Death in Rome and Venice

Infant mortality was a fact of life, or rather death, until the twentieth century. It did not discriminate between rich and poor.

My (rich) great, great, great grandfather, George Bryan, married Margaret Talbot in 1820. They spent much of their early married life on the continent. He did not inherit Jenkinstown until 1846 upon the death of his father, “Punch” Bryan. They had nine children; three sons and six daughters. Two sons died in infancy and the third, George Leopold, eventually inherited Jenkinstown. The daughters didn’t fare much better. The eldest, Georgina, died at Jenkinstown aged six. Margaret died aged two and is buried at Our Lady of the Oak in Bagnaia. Juliana also died in Italy aged ten. Jemima died in Ostend aged six. Their fifth daughter, Octavia, was born in Rome in 1828. She was back in Rome in 1846 preparing for her marriage to Scipione Borghese, Prince of Salviati, when misfortune struck again. On 1st December 1846 she died of a fever, reputedly on the day of her wedding. A young Cardinal Newman preached at her funeral a few days later and she is commemorated by this marble memorial depicting her in her wedding dress, her head encircled by a wreath of roses, at St Isadore’s College Chapel. The Bryan arms are on the left and the Talbot arms on the right. The supporters are two talbot hounds. The sculptor is Vincenzo Gajassi.

The youngest daughter, Augusta, is my great, great grandmother. She married Edward Joseph, 2nd Lord Bellew, of Tichborne tattoo and bankruptcy fame. She died in Venice in 1904, aged 70, where she is buried on St Michele. He, incidentally, also died on the continent at Bad Mannheim. As far as I know there is no grandiose memorial to him there although he is remembered by a plaque in the mausoleum at Barmeath. Here is her memorial in Venice carved on Kilkenny marble.