Harriot, a Long-Suffering Wife

Harriot came from a well-to-do family. Her father, William Thorold, was a gentleman vicar with a 1,600 acre estate in Lincolnshire. Harriot was 32 when she married the younger Rev. Joseph Gedge in 1824. Appointed by Lord Carrington as a schoolmaster and vicar and installed in a newly built house that came with the job, Gedge was an ambitious young man with illusions of grandeur and so was never content with his lot. When Harriot was expecting their second child, he tried to commandeer the schoolroom as a family nursery demanding that a new school be built elsewhere. Resorting to litigation, he lost that particular battle though he won others, including a sizeable pay rise and the right to appoint an assistant teacher to lighten his workload. Events came to a head in 1848 when Gedge finally resigned as the schoolmaster, though not as the vicar. This ruse allowed him to continue living in the schoolhouse cum vicarage until he was ready to move his family to a recently inherited property in Suffolk.

It is fortunate that Harriot, as seen here, appears capable and patient, qualities she would surely have needed in abundance to run an harmonious home. The absence of jewellery also suggests a no nonsense down-to-earth nature. Harriet died in 1859, aged 66. Joseph went on to outlive a second wife and was 93 when he died.

Depicted wearing a spotted muslin dress with a frilled neckline, Harriot wears her auburn hair cropped and curled. The portrait is set in a gilded frame that is glazed reverse to show neatly plaited hair.

Born at Kew where his father was an innkeeper, Thomas Richmond (1771-1837) was fortunate to have the opportunity to study painting under the direction of his mother’s cousin, the well-established miniaturist George Engleheart whose influence is often apparent in his work.

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