Paintings of Coombe Abbey by Maria Johnstone
Maria Johnstone was the niece of William, 6th Baron Craven, Elizabeth Craven's husband, so she was the writer's niece by marriage. Several watercolour paintings by her of Coombe Abbey and its surroundings are preserved in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry.
They give a vivid picture of the house as it was in 1797, before the ambitious alterations of later generations. Seen at this distance and from this angle, it merges into one harmonious whole, with the Georgian wings on the left and the Tudor and Stuart buildings visible on the right, unified by being in stone of the same colour. A few sheep graze peacefully in the foreground. Coombe Abbey was by this time owned by Elizabeth Craven's son, the next Lord Craven, who was too busy on active service during the war to spend much time there.
Maria Johnstone was aged twenty when she did these paintings. Her father, the Rev. Robert Augustus Johnstone, had married Anna Rebecca Craven in 1773, and Maria, the third of their eight children, was born in 1777. There were three sisters who survived childhood and they were on familiar terms with the four Craven girls, their older cousins.The Rev. Johnstone died in 1799. In March 1799, this curious letter appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine:-
Mr Urban,
In your Obituary, p. 82. Jan. 8th, “At Bath, the Rev. Robert Augustus Johnson, rector of Winstanstow, co. Salop.”- Jan. 8th, next page, “At Bath, the Rev. Mr. Johnson, uncle to the present Lord Craven." Is not this the same gentleman? seeing an Anna-Rebecca, sister of the late Lord Craven, married Robert Augustus Johnstone, esq. a captain in the army, for her second husband? Ludford Taylor Esq. was her first, who died in 1773, leaving one daughter, since dead. Mr. Johnstone, upon marriage with the widow either sold or resigned his commission, and resided at Kenilworth, near Coventry. On entering into holy orders, about seven or eight years ago, he became rector of West Felton, co. Salop, in the patronage of his Lordship; so that Winstanstow aforesaid must be a mistake, as well as the double insertion.
The Mr. Johnstone, who for some time lived at Kenilworth, has lately resided at Combe abbey, another proof of the identity. Thus I mean only to rectify an error, which appears as two persons.
Signed E.T.C.”
So it seems that Maria was not merely staying at Coombe Abbey in 1797 as a short-term guest. Lord Craven had given permission for her father and his family to live there. A second water-colour by Maria shows the Upper Lodge at Coombe Abbey.
It is a small octagonal building designed by Capability Brown as an picturesque addition to the landscape.
And here is her painting of the Menagerie, another ornamental building designed by Brown.
She also found time to depict the West Lodge:-
The building is a curious adaptation of a classical triumphal arch to make it into a house with windows.
During this period Maria may have met Elizabeth Craven, who certainly re-visited the house in the late 1790s, and wrote her novel, The Witch and the Maid of Honour, which was set at Coombe Abbey, and published in 1799.
Two of Maria's watercolour paintings of nearby Kenilworth survive, dated 1799. One shows the partly ruined castle, a fine picturesque view very much to the prevalent Gothic taste of the times.
Because their father died in 1799, the Johnstone family missed inheriting a fortune. Anna Rebecca's aunt, the Hon. Mary Leigh, whose mother had been a Craven, owned the Stoneleigh Abbey estate in Warwickshire and she made the Rev. Johnstone the main beneficiary of her Will. But after his death the aged Miss Leigh was persuaded to change her Will in favour of a relative of her father. When Mary Leigh died in 1806, the Rev. Johnstone had been dead for seven years, and his children inherited nothing. The estate went to the Rev. Thomas Leigh, who was related to Jane Austen's family.
What became of Maria Johnstone after her parents died? We know that her elder sister, Henrietta, married John Dalrymple Hamilton in 1795. When he succeeded to his father's baronetcy she became Lady Dalrymple. She died in October 1823 and the news is noted in the diary of her cousin Georgiana Craven, who calls her "Harriet". It may be that Henrietta attracted such an eligible husband because of expectations that were disappointed.
Maria had two brothers who survived childhood, Charles who became a clergyman at Binley near Coombe Abbey, and William who became an MP, both doubtless due to the patronage of their rich cousin Lord Craven.
Maria lived for the rest of her life with her remaining sister, Georgiana Johnstone, who was also unmarried. Their home at Woodhay in Berkshire, very close to Benham and Hamstead Marshall, may have been owned by Lord Craven. In July 1822, Maria and her sister were guests at Hamstead Marshall, at a family gathering to celebrate the birthday of Lord Craven's son. In December 1824, the two Johnstone sisters visited Benham and in July 1825 they were staying with Lord Craven at Cowes just before he died there.It seems that Maria went on painting because in June 1828 she sent her cousin Georgiana Craven three "lovely cards for my album, Ashdown Park one of them ".
Maria died in 1849, having survived all her brothers and sisters.
https://www.watercolourworld.org/painting/upper-lodge-coombe-tww014bc6
Gentleman’s Magazine vol 85 March 1799 p.206.
Collins' Peerage 1812 "John Craven, Esq. second son of John Craven, and Maria Rebecca Green, married Mary Hicks, daughter of the Rev. Mr. Hicks, and by her, who died July 9th, 1789, was father of one son, William, late Lord Craven, and two daughters; Jane, born 23d April, 1743: she married, first, the Rev. Mr. Lidiard, and had an annuity for her life settled on her, by her uncle, Admiral Craven's will; she remarried in June 1788, John Minshull, Esq. And Anna-Rebecca, born 17th August, 1745; she married Ludford Taylor, Esq. and was a widow when Admiral Craven made his will, wherein he settled an annuity on her for life. She was re-married, 21st January, 1773, to Robert Augustus-Johnstone, Esq. who died January 9th, 1799."
A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire . By John Burke. 1838.The Leigh Peerage: Being a Full and Complete History of the Claim of George Leigh Esq. to the Dormant Title of Baron Leigh, of Stoneley, in the County of Warwick: H. K. Causton, 1832. Page 30 R. A. Johnson of Kenilworth in the County of Warwick was the main beneficiary of Mary Leigh’s will dated 1803.
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