{{Short description|British novelist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}} {{Use British English|date=December 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Catherine Stepney | image = Lady Catherine Stepney by Richard Cockle Lucas.JPG | caption = Lady Catherine Stepney by Richard Cockle Lucas | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1778|12|23|df=yes}} | birth_place = Grittleton | death_date = {{death date and age|1845|4|14|1778|12|23|df=yes}} | death_place = London | death_cause = | other_names = Catherine Manners | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = | title = | height = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Catherine Stepney''' (23 December 1778 – 14 April 1845) was a British novelist.
==Life== Catherine Pollok was born in Grittleton, Wiltshire in 1778. Her first husband was Russell Manners, whom she divorced. In 1813 she married Sir Thomas Stepney who was the ninth and as it turned out the last Stepney baronet, of Prendergast. He was a groom of the bed-chamber to the Duke of York and he died without issue in 1825.
Stepney is credited with writing six novels, but Mary Mitford claimed that Stepney's drafts were honed and polished by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.<ref name="oxfordcs" /> She wrote two novels during her first marriage, and four known as the ''silver fork'' novels after her second marriage were about the high society she frequented.<ref name=oxfordcs/><ref name="wikisource biography">{{cite web | url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Stepney,_Catherine_(DNB00) | title=wikisource biography | volume=54 | accessdate=19 February 2016}}</ref>
Stepney was known as a hostess because her house was a meeting place for London's artistic and literary society.<ref name=oxfordcs/> In 1836 she modelled for a bust by Richard Cockle Lucas who portrayed her as Cleopatra. This bust is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.<ref>[https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O66222/catherine-lady-stepney-d-1845-bust-lucas-richard-cockle/ Catherine, Lady Stepney (d. 1845) as Cleopatra], Richard Cockle Lucas, retrieved 4 December 2014</ref> The National Portrait Gallery has a painting of her made by John Hayter.<ref>[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05779/catherine-neacutee-pollok-lady-stepney?search=sas&sText=catherine+stepney Catherine Stepney], John Hayter, National Portrait Gallery, London</ref>
Stepney died in London on 14 April 1845.<ref name=oxfordcs>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26403?docPos=2 Catherine Stepney], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, retrieved 5 December 2014</ref><ref name="Gentleman">{{cite magazine |title=Lady Stepney |magazine=The Gentleman's Magazine: and Historical Review |date=July 1845 |page=86 |id={{ProQuest|8339506}}}}</ref> She was buried in the catacombs of Kensal Green Cemetery, London. After her death there were accounts of how she was unaware that her novels were not always well regarded.<ref>[http://lordbyron.cath.lib.vt.edu/doc.php?choose=HoSmith.1847.GG6.xml#HS-23 A greybeard's gossip about his literary acquaintance], New Monthly Magazine, Volume 80, 1847</ref>
==Bibliography==
===Catherine Manners=== * ''Castle Nuovier; or, Henrii and Adelina'', Catherine Manners, 1806<ref>{{cite book |author=Mrs. Manners |title=Castle Nuovier; or, Henrii and Adelina. A Romance. In Two Volumes. |location=London |publisher=Printed for B. Crosby and Co. |date=1806 |id={{Gale|LCSAJK931860164}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=''Castle Nuovier; or, Henrii and Adelina'' |department=Review |magazine=Literary Journal |volume=1 |issue=6 |date=June 1806 |pages=671–672 |id={{ProQuest|6029078}}}}</ref> (alternatively titled ''Castle Nuovier, or, Henry and Adelina'')<ref name="Gentleman" /> * ''The Lords of Erith'', Catherine Manners, 1809
===Catherine Stepney=== * ''The New Road to Ruin'', Catherine Stepney, 1833 * ''The Heir Presumptive'', Catherine Stepney, 1835 * ''The Courtier's Daughter'', Catherine Stepney, 1838, 1841 * ''The Three Peers'', Catherine Stepney, 1841
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stepney, Catherine}} Category:1778 births Category:1845 deaths
Category:19th-century British novelists Category:Writers from Wiltshire Category:English women novelists Category:Wives of baronets