Percival Andrée Pickering 1810-1876

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

William de Morgan and his Wife Chapter 5. 1808. An 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 [aged 31] and Mary Vere [aged 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 [aged 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 [aged 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 [aged 42] and [his future wife] Anna Spencer-Stanhope [aged 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 [aged 43] and Anna Spencer-Stanhope [aged 28] were married at All Saints Church, Cawthorne [Map].

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

On 30th August 1855 [his daughter] Evelyn de Morgan aka Mary Evelyn Pickering was born to Percival Andrée Pickering [aged 45] and [his wife] Anna Spencer-Stanhope [aged 31]. She was baptised at All Saints Church, Cawthorne [Map]. She studied Greek, Latin, French, German, and Italian, as well as classical literature and mythology, and was also exposed at a young age to history books and scientific texts. She married 5th March 1887 William Frend De Morgan.

On 10th January 1859 [his brother-in-law] John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope [aged 29] and Elizabeth King [aged 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 [aged 80] died.

In 1863 [his mother] Mary Vere [aged 80] died.

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

On 7th August 1876 Percival Andrée Pickering [aged 66] died.

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