Francesca Christophers

Fanny George, actually Frances Ursula Christophers, was born to John Christophers and Mary Elizabeth Crowch. Her parents were married on 24 October 1811 in Saint-Pancras Old Church, London. Fanny George was formed by the bishop of the London district Dr. James Yorke Bramston (a Benedictine) on 25.11.1832. She married the surgeon John Hicks (°21.02.1790) in Southampton on 29.04.1840 in Saint-Josephs Chapel, Bugle Street, Southampton. She was John's second wife and the couple had one son together: the famous Edmund Benedict Hicks, baptized on 11.01.1842 in Brockhampton, Hampshire. John died shortly afterwards in 1844. Fanny George also survived her son Edmund, who died in France in 1869. On 05.02.1848 her father arranged her entry into the novitiate of the Benedictines at Hammersmith. She was then 30 years old and her six-year-old son would be staying with his grandfather. On 09.03.1848 she entered, but within a month she had to leave the monastery because of her weak health. She then went to live with her sister Agnes at The Lodge, Brook Green, London. She joined the lay order of the Sisters of Penance of Saint Dominic in 1861 as 'Sister Girtrude' and became a tertiary, a member of the Third Order of the Dominicans. She was poor and did embroidery (including petticoats) to support herself and her son. When her sister moved to Brighton to remarry after her husband's death in 1863, she left The Lodge on 17 July 1863. From 18 July 1863 she stayed briefly with her sister in Brighton, where she became seriously ill with infections in her finger and leg, for which she had to walk with a crutch. In September 1863 she was living with her stepdaughter Augusta Hicks at 61, Portsea, Hanover Street. Augusta was a Protestant by faith, so Fanny did not want to stay with her long. When her sister's marriage fell through, Fanny returned to Brighton in January 1864. In March-April 1864 she went to live with her sister in the new residence at 39 Montpellier Road.