Mrs Louisa Gilliat and Miss Mabel Gilliat
(1835-1914 and 1861-1950)
30 April 1861

Volume 3, page 171, sitting number 3375.

Born in or about 1835 at Rothley Vicarage in Leicestershire, Louisa Ann Fanny Babington was the daughter of Matthew Babington (died 1836) and Frances née Sykes. She appears on the 1851 census, aged 16, living at Winkfield in Berkshire with her widowed mother Fanny and her three older siblings: Sophia, Florence and Henry.

On 29 May 1860 she married John Saunders Gilliat, whose father John Kirton Gilliat had founded the merchant banking company J K Gilliat & Co. The couple appear on the 1861 census living at Winkfield with Mrs Gilliat's mother. Her husband, who was born at Clapham Common in 1830, gave 'American Merchant' as his profession. Also present was their two-month-old daughter Mabel.

By 1871 the couple had moved to 9 Westbourne Street in Paddington and had five more children. The family now comprised: Mabel (10), Rose (8), Florence (6), Cecelia (5), John (2) and an as-yet-unnamed baby daughter (later named Ida) who was only six days old. Also present on the night of the census were a governess, a nurse and seven servants, including a butler. Another daughter Violet joined the family in 1876.

John Saunders Gilliat was Governor of the Bank of England from 1883 to 1885 and later the Conservative MP for Widnes.

The baby seen here with Mrs Gilliat is Mabel Fanny Gilliat, born at the beginning of 1861.

On 10 August 1880 at Chorleywood in Hertfordshire she married barrister William Thomas Langford. Their marriage produced two sons and daughter.

The couple appear on the 1881 census living at 2 Sumner Terrace in Kensington with three servants. By 1891 William Langford had become a ‘Bank Agent’ and the family had moved to Coombe in Surrey.

Mrs Mabel Fanny Langford died, aged 89, on 30 May 1950 at Broomhill, Ivybridge, Devon. She left an estate valued at £2273.