mary gosling

Mary Gosling (aka Lady Smith; 1800-1842) was the second daughter of William Gosling and his wife Margaret Elizabeth Cunliffe.

William Gosling (d. 1834) was the son of Robert Gosling and Elizabeth Houghton. William’s younger sister Maria Gosling married Henry Gregg, of Lincoln’s Inn. His other sister Harriet married Alexander Davison, the close friend of Horatio, Lord Nelson.
Eliza Gosling (d. 1803) was the daughter of Sir Ellis Cunliffe, bart. and Mary Bennett. Her only sister, named Mary like their mother, married Drummond Smith of Tring Park (Herts). Mrs Gosling died when her youngest child (our Mary) was not quite four-years-old. Their children were:

William-Ellis Gosling (died unmarried)
Robert Gosling (married Georgina Vere Sullivan, 1826); children
Bennett Gosling (died unmarried)
Margaret Elizabeth Gosling (married Langham Christie of Preston Deanery, 1829); children (including William Langham Christie of Glyndebourne)
Mary Gosling (married Sir Charles Joshua Smith, bart., of Suttons, 1826); children

Widower William Gosling married the Hon. Charlotte de Grey in 1806. Their children were:

Charlotte Gosling (presumed unmarried)
Thomas George Gosling (presumed unmarried)

The family resided in early years on the Hassobury (Farnham, Essex) estate, then predominantly at Roehampton Grove, now the University of Roehampton’s Froebel College. When in London, the Goslings could be found at No. 5 Portland-place, a residence seemingly no longer in existence [see below at *]. Goslings as a banking firm continued doing business until they amalgamated with Barclays in 1896; Barclays London headquarters continues business at the old Goslings address of 19 Fleet-street.

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William Gosling’s obituary (Gentleman’s Magazine) mentions his burial in ‘the family vault, at Farnham, Essex.’ Mary (Lady Smith) is buried at St Mary’s, Stapleford Tawney. Others of the Smith family are also buried here.

I tried to find Stapleford Tawney driving from Chelmsford last summer, but got lost - way too close to London and oh so many roundabouts… If anyone can get me photographs or at least tomb inscriptions for any of the Goslings, and (especially) Lady Smith, please see ‘the author’ page and its information on contacting me.

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*note on the Portland Place house: I have recently read the 1926 History of Barclays Bank, which (p. 89) has this to say about the family’s home on Portland-place: William had ’occupied the mansion in Portland Place, W., which has for three or four generations been the town house of the descendants of Robert Gosling.’ This makes it sound like Robert’s children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren even still resided there – at the time of printing (1926). There was a hotel put up in the late 19th-century which removed a lot of houses, but it is possible No. 5 was renumbered (or else Robert bought something further up the street!), for I find a Kelly’s Handbook to the Titled (1882), which specifies that Robert and Georgina’s son, Robert, lived at No. 28 Portland-place. So: does the house still exist?? (and, if it does, then so must No. 6…)