Miss Margaret de Winton Corry (1859-26 Dec 1943): Owner of Yateley Hall

Miss Margaret Louisa Catherine Harriet (Hugh) Erskine de Winton Corry was born in 1859 in the Chichester, Sussex Registration Districtand recorded in the June quarter. The precise location has not been determined, and the census records her has born at different places in Sussex and Surrey. This lack of clarity perhaps reflects the fact that her parents lived a fairly itinerant lifestyle.

She was the daughter of Martin de Winton Corry, Esquire of Straw Hall Carlow, Co Carlow, Ireland (later of Yateley Hall, Yateley) and Margaret Lucy Fortescue, the great granddaughter of the 2nd Baron Fortescue. More details of her family tree are provided under the entry for Martin de Winton Corry.

She was the sole heiress of Martin de Winton Corry, and after his death she purchased the Yateley Hall estate (which her father had leased).

Small of stature, she became a prominent figure in Yateley Society, and headed an almost exclusively female household.

She was usually short of ready money however, which led her first to mortgage and later sell off parts of her estate for the construction of mainly large houses for upper middle class families. probably as a money making venture, she also became responsible for the upbringing of the Misses Nancy and Rowena (Ena) Guggisberg, the daughters of General Sir F Gordon Guggisberg by his first wife. (Sir Gordon became Governor of the Gold Coast and had an enlightened view of the way African colonies should be governed.)

She attempted a number of other money making schemes, including running a chicken farm, and breeding Irish deerhounds.

Page created by R H Johnston 11 May 2008