Author: Bingham, Margaret
Biography:
BINGHAM, Margaret (b c. 1731-1814: ancestry.co.uk)
The daughter of James Smith, MP for Taunton, Somerset, and his wife Grace Dyke, she was probably born in Somerset in about 1731. (Her birth year is sometimes given as 1740 but was almost certainly earlier.) Her parents had married in Dulverton, Somerset, in 1729. On 26 July 1760 in St. James's, Bath, she married Sir Charles Bingham, MP for Co. Mayo, who was made Baron Lucan of Castlebar in 1776 and Earl of Lucan in 1796. They had one son and four daughters; the eldest daughter, Lavinia, was married to the 2nd Earl Spencer. Margaret Bingham painted miniatures and was praised by Horace Walpole in his Anecdotes of Painting in England. For the library at Althorp, Nottinghamshire, she created an extra-illustrated edition of Shakespeare’s history plays, interleaving the plays with illustrations and watercolours. She died at London on 27 Feb. 1814 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Wimbledon. (ODNB 11 Jan. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 11 Jan. 2021, 24 Dec. 2024) SR
Other Names:
- Margaret Bingham, Lady Lucan