The Honourable Mrs Emily Bootle-Wilbraham
(1814-1899)

[This portrait does not appear in the Silvy daybooks in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery, so presumably the sitting took place during the period covered by the missing volume of the Silvy daybooks, July 1863 to June 1864.]

Born on 13 April 1814 at Clewer in Berkshire, Emily Ramsbottom was the fourth daughter of James Ramsbottom of Clewer Lodge, Berkshire.

On 8 July 1841 at Trinity Church in Marylebone she married the Honourable Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Bootle-Wilbraham of the Coldstream Guards, younger son of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Baron Skelmersdale. Their marriage produced six children: three boys and three girls.

The couple appear on the 1851 census living at Lathom House in Lancashire, the seat of Emily’s father-in-law Lord Skelmersdale. Also present on the night of the census were their six children. The household included a governess and 27 servants.

The Honourable Edward Bootle-Wilbraham died suddenly in 1882 at Blythe near Ormskirk.

In 1891 Emily was a widow ‘living on [her] own means’ at 1 Percival Terrace in Brighton, on the seafront in Kemptown, with a widowed niece and her two small children, three young grandchildren and seven servants.

The Honourable Mrs Emily Bootle-Wilbraham ‘of 23 Portland Place, Brighton’ died, aged 85, on 20 December 1899 at Balcarres House in Fife. She left an estate valued at £3029. She was buried beside her husband in the family vault at Lathom Park Chapel on 22 December 1899.

According to a detailed report of her funeral in the Wigan Observer and District Advertiser (30 December 1899): ‘The deceased lady died at Balcarres, the seat of her son-in-law, the Earl of Crawford. The end came rather suddenly, and the Earl and her son, Major Lionel B. Wilbraham, were unable to attend the funeral, being yachting at a distance. Amongst those who attended were the Countess of Crawford, Lord Belcarres, M.P., Hon. Ronald Lindsay, Mr and Lady Evelyn Mason, the Earl and Countess of Lathom, Hon. Mrs Bateman, Hon. Rose Bootle Wilbraham, [and] the Earl of Derby. The venerable lady would have completed her 86th year next April.’