Miss Monk

[The portrait does not appear in the Silvy daybooks in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery. The sitting probably took place between July 1863 and June 1864, the period covered by the missing daybook.]

Given the context of the album - which also includes Silvy portraits of Charles James Monk, his wife and their youngest daughter - this is probably one of Charles Monk’s sisters. Charles's father, James Henry Monk, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, appears on the 1851 census living at Stapleton Palace near Bristol with his wife and three unmarried daughters: Jane (27), Mary (25), and Penelope (22). Mary married the Honourable George Mostyn later that year. The woman seen here in riding habit is possibly one of the other daughters.

After the death of Bishop Monk, his widow and the two unmarried daughters, Jane Emily Monk and Penelope Anna Monk, divided their time between Rome and England. When their mother died, the two sisters settled in London.

The younger sister, Penelope Anna Monk, was born at Peterborough in 1829 and never married. She appears on the 1911 census, aged 81, living in Chelsea. She died in Chelsea in 1917, aged 88.

Jane Emily Monk never married either. She died on 2 July 1917, aged 93, at 4 Cadogan Square, Chelsea, leaving an estate valued at over £43,000.