The children of Hamilton Beckett
(1857-1896 and 1855-1932)
26 September 1861

Volume 5, page 94, sitting number 5872.

[The following sitting in the Silvy daybooks is the children’s mother, the Honourable Mrs Hamilton Beckett.]

Henry Lyndhurst Beckett and Constance Mary Beckett were the children of Hamilton Beckett and his wife, the Honourable Sophia Clarence née Copley, daughter of John Singleton Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst.

Constance was born on 11 November 1855 at 2 Lyall Street, Belgravia. Henry was born at the same address on 8 April 1857.

The family appear on the 1861 census living at College Villa in St Helier on the island of Jersey. Hamilton Beckett gave ‘Landed Proprietor’ as his profession. In 1871 they were living in Cadogan Place, Chelsea.

On 8 February 1880 Constance married Henry Campbell Bruce, later 2nd Baron Aberdare of Duffryn. Their marriage produced nine children.

In 1882 Henry married Ellen Mary Hughes. When the 1891 census was taken, the couple were staying or living at a hotel in Jermyn Street, London.

In 1894 Henry went bankrupt, with debts amounting to £42,657. He was, apparently, ‘well known in coaching circles’ and had ‘recently lost £10,538 in the purchase and sale of horses. [...] Since May, 1893, his income has been £7,900 and his expenditure for the same period £26,074, and he attributes his failure to extravagance of living’ (Mansfield Reporter, 2 November 1894).

He died, aged 39, on 5 July 1896 at 3 Edgar Road, Cliftonville, Margate. Despite his recent bankruptcy, he left an estate valued at £26,146. He was buried in Highgate Cemetery, where his tomb still stands.

In 1911 Constance was living with her husband and two of their children at 83 Eaton Square, London. Also present on the night of the census were twelve servants, including a butler, two footmen and a hall boy.

Constance died, aged 76, on 8 February 1932 at her residence in Eaton Square. She left an estate valued at £17,323.