Stephana Biscoe (née Law)

Stephana Biscoe (née Law), the daughter of John Law (the Archdeacon of Rochester) who married 12/02/1799 Joseph Seymour Biscoe of Pendlell. She was the sister of George Law (q.v.) and mother of Rev. William Biscoe (q.v.). Stephana Biscoe, Rev. William Biscoe and George Law were the executors of Joseph Seymour Biscoe, although not identified a such in the compensation records. The nature of the mortgage deed of 1819 under which Stephana Biscoe and others claimed the compensation for the enslaved people on the Ashley Hall estate in Jamaica is not yet clear: the estate belonged to John Ashley (q.v.) whose eldest son was named Joseph Biscoe Ashley, suggesting ties of patronage or kinship to Stephana Biscoe's husband.

1. A Stephana Biscoe aged 65 "Ind." is shown living at Bathwick Somerset in 1841 with inter alios Mary Law aged 65 "Ind." The death of a Stephana Biscoe was registered Q1 1849 at Bath.

2. Joseph Seymour Biscoe (born 1761) was the son of Vincent Biscoe and Lady Mary Seymour, the daughter of the Duke of Somerset. Biscoe had an earlier marriage (to Susanna Harriot Hope) by whom he had a daughter Mary who married Sir Robert Harry Inglis in 1807. This first marriage was dissolved by an Act of Parliament following a dramatic elopement and public scandal.

3. J.S. Biscoe and Stephana's daughter Anne Jane (1802-1885) married William Henry Hyett of Painswick House Stroud 1821. Their youngest daughter Caroline Octavia (born 1819) married Sir William Stevenson. Another daughter of J.S. Biscoe (by which marriage is unclear, but probably with Stephana) Charlotte Elizabeth, married Henry Wolley at Clifton 12/07/1838. Stephana Biscoe (b. 1801) married (as his second wife) James Woodbridge Walters, the grandson of James Woodbridge I (q.v.): their son the Ven. William Walters was Archdeacon of Worcester.

NB in many sources there is confusion between 'Biscoe' and 'Briscoe'.

1. 1841 census online; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]: there is also an entry for Stephana Biscoe of Alderbury Wiltshire Q2 1852, who appears to be the Stephana Bisoce shown in the 1851 census, aged 6 months, daughter of William (aged 45 Vicar of Coombe Bissett) and Car[o]line Biscoe of Coombe Bissett Alderbury.

2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]; Derbyshire England extracted parish records; DNB Sir Robert Harry Inglis. For Pendlehill, which catalogues deeds from Biscoe's ownership, including the 1799 marriage settelment of Biscoe and Stephana Law, see http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/GetRecord/SHCOL_2756 [accessed 20/01/2011]. Stoneham, Langham and Passmore 705/184/9186/12/i/1-9 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=021-gr&cid=-1#-1 [accessed 20/01/2011]. For a vivid and thoroughly researched account of the marriage and divorce of Briscoe and Susanna Harriot Hope see http://aparcelofribbons.co.uk/2011/09/a-very-regency-scandal/ [accessed 05/03/2013].

3. England and Wales Visitation Vol. 8 Hyett of Painswick House, Gloucestershire and Vol. 12 Stevenson of Playford Mount Co. Suffolk, both available at Ancestry.com, England and Wales Visitation, Volume I, III-XIV [database online]; Ancestry.com, England and Wales, Marriages and Banns, 1538-1940 [database online].

We are grateful to Jim Brennan for his assistance with compiling this entry.