Anne Dowling
Born: 9 July 1796
Died: 15 October 1837?
Daughter of Laurence Dowling and Elenor Kavanagh
Sister of James and William
FACTS
Poor Anne. We don't know what caused her death at the age of 41; it seems unlikely she was married or Mary Anne would have mentioned it; what we do have is a beautiful portrait which hangs on our wall at home. It shows a young woman (I have somewhere in my head that she was 23 at the time) of some means and is obviously the work of a decent professional painter. The portrait hung in Eliza's house in Richmond Place and Willie remembered her always saying "That's for Willie when I'm gone.". So when he heard news of her death Robert promptly headed round there and walked home with the painting under his arm, from where he shipped it to Willie in Liverpool, before any of you lot out there could get your hands on it. ;)
Mary Anne says she died in September. In my Dad's (Osmond's) notes he corrects that to October 15, based presumeably on her burial certificate, which is dated October 17 (it could be Oct 11, but I think Dad stuck the certificate to its current backing sheet, so I'm assuming he saw it in better condition than it is now). Even a ten-day delay seems unlikely in 1837.
Of course, if Dad was right, it casts a doubt on the accuracy of all or any of Mary Anne's dates and opens up other avenues of exploration.
Anne's burial certificate
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Anne, painted in, I think, 1819.
Anne is difficult to light well when photgraphing her; this picture is a composite of several bad attempts, but it will have to do for now.
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