Thursday, 1 May 2014

Jenny Morris at Over Stowey




When she died in July 1935,  Jenny Morris, her life sadly ruined and wasted by epilepsy, was living in the parish of Over Stowey, underneath the Quantock Hills.  Despite her disability, she survived to age 74.

Over Stowey church has several windows  by Morris & Co., including a relatively early (c.1870)  Annunciation designed by Burne-Jones, four of Morris's charming Musical Angels, four larger, less charming ones with over-large wings, and three late figures of Faith, Hope and Charity.  They would seem to have been commissioned by the local landowners, the Stanley family, but I don't know what the Stanleys' connection to Morris & Co., or any of the Firm, may have been; and one assumes that Jenny's residence there many years later was coincidental [owing to debilitation and seizures, she required constant care, and her income paid for a series of rural homes of this kind].  But I just wonder if there was a connection.  If anyone has information, please let me know  

SEE BELOW 

And one incidentally hopes that her impaired health nonetheless allowed Jenny  to enjoy Over Stowey village and flower-filled churchyard, as well as the Annunciation window made in the workshop behind the family home at Queen Square, when she was young and full of promise.





Frank Sharp has the answer:  Lord Taunton of Quantock Lodge purchased one of the First Morris & Co productions, the Backgammon Players cabinet, exhibited at 1862 exhibition. 
 One of his daughters married a Stanley, and  maybe was still living in Somerset when Jenny moved there.

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