age 55) and [his wife] Anna Spencer-Stanhope (age 40).

On 7th August 1876 Percival Andrée Pickering (age 66) died.

On 23rd December 1901 [his former wife] Anna Spencer-Stanhope (age 77) died.