Author: Bingham, Margaret
Biography:
by
Ragaz, Sharon (SR)
BINGHAM, Margaret, formerly SMITH (b c. 1741-1814: ancestry.co.uk)
Her birth surname is sometimes given as Smyth. She was the daughter of James Smith, MP for Taunton, Somerset, and his wife Grace Dyke, who had married in Dulverton, Somerset, in 1729. No record of her birth has been located but almost certainly she was the Margaret, daughter of James and Grace, who was baptised at St. Audries (also called St. Etheldreda), West Quantoxhead, Somerset, on 5 Apr. 1741. On 26 July 1760 at St. James's, Bath, she married Sir Charles Bingham (1735-99), MP for Co. Mayo, who was made Baron Lucan of Castlebar in 1776 and Earl of Lucan in 1796. Her sister Lavinia was a witness at the wedding. 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; Salisbury and Winchester Journal 1 Apr. 1799; communication from Duncan Stafford) SR
Other Names:
- Margaret Bingham, Lady Lucan