Esther Herschell neé Fuller-Maitland (1803-1882)
One place the District Visiting Society would not need to visit
was the London
home of the Fuller-Maitlands, just round the corner in Bryanston Square. This is an area where a
ground floor apartment in a five storey house can command a rent of £1,500
($2,750) a week today. In the mid-nineteenth century the Fuller-Maitlands owned
a whole five floors and probably only used the house during the twelve week “London
Season”.
Eldest daughter Esther Fuller-Maitland had kept in touch with the Herschells and may have been the one who brought the Chapel site to Ridley’s attention. Unmarried and now in her forties the strong-willed, short-sighted Esther was said to have lost the hand of a marquis at some time as the result of a letter going astray in the post. Other offers of marriage had evidently not been forthcoming, or had been rejected by the popular maiden-aunt.
From All Love - A Biography of Ridley Herschell
Eldest daughter Esther Fuller-Maitland had kept in touch with the Herschells and may have been the one who brought the Chapel site to Ridley’s attention. Unmarried and now in her forties the strong-willed, short-sighted Esther was said to have lost the hand of a marquis at some time as the result of a letter going astray in the post. Other offers of marriage had evidently not been forthcoming, or had been rejected by the popular maiden-aunt.
From All Love - A Biography of Ridley Herschell
Esther Herschell’s Will
The will (dated March 1, 1876), with three codicils (dated April 4 and 6, 1878, and June 4, 1879), of Mrs. Esther Herschell, late of No. 28, Westbourne-terrace, who died on April 6 last, at Brighton, was proved on June 23 by Sir Farrer Herschell, Q.C., M.P., the stepson, the sole executor, the value of the personal estate being over £18,000. The testatrix bequeaths £100 each to the Stockwell Orphanage, the London Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract Society; and legacies to her brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, relatives of her late husband, servants, and others. The residue of her property, real and personal, she gives to the said Sir Farrer Herschell.
Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2257 - Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, August 5, 1882, p.150
The will (dated March 1, 1876), with three codicils (dated April 4 and 6, 1878, and June 4, 1879), of Mrs. Esther Herschell, late of No. 28, Westbourne-terrace, who died on April 6 last, at Brighton, was proved on June 23 by Sir Farrer Herschell, Q.C., M.P., the stepson, the sole executor, the value of the personal estate being over £18,000. The testatrix bequeaths £100 each to the Stockwell Orphanage, the London Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract Society; and legacies to her brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, relatives of her late husband, servants, and others. The residue of her property, real and personal, she gives to the said Sir Farrer Herschell.
Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2257 - Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, August 5, 1882, p.150