Mrs Isabella Botfield
(1834-1911)
14 March 1861

Volume 2, page 311, sitting number 2536.

Born in 1834, Isabella Leighton was the second daughter of Sir Baldwin Leighton, baronet, of Loton Park, Shropshire (the seat of the Leighton family since 1391). 

On 21 October 1858 at Alberbury in Shropshire she married Beriah Botfield, the Member of Parliament for Ludlow. 

According to his entry in the DNB, ‘In early life Botfield studied botany and geology, but he afterwards gave himself up to the charms of bibliography. He was a member of a large number of literary and scientific societies. For a gift of British minerals to the royal collection at Dresden he was created a chevalier of the order of Albert the Brave of Saxony. He gave a collection of British birds to the Natural History Museum at Brussels, and was made a knight of the order of Leopold of Belgium. […] His library was rich in first editions of the classics.’  

Beriah Botfield died at his residence in Grosvenor Square on 7 August 1863. He left an estate valued at £200,000.

On 18 August 1866 at St George’s, Hanover Square his widow married secondly Alfred Seymour of Knoll House in Wiltshire, the Member of Parliament for Totnes. 

When the census was taken in 1871 the couple were living in Eaton Square. Alfred Seymour described himself as an ‘Ironmaster, Landower, MP and Magistrate.’ Isabella described herself as a ‘Landowner.’

Their marriage produced one daughter, Jane Margaret Seymour, born in 1873.

Alfred Seymour died on 15 March 1888, aged 63.

Isabella Seymour died, aged 77, on 7 April 1911 at the Hotel Mont Dore in Bournemouth. She was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s at East Knoyle in Wiltshire.

‘Mrs Isabella Seymour, of 6, Upper Brook-street, Knoyle House, Wilts and Norton Hall, Northampton, who died on April 7, left estate valued at £143,308. She left £1000 for the repair of Trent Church, Somerset’ (The Globe, 9 June 1911).