Sherborne castle

1374 days ago

Does anyone know this woman or more importantly where this picture is and are there more?

I believe that Edith Wingfield Digby (1848-1935) of Coleshill, Sherborne Castle and Bournemouth gave birth to an illegitimate daughter in around 1875 who was my great grandmother Edith Maude Winnifrith, for reasons I partly explain HERE. I may be wrong, only a DNA test can resolve a mystery that has now haunted three generations once and for all. If you search google for pictures of Edith Wingfield Digby you will find an image of a stout old lady, the patron of several homes she founded in Dorset to care for fallen women. She had an interest in the subject. But there is just one I discovered of Edith as a younger lady which you can see below. The man who uploaded it is not responding to messages so I wonder does anyone out there know more about the picture below and if there are any others of this woman as a young lady or where the original can be found?

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1376 days ago

The family papers – a night of revelation and shocks

The Mrs and the children are breaking lockdown rules with her parents and so left to my own devices I stayed up into the small hours combing the family papers picked up from my late father’s house last week. It was a night of shocks and revelation and having discussed the matter with my father’s sister L, I wonder what I should reveal. Perhaps all.

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1379 days ago

Reading the family papers: it is easy to be reduced to tears

Among those things I collected from the house of my late father in Shipston yesterday were some ancient photo albums and several boxes of family papers and documents. I have started reading but these things almost make me tearful.  

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1535 days ago

Photo article: Will I solve a 145 year old mystery this week? Who was Maude Winnifrith? DNA tests going out today!

Maude Winnifrith was born in 1875 and was my great grandmother. Her children included my grandfather, Sir John Winnifrith and the actress Anna Lee – once known as the British Bombshell. But who was Maude? The mystery has intrigued the family for decades and this week I hope to solve it once and for all with the assistance of a retired vicar in Oxfordshire, my father and two DNA tests.

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