Frances was born about 1679. She is the daughter of Henry Winchcombe and Elizabeth Hungerford. She was christened on 15 December 1679 in Bucklebury, Berkshire, England.[1]
She married Henry St John on 22 May 1701 at St Dunstan in the East in Middlesex, England.[2] Upon their marriage, the Manor of Lydiard Tregoze, the seat of the St John family in Wiltshire, and the Manor of Battersea, Surrey, were settled upon Henry by his father.[3] The death of Frances' father, 2nd Baronet Winchcombe, in November 1703, saw the title become extinct and his estates passed to Frances. She conveyed her estate to her husband, but when Henry was forced to leave England for supporting the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, it was reconveyed to her. Henry left many debts behind him, and Frances granted the manor to trustees for their payment, with remainder to her nephew Winchcombe Howard Packer, the eldest son of her younger sister Mary.[4]
From 1712 Frances was styled as Viscountess Bolingbroke, when her husband became the 1st Viscount St John.[5]
The marriage was not a happy one, and within two years Henry was no longer living with Frances. At the young age of thirty she retired to Bucklebury and set about rebuilding the kitchens and stables at Bucklebury Old Manor.[6]
On 25 October 1718, Frances died at the age of 37, many claiming that she had died of a broken heart and/or her shock at her husband’s actions.[6] She was buried on 28 October 1718 at Bucklebury.[7]
Frances' melancholy ghost is said to haunt the Manor's park and the village of Bucklebury. The Falkirk Herald on 20th August 1898 printed an article titled “A Haunted House” and claimed:
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Categories: Ghosts | Bucklebury, Berkshire