KERSEY, Maria

1800 - 1877

Anna Maria Kersey, but known as Maria, was born at Wickham Market, Suffolk and baptised on 2 May 1800, daughter of Samuel Kersey (1774-1805) and his wife Mariola née Watson (1779-11 January 1877), who married at Mendlesham, Suffolk on 6 November 1799. Widow Mariola married secondly at Mendlesham on 2 January 1809, Edward Allen Chapman. As Miss Kersey, a member of the Ipswich Society of Professional & Amateur Artists from 1834, where she was tutored by Henry Davy. In 1851, a 50-year-old artist, described as daughter-in-law [i.e. stepdaughter], living at Seckford Street, Woodbridge with her stepfather, 74-year-old Edward Chapman 'landed proprietor' and his 71-year-old wife Mariola and their 40-year-old daughter Eliza. By 1861, they had moved to 42 Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, when Maria is described as a 60-year artist and by 1871 Mariola was a widow at the same address, with daughter Maria as an 'annuitant'. As Anna Maria Kersey she exhibited at the Ipswich Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition in 1868 and was awarded a Certificate of Merit. An engraving of Edmund Goodwyn, M.D. (1756-1829) by Samuel William Reynolds, engraver to his majesty, from a painting by Miss Maria Kersey, a Suffolk artist, which she had copied from an original painting by Henry Perronet Briggs (c.1792-1844), was executed soon after his death for distribution amongst his private friends. Anna Maria Kersey died at 27 Orford Street, Ipswich, late of Framlingham, on 15 November, aged 76, and was buried in Ipswich Cemetery on 20 November 1877, aged 77, she was unmarried.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Frederick Cottage, Goswell Road, Islington
1830 542 Portrait of Rev. Charles Barlee




Works by This Artist