History of the Bean Family page 37
[ Great Uncle May (Thomas May 1788 - 1857) contd. ]

He eventually retired on something between £600 and £900 a year, with only his adopted niece to provide for. He died before his wife and after his nice's marriage with Alexander Bean (My Father): and his widow spent most of the remaining years of her life in her niece's home, eventually returning to W... - Mersea where she died. She was a clever, stern woman, who spared no pains with her niece's education and provided her with good masters. The latter, like her Aunt, shewed special talent in drawing and painting, and was well taught by Mr Glover, a pupil of Gainsborough. Mr Glover was a clever artist but one who "never finished his own pictures" (my mother told me) but so well did she succeed in her painting that he once told her "he could teach her nothing more in trees". The Mays were very fond of travelling about England, chiefly in those days by coach: and always took my mother. Her knowledge of Derbyshire and the Peak Country etc. was extensive and her pretty sketches of the many places they visited were both valued and numerous. South Wales they often visited.