Children of Sir Michael Stewart

Volume 1, page 182, sitting 933.

Recorded in the Silvy daybooks as the ‘Children of Sir Michael Stewart’, these are probably the children of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, 7th Baronet, and his wife, Octavia née Grosvenor, daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Westminster. Sir Michael Stewart was the M.P. (Conservative) for Renfrewshire from 1855 to 1865.

The boy seen here is probably Michael Hugh Shaw-Stewart, born on 11 July 1854. He was later a Captain in the 4th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Conservative M.P. for East Renfrewshire from 1886 to 1906. In 1883 he married Lady Alice Emma Thynne, daughter of the 4th Marquess of Bath. He succeeded his father to the baronetcy in 1903. He was awarded the CB in 1916 and the KCB 1933. He died on 29 June 1942. His nephew succeeded to the baronetcy.

The girl is Elizabeth (sometimes Eliza) Mary Shaw-Stewart, who would have been 4 or 5 years old in 1860. She died on 3 May 1875.

They both appear on the 1861 census living at Ardgowan House at Inverkip in Renfrewshire. Lady Stewart had 17 servants to help run her household.

At the time of the 1871 census, the family was living at 11 Grosvenor Place, London. The household included an impressive 20 servants.