Mary Elizabeth Stewart D'Urban (née Mitchell)

Mary Elizabeth Stewart D'Urban (née Mitchell) claimed as owner for the compensation for the Hope Vale estate in Grenada, which was awarded instead to the trustees (Samuel Parr, John Stewart and Sameul Trehawke Kekewich, all q.v.) of her marriage settlement with (Major) William James D'Urban (q.v.).

1. Mary Elizabeth Stewart Mitchell is recorded as the owner of Hope Vale in the 1829 Slave Registers.

2. Mary Elizabeth Stewart Mitchell (born 05/07/1803 at Topsham Devon, died 02/11/1892 at Exmouth) married 29/10/1833 Lt-Gen William James D'Urban (1803-1873), the son of Sir Benjamin D'Urban (1777-1849, Governor of Antigua 1819, Lt-Governor of Demerara-Essequibo 1824, the first Governor of British Guiana and Governor of Cape Colony 1834-1838). Mary Elizabeth Stewart Mitchell was the daughter of Samuel Mitchell (1750-1805), the acting governor of Grenada during Fedon's rebellion, and Mary Floud (1773-1861). Her father and son both died at Newport House, Topsham, Devon 130 years apart.

3. Will of Mary Elizabeth Stewart D'Urban of Moorlands, Exmouth Devon who died 02/11/1892 proved 23/01/1893 at London by William Stewart Mitchell D'Urban, effects £603 19s 10d.

4. Her son, the botanist William Stewart Mitchell D’Urban, who later became the first Curator of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, married Gertrude, daughter of Henry Porter (q.v.) in Kenn, Devon, in 1867.  

T71/880 Grenada claim no. 449 (Hope Vale Estate).

1. Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database online].

2. http://www.devon-mitchells.co.uk/getperson.php?personID=I1&tree=D'Urban [accessed 16/08/2011].

3. National Probate Calendar 1893.

4. Findmypast.co.uk, Devon Marriages [database online]; see d'Urban's entry in the 'Global Plants' database, https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000025360 [accessed 04/11/2019].

We are grateful to Peter Wingfield-Digby for his assistance with compiling this entry.