Possibly Lady Jane Hay
(1830-1920)
1860
Volume 1, page 103, sittings 615 and 616.
[I can’t find this portrait — or either of the variant poses from the same sitting — in the Silvy daybooks. Stylistically, it ought to be in Volume 1 but it’s not there. However, there are two other, consecutive portraits that seem to show the same woman wearing the same dress (that panel down the front of her skirt is very distinctive) and the same black lace shawl (not her own; a studio prop). I’m therefore treating this portrait as if it were another pose from the same sitting, although it would have been very unusual for Silvy to have changed the background mid-sitting.]
Born in Geneva on 1 April 1830, Lady Jane Hay was the fourth surviving daughter of George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale, and his wife Lady Susan née Montagu.
On 9 June 1863 at St Peter’s, Eaton Square she married Colonel Richard Chambre Hayes Taylor (later General Sir Richard etc.), second son of the Reverend and Honourable Henry Edward Taylor. Their marriage produced five children.
When her husband was created KCB [Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath], the following biographical sketch appeared in at least one newspaper.: ‘Sir Richard Chambers [sic] Hayes Taylor is the second son of the late Hon. and Rev. Henry Edward Taylor and brother of the Right Hon. Thomas Edward Taylor, MP. He was born in 1819, and is a Lieutenant-General in the army, Colonel 2nd Battalion East Surrey Regiment, and Adjutant-General to the Forces. He served with distinction in the Crimea and in India. Sir Richard Taylor married in 1863 Lady Jane Hay, daughter of the eighth Marquis of Tweeddale’ (Huddersfield Chronicle, 9 December 1882). According to an obituary, he ‘commanded the 79th Highlanders from February to November, 1858, in the Indian Mutiny, including the siege and capture of Lucknow […] He commanded various appointments ono the staff in England, the last being that of Governor of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1881-1886’ (Army and Navy Gazette, 10 December 1904).
Lady Jane Taylor died on 13 December 1920 at 16 Eaton Place, London. She left an estate valued at £17,072.
‘A remarkable old lady has passed away in Lady Jane Taylor, daughter of the eighth Marquis of Tweeddale. She remained vigorous in mind and body almost to the end, although she was born before Queen Victoria entered her teens, and not long since she defended a law suit with every appearance of interest. Her father, born in 1787, married a daughter of the fifth Duke of Manchester, and had thirteen children, of whom only the youngest, Lady Emily Peel, is left now. The eldest daughter married the first and last Marquis of Dalhousie, Governor-General in India. The fourth was the Duchess of Wellington, daughter-in-law of the “Iron Duke.” […] Lady Emily Peel is widow of the great Sir Robert’s son, and lives out her days at Geneva, where she has a villa called after the beloved Lammermoor Hills of her native Lothians’ (Liverpool Daily Post, 16 December 1920).
[Lady Jane Hay visited the studio with her sister Lady Emily Peel, and Lady Emily’s two dogs]