Mrs Charles W. Gordon
(1828-1866)
21 May 1861  

Volume3, page 274, sitting number 3780.

Born in or about 1828 at Radipole in Dorset, Augusta Caroline Gordon Steward was the daughter of Colonel Richard Augustus Tucker Steward of Nottington House, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the local militia and at one time the Member of Parliament for Weymouth.

On 6 November 1845 she married Charles William Gordon. When the census was taken in 1851 the couple were living or staying with Augusta’s widowed mother and brother at Nottinghton House, Radipole. Their marriage had already produced three sons: George (4), Frederick (3), Charles Steward Gordon (1).

The family appear on the 1861 census living at Wincombe Park, Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire. Charles gave ‘Landed proprietor and Magistrate’ as his profession. Also present on the night of the census were children Ethel Maria Louisa (9), Harold (4), Frank (1) and Alfred William (6 months). Their older brothers were presumably away at boarding school. In addition, the household comprised one governess and eight servants, including a butler and a groom.

On 12 September 1866 Augusta gave birth to a stillborn son at Wincombe Park (Edinburgh Evening Courant, 18 September 1866). She died the same day, aged only 38 (Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Standard, 22 September 1866).

She was buried on 19 September 1866 in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire.

[The following sitting in the daybooks is her husband, Charles William Gordon.]