Author: Chantrell, Mary Ann
Biography:
CHANTRELL, Mary Ann, formerly DENNIS (1767-1829: ancestry.co.uk)
She was baptised on 26 April 1767 at St. Mary, Newington, the only daughter of George Dennis and his wife Susanna Day. Her father died in 1772 and left dividends, income, and property in trust for her. She married Robert Chantrell, a merchant and connoisseur, on 5 Nov. 1789 at the Anglican church in Ostende. They went on to have at least seven children, constantly moving around Europe until they finally settled in Bruges. In 1820, Anna Eliza Bray in her Memoirs (1823) recalled being introduced to the family in Bruges and noted that Robert Chantrell owned 43 original sketches by Rubens. Mary Ann Chantrell died at Bruges on 2 April 1829. Her husband died there, aged 76, on 12 May 1840. Their son Robert Dennis Chantrell (1793-1872) became well-known church architect in both England and Belgium. (ancestry.co.uk 26 Jul. 2020; Patriot and Yorkshire Advertiser 11 Apr. 1829; Leeds Intelligencer 23 May 1840; Ann Eliza Bray, Memoirs [1823] 365; The Topographer and Genealogist [1853] 2:148-9; "Chantrell, Robert Dennis" ODNB 26 Jul. 2020) AA