In early June of this year an email came in out of the blue to the Thomas Cubitt Memorial Fund. It was passed on to Mole Valley District Council and thence to Dorking Museum and emanated from a Mark Cortino in Illinois, in the United States. He claimed to have identified a portrait of Mary Anne Cubitt, wife of the master builder, Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855), whose country estate was at Denbies.

Framed in a rather worn frame, the picture is oil on oak board and was painted in about 1820. Assuming she is Mary Ann Cubitt, the sitter was born Mary Ann Warner and with Cubitt she had twelve children.

The builder of much of London's Bloomsbury and Belgravia, of the east wing of Queen Victoria's Osborne House, and the eastern front of Buckingham Palace, Cubitt purchased 3,900 acres of the Denbies estate to the north-east of Dorking overlooking the slopes of Box Hill in 1850. Seeking to rival the great house at the Deepdene, Cubitt constructed a grand mansion with almost 100 rooms there to replace the original house. His home, which Prince Albert visited in 1851, was a huge brick and stucco structure with Italianate detail. Cubitt's achievements are commemorated in Dorking by a statue by William Fawke that stands at the roadside opposite Dorking Halls. (Its twin stands in London's Denbigh Street.)

The Denbies estate was further developed by Thomas and Mary's son, George, and it eventually employed some 400 people. George was created first Baron Ashcombe of Dorking in 1892. The Ashcombes no longer reside in Dorking, however, but at Sudeley Castle. Some of the estate, which was close to the railway station, was sold for housing in the 1920s. More land near the town centre was developed in the 1930s. Used as the Home Guard headquarters during the Second World War, the mansion where Mary Ann's portrait probably hung, was demolished in 1953. 800 acres were then passed to the National Trust. In the 1980s the remainder was sold to the water-treatment firm, Biwater. The company's chairman, Adrian White, has since developed much of the land into Britain's biggest vineyard.

Mr Cortino had come across the painting of an unknown woman in the United States. Computer enhancement techniques enabled him to read a caption pasted onto the rear of the painting, which read: 'Mary Anne Cubitt, beloved wife of Thomas Cubitt.'

Having identified the subject Mr Cortino undertook to find out who Mary Ann Cubitt might be. This is the story of his researches, in his own words:

'My story is a simple one. I am a novice art collector dealing solely in portraits of the 18th & 19th century. When I find one that intrigues my curiosity, I begin to unravel the secrets of who the sitter is. If I am lucky, I get a name of someone ordinary. If I am very lucky the sitter turns out to be someone prominent. Case in point, a portrait of a gentleman with an illegible paste down, much like Mary Anne's. Only after taking multiple close up images in varying light sources, can I download them onto my computer. By adjusting the contrast, brightness, tint, color & saturation to varying degrees does it reveal legible print!  My teenage boys often aid me with the mystery messages, quite cheerfully disputing each letter back and forth until we can all agree on it's content. Really, its like an amusing game of sorts!

Back to my example, the man in that portrait turned out to Thomas Berry, who ironically lived in the same Irish castle of another gentleman's portrait I have some 22 years earlier!  Looking up Mr. Berry on the web was the easy part. He has a descendant in Australia that has the entire family heritage online! He also provided me with a copy of Thomas Berry's will. Making friends half way around the world is the real benefit of this hobby.

I came upon Mary's portrait quite by chance, via Ebay of all things!  At the time, the man only had it listed as a 18th century portrait of a woman.  Pete Maw had providence that it "came from the stall of Lady Ashcombe".  The paste down identifying the sitter was of course illegible. This was fortunate for me. I liked the portrait enough, & the seller's naivety in approach to the whole thing seemed genuine enough, so I bought it.  When it arrived I carefully inspected it. I could tell the distressed frame was genuine to the portrait. All the square nails were present but one. Though not 18th century as claimed, I knew this before purchasing it.  Mary Anne's hair style & clothing hinted 1820's -1830's.  At some point long ago, someone lowered the two hanging rings several inches & added a wire between them. You can clearly see this, as the original screw holes & clasp outline are visible. By adding the copper wire, only one nail is required for hanging. However, for this reason the apex of the wire rubs directly over the central paste-down label. Over time, it wore away much of it's identifying qualities, leaving a lighter spot in that area. After performing the method I described earlier, several attempts to read it ate up quite some time. I estimate between my kids & I no less than eight hours over a week's span before we got a name. And it did not sound like anybody important, as having come from Sudeley Castle I was under the impression it was somehow related to Henry the Eighth!  Was I ever wrong about that!

I contacted Sudeley via Email.  I sent my thoughts on who it was & asked if they could help with ID.  The castle's curator, Jean Bray, contacted me by Email. She confirmed it was Thomas Cubitt's wife, Mary Anne Warner. She said it belonged to Lord Henry Cubitt, the 4th Baron of Ashcombe who currently resides at Sudeley. (He is 86 and is married to the former Elizabeth Dent Brocklehurst). Mrs. Bray in fact stated "that she thought the portrait was still in the castle!" Very charming & helpful. Somehow, it was discarded by staff & ended up in the public domain. It is to my knowledge the only portrait of Mary Cubitt in existence.

Sudeley Castle is undergoing extensive repairs, & the family moved out of the main house to allow visitors full access to the castle. Funding repairs has become quite straining on it's owners I understand. In my novice opinion, I now think this portrait may have been painted by Sir William Boxall.  It turns out he painted Lewis Cubitt's portrait. He was Mary's brother-in-law. The style looks similar to me anyway. Though Lewis's is stated as 1845, it is actually undetermined as to the year it was rendered. It is plausible since the two brothers worked so closely together on everything. Certainly Thomas could afford it & would want someone of stature to perform the task. This however is only speculation on my part. I never had the portrait professionally examined. Maybe its the other way around, & Thomas had Mary's portrait done & it was Lewis who insisted his be done as well!  Sorry to joke, I just love history!

As for the portrait you must agree that such a find just does not happen everyday. I had to share Mrs. Cubitt with the world, & that is why I sent the images to you.'

Mr Cortino has very kindly shared both the image of Mary Cubitt and his fascinating detective story with us. He is seeking to sell the portrait and would like her to hang alongside a portrait of her husband or at least to go to someone who appreciates her identity, preferably in England.

It must be stressed that neither Dorking Museum nor the Local History Group has carried out any research as to the veracity of Mr Cortino's tale, nor had sight of the original, nor have copies of the portrait been shown to an art expert, all of which courses of action a potential buyer would want to follow up. However, assuming Mr Cortino's tale to be genuine and his assumptions correct, it is a fascinating tale that he has shared with us, and a great addition to our visual appreciation of the Cubitts of Denbies.