Background
She was the daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne, 8th Baronet of Hawarden Castle, who died when she was only three, and was reared with her sister Mary by her mother.
She was the daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne, 8th Baronet of Hawarden Castle, who died when she was only three, and was reared with her sister Mary by her mother.
The Glynne sisters, very close, were renowned for their beauty. Her brother Stephen succeeded to the baronetcy in 1815. On his death in 1874, the Glynne baronetcy became extinct and the estates passed to Catherine and William"s eldest son, William Henry.
Through the myriad strains and links in her heredity, Catherine found herself, according to Masterman, related in one way or another to "half the famous names in English political history".
They had eight children, including Herbert John and Henry Neville She was buried next to her late husband in Westminster Abbey. Their daughter Mary referred to them collectively as "The Great People".
"Catherine ", wrote Masterman, "was one of those informal geniuses who conduct life, and with complete success, on what the poverty of language compels me to call a method of their own."
She was "like a fresh breeze" wherever she went and could, wrote a friend, grasp the subject of a discussion in "a few minutes" airy inattention". Her chests of drawers were similarly messy, and she was rarely much bothered with fancy attire.
"Few people", wrote Masterman, "can have given so much of themselves to so many, and can have been directly responsible for more practical and effectual enterprises.