THE BERRY PAPERS

SECTION I

THE EARLY LIFE OF MARY AND AGNES BERRY

(1763-1789)

Mary Berry's Notes of Early Life-Her silence concerning her father's forebears-Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe states that her maternal grandfather was a tailor-Her great-uncle Ferguson's career-His childless marriage --- His sister's sons, Robert and William, his natural heirs-Robert Berry's early life—His marriage with Miss Seton alienates his uncle-The birth of Mary and Agnes Berry-The death of Mrs. Robert Berry-Ferguson wishes Robert Berry to marry again-His refusal brings about a breach between them-William Berry is informed that he, not Robert, will be his uncle's heir-Mary Berry's life-long bitterness at the loss of fortune -Robert Berry's weakness of character-The girls live with their grandmother in Yorkshire-Robert Berry rents College House, Chiswick-His daughters' education-Sir George and Lady Cayley-Mary Berry's first suitor-The death of Ferguson-Robert Berry's legacy-Mary Berry's dissatisfaction—a tour in the west of England-A visit to WeymouthWith the Craufords at Rotterdam-A Dutch tour-Switzerland and Italy -An autobiographical passage-Florence-Sir Horace Mann-TurinRome-Naples-Montpellier-Paris-Return to England-The Berrys after their return from abroad-Their meeting with Horace WalpoleTheir acquaintance with him ripens into intimacy-Walpole's account of them-His affection for the sisters-He laughs at the discrepancy in age between him and them—Mary his favourite—He writes his Reminiscences of the Courts of George I and George II for their entertainment-He dedicates to them his Catalogue of Strawberry Hill-He introduces them to the Conways-Caroline, Lady Aylesbury-Anne Seymour ConwayHer artistic instincts-Ceracchi's statue of her as the Muse of Sculpture -Her marriage with the Hon. John Damer-Damer's extravagance-He commits suicide-Lady Sarah Lennox on the ill-fated marriage-Lord Milton's brutal behaviour to his daughter in-law, Mrs. Damer-Mrs.

Damer goes to her father's house-She goes abroad-She rents a house in Sackville Street-Lady Sarah Lennox's pen-portrait of her-Mrs. Damer's later life.

I

N Mary Berry's Notes of Early Life, which were found among her papers after her death, there

are, strangely enough, no particulars of her fore

bears, not even a passing reference to her grandfathers. "My father was the maternal nephew of an old Scotch merchant of the name of Ferguson," she says, and no word more. The family history was thus deliberately wrapped in mystery, and nothing was generally known of her antecedents until the publication, in 1888, of the correspondence of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, where light is thrown upon them in a passage in one of his letters to the Duke of Sutherland. "As to what you tell me of the Misses Berry, it is delightful," he wrote. "I had dreamed they were dead; but some time ago, when Lord Orford's latest letters were printed, I visited a club of St. George's Square old maids, who subscribe and get such books, and who refreshed my memory (the ladies being all angry that the Misses might have been Countesses) with a piece of family history. It seems that the grandfather of these heroines was nothing more than a tailor at Kircaldy, one of whose sons changed his name to Ferguson for the estate of Raith, purchased and left him by a nabob, his mother's brother. Now the amusing thing is, to think of Lord Orford's horror had he married either of the ladies, and then discovered the goose in the Countess's pedigree ! He might have written a companion to The Mysterious Mother, The Mysterious Grandfather, and far more feelingly. Imagine the new Countess, like the old, announcing her crime to her husband, as the other did to

her son: 'Hear, tell, and tremble! Horace, thou didst clasp a tailor's gosling!' The Count swoons in the Countess's arms, and an earthquake shakes all the baubles at Strawberry Hill!" It is, however, fair to state that this account of the humble origin of one side of her family finds corroboration only in the silence of Mary Berry. And even here there is a contradiction, for Miss Berry says it was her father's uncle who changed his name, and Sharpe that it was her uncle. It is more than probable that the lady was right.

Ferguson came to London in 1709, and set up as a merchant. He proved himself so good a man of business, that long before his death his fortune was computed at £300,000, an immense sum in those days. His wealth, however, did not induce him to retire from mercantile pursuits; and though he possessed a considerable estate at Raith, in Fifeshire-whether acquired by inheritance or purchase is not germane to this story -he remained faithful to Broad Street in the City of London, and died in the dwelling-house over his offices. He had married a Miss Townshend, but there was no issue of this union, so that his natural heirs were the two sons of his sister, who had married a man of the name of Berry.

These sons were Robert and William Berry. Robert was educated for the bar, but before taking up his profession he travelled for some time on the Continent

1 C. K. Sharpe, Letters, II. 550. Concerning the alleged proposal of marriage by Walpole, see vol. i. of that work.

* Miss Townshend was a sister of Joseph Townshend, M.P. for Westbury, Wiltshire. Townshend's other sister married James Oswald (1715-1769), who was educated at Kirkcaldy Grammar School, where Ferguson made his acquaintance. Oswald succeeded his father as M.P. for Kirkcaldy Burghs, and held office at the Board of Trade and the Treasury. It was at his house that Ferguson met his future wife.

indeed until he was recalled to England by his uncle, a command he perforce obeyed, since he was entirely dependent upon him. "The law he seems never to have thought of more; nor was it thought necessary that he should," his elder daughter wrote. "But in all other respects I can easily suppose his careless disposition, even to his own situation, his turn towards literature and literary society, little suited the hard, narrow mind of the man on whom his fortunes depended."1 It is clear that Robert, who is known to have been a weak man, was unhappily possessed of just those qualities which would alienate a hard-headed man of business; but there was as yet, however, no overt breach between uncle and nephew, merely an ever-increasing want of sympathy and understanding. In 1762 Robert married a young girl of eighteen, Miss Seton, a distant cousin,2 who had, her eldest daughter says, "every qualification, beside beauty, that could charm, captivate, or attach, and excuse a want of fortune." It was just this want of fortune that further restrained the relation between uncle and nephew. Ferguson did not dislike his niece by marriage, but he was bitterly disappointed when she gave birth to two daughters-Mary, on March 16, 1763, and Agnes on May 29, 1764. He ardently desired a male heir to his fortune, but, so far as Robert was concerned, he was doomed to failure, for in 1767 Mrs. Berry died in giving birth to a third child, which did not survive its mother. "I have been told that his 1 Mary Berry, Notes of Early Life.

2 She was daughter of John Seton of the very ancient Scottish family of Seton of Arbroath by his wife Elizabeth (née Seton of Belsies). Among their children were: Margaret, married 1760 Andrew Seton; Isabella, Lady Cayley of High Hall; Elizabeth, who married in 1762 Robert Berry; and Jane, married in 1770 Walter Symnot of Balleymoyer, Knight, in the north of Ireland.

uncle was very importunate with my father to marry again directly," Mary Berry has recorded. "If so, I am sure my father must have finally destroyed his prospects from him, by the manner in which he would have received such a proposal immediately after the untimely death of a beloved wife of three-and-twenty, after four years' marriage."

While Robert Berry was falling deeper and deeper into the bad books of his uncle, his younger brother, William, was becoming more and more a favourite. He showed himself a good man of business; he married a well-dowered daughter of the house of Crauford, and was so fortunate as to have two sons in the first two years of his marriage. Mary Berry declares that William deliberately intrigued to oust his brother from his inheritance. "He soon perceived," she said, "the carelessness of his elder brother's character, and how little it fell in, in any respect, with that of the old man, and how easily he could assimilate himself to all his views." Whether William did endeavour to oust his elder brother from his uncle's inheritance, it is not possible now to say; but it is not surprising that a self-made man, or, for the matter of that, any man, should prefer to entrust a great fortune to a reliable rather than a shiftless nephew. Mary Berry, of course, could not be expected to see the matter in this light, and it did not apparently occur to her that her father, on learning that he was not to be the heir, might have endeavoured to do something to provide for the present welfare and the future provision of his daughters.

It was not until 1769, when Mary Berry was six years old, that Ferguson announced that, while he would continue Robert's allowance of £300 a year,