Miss Evelyn Duncombe
(1842-1903)
14 May 1861

Volume 3, page 233, sitting number 3614

Born in York on 20 March 1842, Evelyn Duncombe was the eldest daughter of the Reverend and Honourable Augustus Duncombe, from 1858 the Dean of York. Her mother was Lady Harriet Duncome née Douglas, daughter of Charles Douglas, 6th Marquess of Queensberry. She was baptised at Olave in York on 16 April 1842.

When the census was taken in 1851 nine-year-old Evelyn was living with her parents and siblings at 49 Berkeley Square in London. The household included fifteen servants and a Swiss governess. Her father gave ‘Canon of York Minster’ as his profession. 

She was presented at court by her mother at the Queen’s ‘Drawing-room’ held at St James’s Palace on Saturday 28 April 1860 (Yorkshire Gazette, 5 May 1860).

In 1891 she was living at the same address with her widowed mother and her sister Eleanor. 

Evelyn Duncombe never married. She died on 21 June 1903 at 4 Lower Berkeley Street, Manchester Square, Marylebone. She left an estate valued at £38,985.

‘The death took place on Sunday, at her residence, Lower Berkeley-street, London, of Miss Evelyn Duncombe, daughter of the late Very Rev. and Hon. Augustus Duncombe, Dean of York, and Lady Harriet Duncombe. Miss Duncombe was 61 years of age, having been born on the 20th March, 1842. She was a cousin of the Earl of Faversham, and like him a grandchild of the first Baron Faversham’ (Hull Daily Mail, 24 June 1903). 

‘Miss Duncombe had been ill for some months. […] Her death will be a great loss to the poor, as she took an active part in forwarding numerous charitable causes in the Metropolis. […] She was connected with much philanthropic work in which the Princess Christian took a deep interest, and was a personal friend of Her Royal Highness who — as we announced last week — postponed her intended visit to Ashbourne to open the Victoria Memorial Hospital, in consequence of Miss Duncombe’s serious illness’ (Ashbourne News Telegraph, 26 June 1903). 

[From an album compiled by Bertha Amelia Yorke, daughter of the Very Rev. and Hon. Grantham Munton Yorke.]