Anna Maria Truter

Rosamond, Lady Barrow, married to George Barrow, 1826 portrait by Thomas Lawrence

Anna Maria Truter (17 August 1777 – 15 December 1857) was a Cape Colony botanical artist who was married to Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet who became second Secretary to the Admiralty in 1804, and was author of "An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, in the Years 1797 and 1798" (London, 1801).^[1] By the time she left the Cape in 1803, Anna Maria had assembled the first known portfolio of Cape flower studies and landscapes.

She was the daughter of Petrus Johannes Truter (17 December 1747, Cape Town – 31 January 1825, Swellendam), an official in the East India Company, a Member of the Court of Justice, and a Commissioner of Police, who was married on 18.4.1773 to Johanna Ernestina Blankenberg (*19 April 1750).

Sutherlandia frutescens, 2 species of Wurmbea, Hermannia pinnata and a small Senecio, c. 1800, pencil and watercolour

Anna Maria Truter and John Barrow produced 7 children:

1. George who died aged 2 months
2. George Barrow (Sir) (*22.10.1806, London, †1876), with his father one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society, distinguished author and traveller.^[2] married Rosamond Hester Elizabeth Pennell Croker (5 January 1810 - 10 January 1906),^[3] a celebrated beauty, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and a favourite of George IV and his court. She bore George Barrow eight children.
3. John Barrow *28.5.1808 Lt. Col. V.D., F.R.S., F.R.G.S., F.S.A., †26.2.1898, Chipping, Norton, Oxfordshire. Archivist to the Admiralty.^[4]
4. William Barrow, Commander *25.2.1810, †26.2.1838
5. Peter Barrow *30.7.1813 Consul of Nantes and later Kertch.
6. Johanna Maria x 1821 Robert Batty of the Grenadier Guards, later a Lt. Col. Served in the Pyrenees and later at Waterloo where he was wounded. An artist, exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1813 - 1848, †20.4.1848, Ampthill Square, London 57yr
7. Mary Jane, †2.1.1878 and was unmarried ^[5][6]

References