Catherine Mary Clavering
British, 1769 - 1785
Person TypeIndividual
BiographyCatherine Mary Clavering was born about 1769, the daughter of George Clavering (1719-94) of Greencroft and his second wife Lady Mary Palmer Pole, widow of Sir John Pole. Thomas John Clavering, her only sibling, was born on April 6, 1771. Their father descended from a Newcastle mercantile family whose great wealth in coal and land had occasioned bitter familial disputes. Little is known of Catherine's life. She died, aged about sixteen, in 1785. In 1791 her brother Thomas married Clara de Gallais de la Bernardine (d. 1854), daughter of Count de la Sable of Anjou. They had four sons (two of whom died in infancy) and two daughters. Marriage to a Roman Catholic Frenchwoman exacerbated a rift between Thomas and his father, who "left a will of a generally malicious sort" on his death in early 1794. The same year, Thomas succeeded his childless uncle Sir Thomas Clavering (1716-94), as eighth Baronet and took possession of Axwell Park. He continued to frequent the Continent and particularly enjoyed the Paris theater. He raised a troop of Yeomanry in 1798 and was High Sheriff of Northumberland from 1817-18. He and his wife grew estranged and eventually separated. He died in 1853.
