Description:This photograph is thought to be a Portrait of Lady Anita (also known as Anna) Wolseley of Wolseley Hall, near Rugeley.
Born Anna Theresa Murphy (1862-1937), her wealthy family lived in San Francisco. She was born of Irish-American parents who sought titled husbands for Anna and her three sisters. In 1883 Anna was married at 'Our lady of Victories' Roman Catholic Pro-Cathedral in Kensington, London, to the 9th Baronet, Sir Charles Michael Wolseley (1846-1931), who had inherited the title when aged eight. The marriage settlement was stated to be well over $1,000,000, according to Imogene Wolseley. A legal challenge by her siblings following the death of her father reduced the settlement and it was paid to Anna - not her husband. Lady Wolseley was also a party to a long-running family legal dispute in the 1890s, this was over her mother's will which she and her brother Samuel eventually lost. The marriage does not seem to have been a successful one. Anna held the purse strings and toured the world with her maid. She kept Charles and the estate short of funds which lead to his eventual sale of land and contents of the Hall in 1919.
The Wolseley family had lived at Wolseley since at least Norman times. The baronetcy dates from 1628. Wolseley Hall was demolished in 1966. The estate remained derelict until 1990, when the gardens were restored to become the short-lived Wolseley Garden Park. The site is no longer owned by the family and is currently (2025) home to a garden centre, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and a small housing development.