Jane Perceval

Born in 1769, Jane was the was the daughter of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, a British Army officer and politician, and his wife Jane. When he sister got married, she fell in love with Spencer Perceval, her brother-in-law’s little brother, and when their relationship was not approved of by her parents, they eloped. They had thirteen children, twelve of which survived to adulthood, before Spencer himself was assassinated in the House of Commons in 1812. After rumours that her husband had not left his widow and 12 children well provided for, Parliament voted to settle £50,000 on Perceval’s children, with additional annuities for his widow and eldest son, a few days after his death. In 1815, Jane remarried to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry William Carr, brother of the Reverend Robert James Carr, and within six years was widowed again.