Sophia Gomm

Sophia Gomm was born in 1793, the eldest daughter of Granville and Isabella Penn and the sixth child of nine. Granville’s grandfather was William Penn (the founder of the state of Pennsylvania, USA) and his father, Thomas had purchased Stoke Park, Stoke Poges. She grew up in Stoke Poges and London. Sophia’s father was distinguished in the literary world as an author covering subjects such as the Iliad and an ancestor, Admiral Sir William Penn.

She married Lt.Colonel Sir William Gomm in 1818. By then Gomm had already become a very eligible single man in the army including being at many Napoleonic battles (5th Division at Waterloo, 1815). He had been abroad on so many military campaigns. Between 1817 to 1839 he was on home service. They had no children. They lived in Hanover Square, London and would visit her relatives homes, including her uncle, John Penn’s Stoke Park Mansion house and 10 New St., Springs Gardens, St James, London. After John’s death when the Penns had some financial dificulties, Sir William bought the Spring Gardens home. In 1868 he became a Field Marshal. Sophia died age 33 in 1827.