Basingstoke Flashback: Cassandra Terry, the mistress of Down Grange

He said that Cassandra and the young Jane Austen used to attend balls together at Basingstoke when Jane lived at Steventon Rectory.

Another rector even claimed that Jane and Cassandra were cousins.

Both statements are wrong.

But the picture of Cassandra that emerges is of a fascinating character who had an interesting life.

Cassandra married Richard Terry, the youngest son of Thomas Terry of Dummer House on 3 March 1832.

READ MORE: A Gothic scene at Eastrop graveyard

However, in all the censuses from 1841 up to his death in 1872, he is shown as lodging at the Wheatsheaf, North Waltham, whereas Cassandra remained at Down Grange.

In fact, Cassandra was living at Down Grange before she and Richard were married.

The marriage announcement in the Reading Mercury referred to her as “Mrs Hankey of the Down Grange, Basingstoke”.

Down Grange (Image: Newsquest)

So who was Mr Hankey?

Augustus Robert Hankey was the wealthy proprietor of the family bank, Hankey & Co of 7 Fenchurch Street.

He was also a slave proprietor through his part-ownership of the Arcadia Estate in Jamaica. 

Fenchurch Street (Image: Newsquest)

He bought Down Grange in 1818, but during the week he lived above the bank in Fenchurch Street, which is where he died in January 1830.

Although Cassandra was referred to, and referred to herself, as Mrs Hankey, that was not her real name.

Her real name can be found in Augustus Hankey’s will, where he described her as, “Mrs Cassandra Sympson widow now residing with me at my house in Basingstoke”.

Augustus and Cassandra had never married. He had to call her by her real name in the will to ensure that she would inherit without legal challenge.

It is evident from a family letter that Cassandra had been living as his wife since about 1802.

The notice of her marriage to Richard Terry, which they placed in the Hampshire Advertiser, said they were married at St George’s Church, Hanover Square.

St. George's church, Hanover Square (Image: .)

However, despite that announcement, they were not married in that prestigious church as befitting their class.

Instead, their marriage was a hole in the corner affair in the near derelict Old Church, Saint Pancras.

Those elaborate precautions were necessary to ensure that nobody knew that she never was Mrs Hankey, and that she and Augustus had been living in sin.

Firstly, by not marrying in Basingstoke or Dummer where everyone would discover her real name was Sympson as soon as the banns were read; and secondly, by placing a notice giving a different church.

SEE ALSO: Plumbase in Basingstoke raises more £1,000 for St Michael's Hospice

One can imagine that after Augustus died, Cassandra might have thought that she was living on borrowed time, and that someday somebody would discover her secret.

During the Swing Riots in November 1830 a group of rioters threatened Down Grange.

Two labourers from Cliddesden were charged with, “riot and felony at the home of Mrs Cassandra Hankey, a widow”.

The file contains a witness statement by Mrs Cassandra Hankey.

Calling herself Mrs Hankey when giving evidence against the Swing Rioters was probably of dubious legality.

It may therefore be that Cassandra’s marriage to Richard Terry was simply a marriage of convenience.

Richard had given Cassandra a legitimate surname after years of her pretending to be Mrs Hankey; and Cassandra had plenty of money so she probably gave Richard an allowance so he could while away the rest of his years in the Wheatsheaf.

The Wheatsheaf North Waltham (Image: Newsquest)

Augustus Hankey left Cassandra £300 and “all the monies that shall be deposited by the hands of Messrs Raggett & Co of Basingstoke at the time of my decease”, an annuity of £600 a year payable for life, the contents of Down Grange and the farm stock and other income from the Down Grange Farm and other lands, the house and the land to revert to Augustus’s family on her death.

By contrast, as the youngest of five sons, Richard’s inheritance after his father died in 1829 was the annual interest on £2,000 invested on his behalf, probably just about £100 a year.

Where did Cassandra come from before 1802 when she and Augustus got together, and who was Mr Sympson?

A contemporary of Cassandra - did Cassandra look like this? (Image: Newsquest)

Cassandra was the widow of Alexander Sympson, who was born in Jamaica.

They married by special licence at Marylebone on 31 May 1793.

If her age at the date of death is correct, Cassandra was probably only 16 when she married, and Alexander was 28.

Alexander’s will, in which he left everything to Cassandra, was dated 3 April 1798.

He died two days later of liver disease in the Fleet Prison, which was mainly used for debtors and bankrupts.

It is not known what, if anything, Cassandra inherited after Alexander’s death, nor how she made her living between Alexander’s imprisonment and her co-habitation with Augustus Hankey.

The record of Cassandra’s marriage to Alexander gives her maiden name as Palermo.

I cannot find a record of her birth, but there was an Evangelist, also known as Evangelista, Palermo living in London at the time of her birth.

A son of Evangelista and Sarah Palermo was christened at St James’ Piccadilly in 1771.

I don’t think there were many other people in England named Palermo at the time Cassandra was born.

It may not be farfetched to assume that Evangelista and Sarah were Cassandra’s parents.

Evangelist/Evangelista Palermo seems to have made an uncertain living as a language teacher and author.

Using both variants of his Christian name, he placed numerous advertisements in the newspapers offering to instruct gentlemen and ladies in the Italian language, presumably hoping to attract fashionable folk intending to take the Grand Tour.

Judging from the contact details in his advertisements, he frequently changed addresses.

Cassandra had an intriguing life and spent the last 35 years her life as the mistress of Down Grange.

Cassandra Terry's gravestone (Credit: Barry Hedger) (Image: Barry Hedger)

As for the story that she and Jane Austen used to attend balls together in Basingstoke, it is unlikely that Cassandra ever set foot in Basingstoke until Augustus brought her here when he purchased Down Grange as his love nest in 1818.

Jane left Steventon in 1801 and died in 1817.