Maria Harriett Turner – JMW’s Unconventional Cousin
Like the great artist himself, many of JMW Turner’s relations led unconventional private lives, not the least of whom was Maria Harriett, the daughter of Turner’s first cousin, Thomas Price Turner (d.1868) and Harriett Westcott (d.1838). Maria Harriett was baptised on 28 May 1815 at St Kerrian, Exeter. Her father started life as a saddler but later became a classical musician and professor of music.
On 30 July 1836, Maria married Edward Charles Austin, a London architect, surveyor and builder at St Leonard Shoreditch.
St Leonard Shoreditch church from R. Ackermann's A Collection of 226 Engravings, etc., illustrating London and Environs - No.65 of Repository of Arts ... 1 May 1814. British Library Maps.C.18.d.6 Images Online
Maria gave birth to a son, Sydney Alfred Austin who was baptised on 4 August 1837. Sadly he died the following year and was buried at Bunhill Fields on 30 July 1838. On 10 May 1839 another son, Albert William, was born.
The 1841 census shows Maria living with Edward and Albert in Singleton Street, Tower Hamlets. At some point in the next few years, she left Edward and started a relationship with Ralph Hall, a silk manufacturer.
Birth registration for Maria Hall Austin from General Register Office for England and Wales
On 18 May 1847, Maria Harriett Austin gave birth to Maria Hall Austin at 23 Euston Place, St Pancras, with no father named. It appears that this child later became known as Jenny Maria Matthews and she was described as Ralph Hall’s niece to disguise the fact that she was his illegitimate daughter. Matthews was the name of Maria’s widowed aunt, Mary Saunders Matthews, Thomas Price Turner’s sister.
The census in 1851 records Albert Austin as a boarder at a school in West Ham. In 1852 he was apprenticed to a metal chaser, naming his father at Singleton Street in the Goldsmiths’ Company register. This perhaps indicates that he had stayed with Edward when his parents separated. Albert worked as a silver chaser and embosser, married Sarah Martha Trotter, and had 5 children. He died on 9 November 1922.
Death registration for Edward Charles Austin from General Register Office for England and Wales
Edward Austin died of tuberculosis in January 1854, aged 38, but his will was not settled until 1866, presumably because his son was a minor when he died. He pointedly left one shilling to Maria.
In December 1854 Maria married Ralph Hall in Paddington. The witnesses were a Turner cousin, Jabez Tepper, and his daughter Victoria Helen. In 1861, the Halls were living at 54 Finchley Road, with Mary Matthews and two servants.
Following her father’s death in 1868, Maria, Ralph, and her brother, Frederick, brought a case against her father’s second wife, also Maria, for the payment of their share of the value of some JMW Turner engravings that had been reclaimed, following a suspect sale to Jabez Tepper. Sadly, she did not live to see the outcome of the case, which was settled in her favour in 1880. Maria died on 25 June 1869 at her home in Onslow Square, South Kensington, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.
Death notice for Maria Harriett Hall in Morning Post, 29 June 1869 British Newspaper Archive
In the 1871 census Mary Matthews and Jenny M Matthews are recorded as visitors at Ralph Hall’s house. He died in Paris on 11 May 1883 and was buried in the same Highgate grave as Maria. Also in this grave are Mary Matthews (d.1871), and Jenny Maria Matthews (d.1928).
Grave at Highgate Cemetery - inscription for Maria Harriett. Photograph courtesy of Martin Ransley, volunteer guide at Highgate Cemetery.
Grave at Highgate Cemetery - inscriptions for Mary Matthews, Ralph Hall and Jenny Maria Matthews. Photograph courtesy of Martin Ransley, volunteer guide at Highgate Cemetery.
The inscription for Maria named her husband and father, and recorded that she was ‘cousin to the late JMW Turner Esq. R.A.’. Jenny Maria Matthews is described on the grave as the ‘beloved niece’ of Ralph Hall. It appears that she was never openly acknowledged as the daughter of Ralph and Maria.
CC-BY
David Meaden
Independent Researcher
Creative Commons Attribution licence
Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive for reports on the court cases involving the Turner estate.
Turner’s restored house in Twickenham is open to visitors.