Olive Linnell

There are good write-ups of the Linnells on the Redhill site . I had a reply from Tim Linnell . James was my great great grandfather and the son of the artist John Linnell (1792-1882) who amongst other things was a close friend and patron of William Blake. I may have a photo of Gosling, but there are some peculiarities about Olive's history. ... Certainly she was a musician and pianist and was responsible for writing the music for the Flower Fairy books. I don't have any records on Gosling, but the impression I had was that he died or became estranged. ...There was always some dark secret which the family wouldn't talk about, which I guess is the suicide. And clearly there was a great deal of disapproval about the match, which you can understand given the history. Olive would incidentally have been very well off. John Linnell left a vast amount to a family trust, and many of his children were unmarried so it channelled down into the remaining grandchildren. So you could speculate that the motives for the marriage weren't entirely romantic.... I do actually have some of Olive's music in listenable format, I transcribed a lot of it into a music editing programme years ago. The date of death is correct. I have Olive's will, but it's not particularly interesting as I recall.

John Linnell purchased the land and built the house at Redstone Wood in 1849, John Linnell's mansion was demolished in the 1940s . He built a second house for his son, James. This was called Redstone Wood South, later Redstone Copse, and stood where the Redstone cemetery entrance is now situated. It was pulled down around 1965

She wrote a number of books in this genre

1880 Born Oct/Dec

1881 census at Redstone Wood South, Reigate

1891 census at Redstone Wood South, Nutfield Road, Reigate

1901 census a visitor at Bishops Wood Vicarage, Ruardean (Gloucs), Ruardean

1903 Jul 1. Elizabeth Ann, the eldest of James Linnell's daughters died. She had Spina Bifida from birth

1905 Nov 26.

1906 Apr 4 John Linnell died. He is the uncle referred to in the newspapers. John Linnell was born into the artistic Linnell ‘dynasty’ – his father was also named John Linnell (1792-1882), a distinguished artist (especially portraiture).  His mother was Mary Palmer.  John was born 25th November, 1821 at Cirencester Place (St. Marlebone). For much of his life, he and his sisters (Elizabeth and Sarah) lived at Redstone Wood, Reigate – an estate and mansion that was created by his father.  “Next door” in Redstone Wood South (later Redstone Copse) was his brother James (and his family).  James was a noted landscape painter.  John in the 1901 census return was described as an artist and master of drawing. 

1923 Apr 7. Her mother died leaving just £2000

1957 May 21. Died age 76

 

Marshall George Herbert, her husband