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Mary Anne Cust

British writer and artist (1800–1882)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ56039489 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mary Anne Cust, Lady Cust (née Boode; 23 September 1799 – 19 July 1882) was a British naturalist, scientific illustrator and writer of The Invalid’s Own Book and History and Diseases of the Cat.

Life

Mary Anne Cust (née Boode) was born on 23 September 1799 in Over Peover, Cheshire, England. She was the only child of Lewis William Boode of Amsterdam and Peover Hall and Margaret Dannett. Cust's father was a member of a leading family of British Guiana slave-owners and their plantations in the West Indies is where the Boode family made their fortunes. Her grandfather, Johan Berend Christoffer Frederick Boode, owned five plantations in Demerara and Essequibo growing coffee and sugarcane. One of these plantations was Greenwich Park, Demerara. Her mother was the daughter of Reverend Thomas Dannett who was a principal landowner in Wavertree, Liverpool

Shortly after she was born, in 1800, Cust's father died. In 1802 her mother purchased Mockbeggar Hall, Wallasey, Cheshire and renamed it Leasowe Castle, "the Castle". Cust's mother made significant additions and improvements to the Castle and this was where Cust grew up. It is interesting to note that, in 1815, the first St.

Editorial summary

“Mary Anne Cust” enters the record as british writer and artist (1800–1882). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mary, Anne and Cust can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1799, 1882, 1800, 1802—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1800-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Mary, Anne and Cust.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Mary Anne Cust” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mary, Anne and Cust provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56039489. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1799, 1882, 1800 and 1802.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mary Anne Cust”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mary Anne Cust primary sources, Mary Anne Cust archive and Mary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mary Anne Cust”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mary Anne Cust” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.