Miss Eleanor Hartley
(1845-1930)

[The sitter had previously visited Silvy's studio on 24 March 1863.]

Born in Wolverhampton on 26 August 1845, Eleanor Jane Hartley was the second daughter of ironmaster John Hartley. Her mother Emma née Thorneycroft was the daughter of ironmaster George Benjamin Thorneycroft of Wolverhampton. Eleanor was baptised on 15 September 1845 at St Peter’s in Wolverhampton.

She appears on the 1851 census living with her parents, her older sister Rosa, her younger sister Alice and their three brothers at ‘The Oaks,’ Meridale Road, Wolverhampton. The household included five servants. In 1861 the family were living at Tong Castle in Shropshire; there were now ten servants in the household, including a butler, a footman and a groom.

On 17 September 1868 Eleanor married Paynton Piggott at Tong in Shropshire. When the census was taken in 1881 he described himself as a ‘Barrister at Law & Chief Constable of Norfolk.’ The couple were living at Framlingham Earl Hall in Norfolk. Their marriage had produced no children, nor did it ever.

In 1911 Paynton and Eleanor were living at Danbury Lodge in Worthing, Sussex. Her husband had been knighted in the Coronation Honours of 1902 so Eleanor was now Lady Piggott. Sir Paynton Piggot died at ‘Castle View’ in Leamington on 26 November 1915.

Lady Eleanor Jane Piggott died, aged 85, on 30 June 1930 at ‘Castle View,’ 60 Warwick New Road, Leamington Spa. She left an estate valued at £12,922, which suggests that she spent her twilight years cushioned by all the comforts that money can buy. She was buried beside her husband in the churchyard of St Bartholomew’s Church in Tong.