Catherine Stepney (23 December 1778 – 14 April 1845) was a British novelist.
Life Catherine Pollok was born in Grittleton, Wiltshire in 1778. Her first husband was Russell Manners, whom she divorced. In 1813 she married Sir Thomas Stepney who was the ninth and as it turned out the last Stepney baronet, of Prendergast. He was a groom of the bed-chamber to the Duke of York and he died without issue in 1825.
Stepney is credited with writing six novels, but Mary Mitford claimed that Stepney's drafts were honed and polished by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. She wrote two novels during her first marriage, and four known as the silver fork novels after her second marriage were about the high society she frequented.
Stepney was known as a hostess because her house was a meeting place for London's artistic and literary society. In 1836 she modelled for a bust by Richard Cockle Lucas who portrayed her as Cleopatra. This bust is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.Catherine, Lady Stepney (d. 1845) as Cleopatra, Richard Cockle Lucas, retrieved 4 December 2014 The National Portrait Gallery has a painting of her made by John Hayter.Catherine Stepney, John Hayter, National Portrait Gallery, London
Stepney died in London on 14 April 1845.Catherine Stepney, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, retrieved 5 December 2014 She was buried in the catacombs of Kensal Green Cemetery, London. After her death there were accounts of how she was unaware that her novels were not always well regarded.A greybeard's gossip about his literary acquaintance, New Monthly Magazine, Volume 80, 1847
Bibliography
Catherine Manners Castle Nuovier; or, Henrii and Adelina, Catherine Manners, 1806 (alternatively titled Castle Nuovier, or, Henry and Adelina) The Lords of Erith, Catherine Manners, 1809
Catherine Stepney The New Road to Ruin, Catherine Stepney, 1833 The Heir Presumptive, Catherine Stepney, 1835 The Courtier's Daughter, Catherine Stepney, 1838, 1841 The Three Peers, Catherine Stepney, 1841
References