Aunt Frances writes -
Frances de Brissac married
Captain John Dickinson R.N. and among the many family relics which devolved
on me, were several pairs of white silk naval stockings, and a number of gold
buttons which had belonged to him. I am thankful to say that I presented these,
together with a box full of exquisite old de Brissac lace, to the (Worthing)
museum to which I presented the old dolls which I have already mentioned, and
they thus escaped the destruction of all our other treasures.
The eldest son of Thomas Dickinson and Frances de Brissac was
John Dickinson,
founder of the world-famous paper works, and from their second son, Major
General Thomas Dickinson, descended
Willoughby The First Lord Dickinson, and his grandson Richard, second Lord
Dickinson. There were four daughters, Harriet, who became Mrs. Grover, Anne who
became Mrs.Arthur Benoni Evans, and ultimately my great-grandmother, Elizabeth,
who became Mrs. Phelps and mother of Aunt Janey, and Frances, who never married.
There is a story that Frances was one of twins, the only case of twins on record
throughout the whole pedigree, and that the twin brother was killed by being
dropped by the nurse on the way to the christening. Frances, or Aunt Fanny as
she was always known, remained “queer” to the end of her days, and was always
very different from her three handsome, merry sisters.
Harriet, known as Aunt Grover, was the subject of one of the many stories told
to me by Aunt Janey. Her husband, the Rev. Septimus Grover, was at one time
incumbent of Farnham Royal, near Slough. At that time stag hunting was a very
popular form of sport among the wealthy of the neighbourhood. One day a stag,
close pressed by hounds and huntsmen, rushed in through the open front door and
into the room where Aunt Grover was sitting. The old lady took this phenomenon
in her stride, shut the stag in, and proceeded to the front door, where hounds
and huntsmen were pouring up the drive. Taking her stance squarely in the
doorway she defied the whole mob, replying to the furious demands for admission
to drive out the stag by saying that it had sought sanctuary under her roof, and
they would only get at it over her dead body. She added that the hounds and
horses were ruining her garden and drive, and. she desired that they be removed
immediately. She won the day, though history does not record how she ultimately
dealt with a large and terrified stag in her drawing room. There is no doubt,
however, but that she coped with the situation with complete competence.