Emma Matilda Brown

Emma Hill became a frequent model for Brown from 1848; for example, she is the wife in The Last of England. She became his mistress, and they shared a house in London, but social convention made him unable to marry an illiterate daughter of a bricklayer.

Their daughter Catherine Emily was born in 1850, and eventually they were married at St Dunstan-in-the-West in April 1853. Their son, Oliver Madox Brown (1855–1874) (known as Nolly) showed promise both as an artist and poet, but died of blood poisoning before his maturity. The death of Nolly was a crushing blow for Brown, and he kept a room for his son's belongings as a shrine. Another son Arthur was born in September 1856. Brown used Arthur as the model for the baby held by a ragged girl in the foreground of Work, but he died aged only ten months old in July 1857.

Catherine married Francis Hueffer; through Catherine, Brown was the grandfather of novelist Ford Madox Ford and great-grandfather of Labour Home Secretary Frank Soskice.

Brown's second wife died in October 1890, and he died in Primrose Hill in 1893.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Madox_Brown
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Apr 5 2017, 5:39:59 UTC