Dec 1818 to Jan 1819
Thursday Decr 31th
Went with Papa & Eliza Webb to a dance at Mrs. Dickinson's very splendid--very
delightful--much laughing--Mr. Crowther
not to be forgotten.
Manchester House Exmouth.
Sonnet
Farley Hill Jany 1st 1819. To Mrs. Dickinson
Banquet
& song & dance & revelry!1
Auspicious year born in so fair a light2
Of gaiety & beauty! Happy night3
Sacred to social pleasure--& to Thee4
Its dear dispenser--of festivity5
The festive Queen--the moving spirit bright6
Of music & the dance--of all delight7
The gentle Mistress bountiful & free!8
Oh happy night! and oh suceeding day9
Far happier when 'mid converse & repose10
Handel's sweet strains came sweetened, & the lay11
Divine of that old Florentine arose12
Dante; & Genius flung his torch-like ray13
O'er the dark tale of Ugolino's woes.14
Saturday 2
Sunday 3
Mon. 4
At home--wrote to Miss James--letter not to go this week--And to
Miss Brooke. read the Antiquary XX.
Tuesday 5
Read some of Miss Edgeworth's
Popular tales XX some of Burke.
Mitford is likely reading
the Rivington edition, published
beginning in 1801.
Still at home.Wednesday 6
Read Do. Do.
Edgeworth's Popular
tales and some Burke.
Still at home.Thursday 7
Friday 8
Wrote to Sir William Elford not to go
till next week--Read Burke.
Mitford is likely reading
the Rivington edition, published
beginning in 1801.
still at home.Saturday 9
Read Nightmare Abbey XX Still at
home.
Sunday 10
Wrote to Miss Webb--not to go
till Tuesday. read more of Burke.
Mitford is likely reading
the Rivington edition, published
beginning in 1801.
Mon. 11
At home--worked some gown
trimming--& wrote a letter to Mr.
Haydon.
Tuesday 12
At home. heard from dear Mrs. Dickinson--sent off letters to
Sir W. Elford
Mr. Haydon, Miss
James & Miss
Webb.
Wednesday 13
Thursday 14
Friday 15
At home all day doing nothing but
finish my letter to dear Miss James
& read Burke
Mitford
is likely reading the Rivington edition,
published beginning in 1801.
--Burke a sad turncoat.Saturday 16
Went to Reading--had a most
delightful chat with Miss
Brooke--bought things at Marshes--saw a number of people--came home to dinner quite well & was
exceedingly ill (sick & purged) all night.
Sunday 17
Rather better--Lucy a famous nurse--in
bed almost all day--had a charming letter from Mr.
Haydon & read Malcolm's
Anecdotes of the 17th Century.
Monday 18
Tuesday 19
Quite well. Wrote a long note to Miss
Brooke--read Scott's
Visit to Paris & played with my
beautiful puppy Miranda born at
Stratford on
Avon.
Wednesday 20
Received a long letter from Mrs. Rowden
& began an answer all day at home.
Thursday 21
Friday 22
Lord Bacon, 1561.
Saturday 23
Sunday 24
Got a letter from dear Miss James
answered it--went with dear Drum to
look for primroses--did not find any--Finished
Florence Macarthy.
Monday 25
Tuesday 26
Wednesday 27
At home. Dear Drum went to London & took my letters to Mrs.
Rowden & Miss
James.
Read the Duchesse d'Angoulime's
journal while in the Temple
Thursday 28
At home. Poor Jeremy Chamberlaine the shoemaker
brought me some primroses & violets in pots--which he found in the fields.
Friday 29
Whim found again.--Selim nearly killed a white
kitten we have got for Sir W.
Elford.--I found today the first primrose this year in the hedge at the bottom of the park meadow.
Saturday 30
Sunday 31
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
greyhound
- species: Canis familiaris
- genus: Canis
- family: Canidae
A sighthound originally bred for coursing game using their acute vision, agility, and speed. Later
employed as a sporting dog for racing. A tall, shorted-haired slender dog with long
muzzle, legs and tail, and a characteristic S-shaped body. May have a variety of coat colors including blue (grey), white, black, red,
light tan (fawn) or black; and may also have patterned markings such as spots or brindle
coats. Traditionally leashed in pairs for coursing and in groups of three for other
types of hunting. English greyhouds may have been imported into Europe and the UK
with the Romans. The Webbs bred greyhounds and coursed hares with them with the Mitfords. The Mitford family owned many greyhounds, including May-Fly, Mossy, and Miranda.
spaniel
- species: Canis familiaris
- genus: Canis
- family: Canidae
In Mitford's time, spaniels were classified as land or water types, and as springer
(larger) and cocker (smaller) types, although springers and cockers may have come
from the same litter. They are gun dogs bred to flush or spring game birds. They were also used to hunt rabbits, sometimes alongside greyhounds.
They may have solid or parti-colored coats in black, liver, red, or golden, with tan
masking and trim, roan patching, or ticked spots. The most common color is liver (dark brown/chocolate) and white. The Sussex
spaniel, first recorded in 1795, is a stocky spaniel with a distinctive golden-brown
colored coat and hazel eyes. The spaniel, Flush, gifted by Mitford to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, had a golden-brown coat and hazel eyes, as described in her poem To Flush, My Dog. Molly was a white spaniel with a wavy coat, perhaps with water spaniel ancestry. The Mitfords raised and bred spaniels kept as companion animals and for coursing; these included
several dogs named Flush. Mitford records that one brown spaniel anmed Flush accompanied her father into a Reading
theatre: Flush, with his paws on the front of the box, his large earnest eyes fixed on the
actors, and his long silky ears brought forward on either side of his face, as is
the custom of those intelligent dogs on great occasions, looked and listened all through
the piece with a sedate fixity of attention, which greatly endangered the gravity
of the persons on the stage.
cat
- species: Felis catus
- genus: Felis
- family: Felidae
Now, as in Mitford's time, cats may be classed as domestic (kept as companion animals and for indoor
pest control), farm (kept outdoors and in barns or even on ships for rodent control),
or feral (wild). Domesticated around 7500 B.C. in Western Asia and likely brought
to England by the Romans or other early traders. While frequently kept for rodent
control, cats did not become common companion animals in England until the eighteenth
century. British Shorthair and Scottish fold breeds are considered to have originated
in the UK. Around 1819, the Mitfords owned a tabby named Poll and a long-haired white cat name Selim, likely a Turkish Angora.
_1885.jpg){kind=link}
chicken
- species: Gallus domesticus
- genus: Gallus
- family: Phasianidae
Domesticated birds kept as livestock and used for meat, eggs, and feathers. Descended
from species of Southeast Asian wild junglefowl. First domesticated for ceremonial
use and cockfighting, then kept for food in the Middle East and then in Europe, beginning
about the 4th century B.C.
fir
- species: Abies alba
- genus: Abies
- family: Pinaceae
Evergreen coniferous trees found through much of North and Central America, Europe,
Asia, and North Africa. Unlike other conifers, firs bear erect cones that are raised
above the branches like candles; at maturity, the cones disintegrate to release winged
seeds. One of Mitford’s favorite foraging trees; she calls her collecting activity fir topping. Mitford would likely have been familiar with the European silver fir, which was
brought to England in the 17th century. Other types of firs such as Douglas firs and
noble firs, native to North America and used as Christmas trees, were introduced to
the UK in the nineteenth century.
primrose
- genus: Primula
- species: Primula vulgaris
- family: Primulaceae
One of Mitford’s favorite
flowers, can bloom with creamy yellow flowers from late December through May in Berkshire. Native to western and southern Europe. It is not to be confused with evening primrose
(Oenothera), a genus of 100+
species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. Mitford also mentions
the evening primroses, which have been cultivated in
Eurasia since the early seventeenth century and are now naturalized in some areas.
violet
- genus: Viola
- species: Viola riviniana
- family: Violaceae
One of Mitford’s favorite flowers (as it was of many of her contemporaries). Native to Eurasia,
including the UK, it blooms from April to June in Berkshire. he terms viola and violet are used for small-flowered annuals or perennials, including the species. Mentioned
in the 1811 Poems as well as in Our Village. Mitford likely refers to wild forms of the Viola such as the common dog-violet. Field pansies
(Viola arvensis) are also native to the UK and are wild relatives of the multi-coloured,
large-flowered cultivars used as bedding plants. T
Places
Publications
Where’er You Walk An aria sung by Jupiter from Handel’s 1743 opera Semele (HWV58).
- Author: #Handel
- Date: No date listed.
New Year's Day. 1819 [1827 version]
- Author: #MRM
- Date:
Sonnet 11 in the 1827 collection (page 304) .
The Works of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke
- Author: Edmund Burke
- Date:
The Rivingtons published a comprehensive edition of Burke's works and correspondence, including his unpublished manuscripts, between 1801 and 1823, based, in part, on an earlier 3-volume edition by Dodsley. Mitford calls Burke a sad turncoat. Source: Journal.
British Critic, A New Review
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Conservative periodical with High Church editorial views. Published monthly between 1792 and 1825 and then quarterly until 1843. Succeeded by the English Review in 1853. Edited until 1811 by Thomas Fanshaw Middleton. Also edited by William R. Lyall (1816-17); Archibald M. Campbell (about 1823-1833); James S. Boone (1833-1837); Samuel R. Maitland (1837-38); John Henry Newman (1838-1841); and Thomas Mozley (1841-43).
The Eclectic Review
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Monthly periodical published between 1805 and 1868. Focusesd on long and short reviews and topical review essays. Founded by Dissenters and operated as a non-profit; all profits were donated to the British and Foreign Bible Society. Followed a nonsectarian editorial policy with an intellectual tone modeled on 18th-century periodicals but advanced reviewing toward critical analysis and away from quotation and summary. Coverage included American as well as British literature, and other subjects and titles of general interest. Influential editors included co-founder Daniel Parken (until 1813), Josiah Conder (1813-1836), Thomas Price (1837-1855).
The Antiquary
- Author: #Scott_Wal
- Date: No date listed.
Popular Tales
- Author:
- Date:
In 3 volumes. Volume 1 includes: Lame Jervas, The Will, The Limerick Gloves, Out of Debt Out of Danger; Volume 2 includes: The lottery, Rosanna, Murad the Unlucky, The Manufacturers; Volume 3 included: The Contrast, The Grateful Negro, To-morrow.
Sketches of America: a Narrative of a Journey of Five Thousand Miles Through the Eastern and Western States of America; Contained in Eight Reports Addressed to the Thirty-nine English Families by whom the Author was Deputed, in June 1817, to Ascertain Whether Any, and What Part of the United States Would be Suitable for Their Residence. With Remarks on Mr. Birkbeck’s Notes and Letters
- Author: Henry Bradshaw Fearon Christopher Flynn
- Date:
1818 October 2,
1818 2008
The work’s subtitle refers to to Morris Birkbeck’s Notes on a Journey in America, from the coast of Virginia to the territory of Illinois and Letters from Illinois, works that were believed to be instrumental in encouraging many disaffected Europeans to emigrate to the American prairies Birkbeck and Fearon’s works were part of an early nineteenth-century pamphlet war about on the topic of American emigration to the so-called English Prairie. A second edition of Sketches appeared in 1819. In his preface, Fearon claims to be an unbiased observer and reporter and implicitly contrasts himself with other writers on the topic: My Reports were originally composed neither with a view to fame nor profit,--neither to exalt a country, to support a party, nor to promote a settlement. I have had every motive to speak what I thought the truth, and none to conceal or pervert it. The volume is dedicated to The Friends of Civil and Religious Liberty, and the dedication is dated Plaistow, Essex. October 2, 1818 . As Christopher Flynn points out in Americans in British Literature, 1770-1832: A Breed Apart, Such [claims afford] Fearon room for statements that seem to emerge from differing, often contradictory ideological predilections. Sometimes he presents himself as an ardent convert to republicanism. At other times he is so fastidious in manners and appearance that he seems to the guardian of an older English probity Americans have recklessly abandoned (Farnham: Ashgate, 2008: 117) .
The Literary Pocket Book, or Companion for the Lover of Art and Nature
- Author: Leigh Hunt
- Date:
January
1819 1818 1819
Literary almanac edited by Leigh Hunt that includes original poems by P. Shelley, Keats, and B.W. Procte. Mitford’s January 1819 letters to Elford and Mary Webb refer to the first edition ever published of this almanac, published at the end of 1818 for 1819, which she received as a gift from her father.
Nightmare Abbey
- Author: Thomas Love Peacock
- Date:
1818
First edition published anonymously as by the Author of Headlong Hall.
The Life of Burke
- Author: Robert Bisset
- Date:
Full title: The Life of Edmund Burke: Comprehending an Impartial Account of his Literary and Political Efforts, and a Sketch of the Conduct and Character of his Most Eminent Associates, Coadjutors, and Opponents. Published in 1798 and 1800, this title was the most current biography of Burke available at the time of reading. James Prior would publish a more authoritative account in 1824 that superceded those by Bisset and MacCormick (1798).
Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London from the Roman Invasion to the Year 1700
- Author: James Peller Malcolm
- Date:
Full title: Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London from the Roman Invasion to the Year 1700: including the origin of British society, customs and manners, with a general sketch of the state of religion, superstition, dresses and amusements of the citizens of London during that period: to which are added, illustrations of the changes in our language, literary customs, and gradual improvement in style and versification, and various particulars concerning public and private libraries: illustrated by eighteen engravings.
A Visit To Paris in 1814: Being a Review of the Moral, Political, Intellectual, and Social Condition of the French Capital
- Author: #Scott_John
- Date:
1815
2nd edition, corrected and with a new preface referring to late events, published: London: Printed for Longman, Hurst Rees, Orme, and Brown1815. Source: HathiTrust
Florence Macarthy: An Irish Tale
- Author: #Owenson_S
- Date:
1818 Saturday 23 January
1819
Mitford records that she was very much amused by it. Later, she writes that she liked it better than the first, perhaps comparing the last volume to the first. Source: Journal entry Saturday 23 January 1819 .
Mémoires Particuliers de la Captivité de la Famille Royale de la Tour de Temple
- Author: Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, Duchesse d'Angloulême
- Date:
Full title: Mémoires particuliers, formant avec l'ouvrage de M. Hue et le Journal de Cléry l'histoire complète de la captivité de la famille royale de la Tour de Temple.
The Letters of Junius
- Author:
- Date:
Collection of letters written pseudonymously between 1769 and 1772 and colleccted by newspaper editor Henry Woodfall in 1772. Political polemic critical of the government and of George III. In 1770, Woodfall was prosecuted for seditious libel and acquitted over printing a portion of the letters, which appeared in The Public Advertiser. The author was never identified and scholars' current thinking attributes the work to Sir Philip Francis. The controversy over authorship was still lively in Mitford's day and throughout the 19th century. Mitford called its contents a famous peppering and says that there is nothing so good now.
Persons, Personas, and Characters
Mitford Russell Mary
- Mrs. Mitford
- Ashe, Hampshire, England
- Three Mile Cross, parish of Shinfield, Berkshire, England
Mary Russell was the youngest child of
the Rev. Dr. Richard Russell and
his second wife, Mary Dicker; she was born about 1750 in Ashe, Hampshire. (Her
birth date is as yet unverified; period sources indicate that she was ten years
older than her husband George, born in 1760.) Through the Russells, she was a
distant relation of the Dukes of Bedford (sixth creation, 1694). She had two
siblings, Charles William and Frances; both predeceased her and their parents,
which resulted in Mary Russell inheriting
her family’s entire estate upon her mother’s death in 1785. Her father’s rectory in Ashe was only a
short distance from Steventon, and so she was acquainted
with the young Jane Austen. She married
George Mitford or Midford on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford,
Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their
addresses as Old Alresford. Their only daughter,
Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years
later on December 16, 1787 at New
Alresford, Hampshire. Mary
Russell died on January 2, 1830 at
Three Mile Cross in the parish of Shinfield,
Berkshire. Her obituary in the 1830
New
Monthly Magazine gives New Year’s day as the date of her death.
George Mitford
- George Mitford Esq.
- George Midford
- Hexham, Northumberland, England
- Three Mile Cross, Shinfield, Berkshire, England
Father of Mary Rusell Mitford, George Mitford was the son of Francis Midford, surgeon, and Jane Graham. The family name is sometimes recorded as Midford. Immediate family called him by nicknames including Drum, Tod, and Dodo. He was a member of a minor branch of the Mitfords of Mitford Castle in Northumberland.
Although later sources would suggest that he was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh
medical school, there is no evidence that he obtained a medical degree and he did
not generally refer to himself as Dr. Mitford, preferring to style himself Esq.. In 1784, he is listed in a Hampshire directory as surgeon (medicine) of Alresford. His father and grandfather worked as apothecary-surgeons and it seems likely that
he served a medical apprenticeship with family members.
He married Mary Russell on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford, Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their addresses as Old Alresford; they later came to live
at Broad Street in New Alresford. Their only child to live to adulthood,
Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years
later on December 16, 1787 at New
Alresford, Hampshire. He assisted Mitford's literary career by representing her interests in London and elsewhere with theater
owners and publishers. He was active in Whig politics and later served as a local
magistrate. He coursed greyhounds with his friend James Webb.
Lucy Sweetser Hill
- Hill Sweatser Lucy
- Stratfield Saye, Berkshire, England
Beloved servant for twelve years in the Mitford
household who, on 7 August 1820 married
Charles Hill. She is the basis for
the title character in the Our Village story. Source:
Needham Papers,
Reading Central Library.
Allaway George
Manservant at Bertram House in 1819; dismissed on September 15, 1820, when the Mitfords moved to Three Mile Cross, a much smaller establishment. He and his brother Frank buried Mossy. Dates unknown.
Mossy
Mitford’s dog; He died on Saturday, August 21, 1819 at Bertram
House. Mossy was a nickname for Moss Trooper.
Miranda
A greyhound owned by Mitford,
described by her as blue all sprinkled with little white spots just like a
starry night in her 13 February 1819 letter to
Haydon.
Selim
Mitford's ferocious long-haired white cat. The cat may have been a Turkish angora,
a breed that became fashionable in the early 19th century.
Jesse Cliff
- Cliff Jesse
Jesse Cliff gave the Mitford family elderly bantams (chickens) in 1819. Source: Journal.
Eliza Webb
- Webb Elizabeth Eliza
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
- Sandgate, Kent, England
Elizabeth Webb, called Eliza, was a neighbor and friend of Mary Russell Mitford. Eliza Webb was the youngest daughter of James Webb and Jane Elizabeth
Ogbourn. She was baptized privately on March 3, 1797, and publicly on June 8, 1797 in
Wokingham, Berkshire. She is the sister of Mary Elizabeth and Jane Eleanor
Webb. In 1837 she married Henry Walters, Esq., in Wokingham, Berkshire. In
Needham’s papers, he
notes from the Berkshire Directorythat she lived on
Broad street, presumably in Wokingham. Source: See
Needham’s letter to Roberts on November
27, 1953
.
Mrs. Dickinson
- Catherine Allingham Dickinson
- Middlesex, England
- St. Marylebone, Middlesex, England
Catherine Allingham was the daughter of Thomas Allingham. She married Charles Dickinson
on August 2, 1807 at St. Giles, South Mimms, Middlesex. They lived in Swallowfield, where their daughter Frances was born, and where they were visited by the Mitford family. According to Mitford, Catherine Dickinson was fond of match-making among her friends
and acquaintances. (See
Mitford's February 8th, 1821 letter to Elford
. Her husband Charles died in 1827, when her daughter was seven. Source: L'Estrange).
Mr. Crowther
- Crowther Mr.
The dandy
Mitford pokes fun at in her letters of
9 and 10 January, 1819
. Possibly husband to Isabelle Crowther. According to Coles, his forename may be Phillip; Coles is not completely confident that the dandy Mr.
Crowther and Mr. Phillip Crowther are the same person. The second Mr. Crowther is
a correspondent of Mitford's, whom she writes to at Whitley cottage, near Reading. He may also have resided at Westbury on Trim near Bristol. William Coles is uncertain of whether Crowtheris the same Phillip Crowthermentioned in Mitford's Journal. Source: William Coles, Letter to Needham, 10 November 1957, NeedhamPapers, Reading Central Library.
Charles Dickinson
- Dickinson Charles
- Mr. Dickinson
- Pickwick Lodge, Corsham, Wiltshire, England
- Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, England
Friend of the Mitford family. He was the son of Vikris Dickinson and Elizabeth Marchant. The Dickinson family
were Quakers who lived in the vicinity of Bristol, Gloucestershire. On August 3, 1807, he married Catherine Allingham at St Giles, South Mimms, Middlesex. They lived at Farley Hill, near Swallowfield,
Berkshire, where their daughter Frances was born, and where the Mitfords visited them.
Charles Dickinson owned a private press he employed to print literary works by his
friends (See letters to Elford from March 13, 1819 and June 21, 1820). He wrote and
published an epic poem in sixty-six cantos, The Travels of Cyllenius, in 1795. Upon his uncle's death, Charles Dickinson inherited the considerable wealth
his extended family had amassed in the West Indies.
Edmund Burke
- Edmund Burke
- Dublin, Ireland
- Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England
Member of Parliament within the conservative wing of the Whig Party, he supported
Catholic Emancipation, the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and the aims of the American
Revolution; he later opposed the aims of the French Revolution and broke with the
Foxite Whigs. Known for his oratorical and authorial skills, he authored a work on
aesthetics, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful, as well as works of political philosophy such as Reflections on the Revolution
in France. He founded the Annual Review. Mitford reports reading a collection of Burke's works in early 1819, including his An Account of the European Settlements in America.
Elizabeth James
- Elizabeth Mary James
- Miss James
- Bath, Somerset, England
- 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey, England
Close friend and correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. She was the eldest daughter of Thomas Webb and Susanna Haycock. Her father
died in 1818 and her mother in 1835. After her parents’ deaths, she lived with
her two younger sisters, Emily and Susan, in Green Park Buildings, Bath,
Walcot, Somerset; High Street, Mortlake, Surrey; and 3 Pembroke Villas,
Richmond, Surrey. According to Coles,
referring to Mitford’s diary, letters were also addressed to her at Bellevue,
Lower Road, Richmond (Coles 26). She was buried at St. Mary Magdalene, Richmond,
Surrey. In the 1841 census, she is listed as living on independent means; in the 1851
census, as landholder; in the 1861 census, she as railway
shareholder.
Miss Brooke
- Brooke Miss
A correspondent of Mitford's, to whom she writes at 11 East Cliff, Brighton. William Colessuggests that this could be a summer address, and that she was a resident of Reading. She was courted by Dr. Valpy in October 1823. Forename unknown. Possibly the daughter of Mrs. Brooke and Mr. Brooke. Source: Letter from William Coles to Needham, 10 November 1957
,
Needham Papers,
.
Maria Edgeworth
- Edgeworth Maria
- Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, England
- Engleworthstown, Longford, Ireland
British author and educator. Best known for
Castle Rackrent (1800); also
wrote children's novels and educational treatises.
Henry Bradshaw Fearon
- Henry Bradshaw Fearon
- England
English surgeon who wrote Sketches of America. A Narrative of a Journey of Five Thousand Miles through the Eastern
and Western States of America. While his birthplace is unknown, the dedication to the volume is dated from Plaistow, Essex.
Sir William Elford
- Elford William Sir baronet Recorder for Plymouth Recorder for Totnes Member of Parliament
- Kingsbridge, Devon, England
- Totnes, Devon, England
According to L’Estrange, Sir William was first a friend of
Mitford’s father, and
Mitford met him for the first time in the
spring of 1810 when he was a widower nearing the
age of 64. They carried on a lively correspondence until his death
in 1837.
Elford worked as a banker at Plymouth Bank (Elford, Tingcombe and Purchase)
in Plymouth, Devon, from its
founding in 1782. He was elected a member of
Parliament for Plymouth as a
supporter of the government and Tory William
Pitt, and served from 1796 to 1806. After his election defeat
in Plymouth in 1806, he was elected member of Parliament for Rye and served
from July 1807 until his resignation in July 1808. For his service in
Parliament as a supporter of Pitt, he was made a baronet in 1800. After his
son Jonathan came of age, he tried to
secure a stable government post for him but never succeeded. Mayor of
Plymouth in 1796 and Recorder for Plymouth from 1797 to 1833, he was also
Recorder for Totnes from 1832 to 1834. Sir William served as an officer in
the South Devon militia from 1788, eventually attaining the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel; the unit saw active service in Ireland during the Peninsular Wars. Sir
William was a talented amateur painter in oils and watercolors
who exhibited at the Royal Society from 1774 to 1837; he
exhibited still lifes and portraits but preferred landscapes. He was elected
to the Royal Society Academy in 1790. He was also a
talented amateur naturalist and was elected to the Royal Linnaean
Society in 1790; late in life, he published his findings on an
alternative to yeast.
He
married his first wife, Mary Davies
of Plympton, on January 20, 1776 and they had
one son, Jonathan, and two daughters,
Grace Chard and Elizabeth. After the death of his
first wife, he married Elizabeth Hall
Walrond, widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Maine Swete
Walrond of the Coldstream Guards.
His
only son Jonathan died in 1823, leaving him without an heir.
Mary Webb
- Webb Mary Elizabeth
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
Close friend and frequent correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. Mary Webb was the daughter of James Webb. and Jane Elizabeth Ogbourn. Baptized on
April 15, 1796 in Wokingham, Berkshire. Sister of
Elizabeth (called Eliza) and Jane
Eleanor Webb and niece of the elder Mary Webb,
Aunt Mary. In
Needham’s papers, he
notes from the Berkshire Directorythat she lived on
Broad street, presumably in Wokingham, Berkshire. She
was the wife of Thomas Hawkins as she is referred to thus in probate
papers of 1858 regarding the wills of her sister Eliza Webb Walter and her
husband Henry Walter. Date of death unknown. Dates unknown.
Haydon Benjamin Robert
- Plymouth, England
- London
Benjamin Robert Haydon was a painter educated at the
Royal Academy, who was famous for contemporary,
historical, classical, biblical, and mythological scenes, though tormented by
financial difficulties and incarceration. He painted William Wordsworth's portrait in 1842 and
painted a cameo of Keats in his epic canvas
Christ's Entry into Jerusalem(1814-20). MRM was introduced to him at his London studio in the spring of
1817, and Sir William Elford was a
mutual friend, and Haydon’s own acquaintances included several prominent
British Romantic literary figures. He completed
The Raising of Lazarus in
1823
. He wrote a diary and an autobiography, both of
which were published only posthumously, and he committed suicide in 1846.
George Paston's
Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth
Century (1893) contends that Mitford was
asked to edit Haydon's memoir, but
declined.
Robert Bisset
- Bisset Robert
- Scotland
Author of biographical sketches of contributors to The Spectator as well as a biography of Edmund Burke.
James Peller Malcolm
- Malcolm James Peller
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Clarendon Square, London, England
John Scott
- John Scott
- Broadgate, Aberdeen, Scotland
- York Street, Covent Garden, London, England
Journalist and editor who revived The London Magazine in 1820 and edited it until his death on 27 February 1821. Died as the result of complications from a gunshot wound received in a duel fought
on 16 February with Jonathan Henry Christie (John Gibson Lockhart's agent) at Chalk Farm. The duel resulted from an escalation of attacks and counterattacks between the editors
of the London and Blackwood's Magazines over Blackwood's characterizations of a Cockney School.
Frances Rowden St. Quintin
- Rowden St. Quintin Frances Arabella Fanny
Educator, author, and Mitford
tutor. Also taught Caroline Lamb and
L.E.L.. Worked at St. Quintin School at 22 Hans Place, London, started by M. St. Quintin, a French emigre. St. Quintin and his first wife originally ran a school in Reading;
Frances Rowden became his second wife after his first wife's death. In
The Queens of Society
by Grace and Philip Wharton, the authors note that, while unmarried, Frances Rowden
styled herself Mrs. Rowden (1860: 148). Rowden wrote poetry, including
Poetical Introduction to the Study of Botany (1801) and
The Pleasures of Friendship: A Poem, in two parts (1810, rpt. 1812, 1818); also wrote textbooks, including
A Christian Wreath for the Pagan Dieties (1820, illus. Caroline Lamb), and
A Biographical Sketch of the Most Distinguished Writers of Ancient and Modern Times (1821, illus. Caroline Lamb). (See
Landon's Memoirs
; See also
L'Estrange, ed. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself,(21)
.
Mr. White
- White Mr.
Associated with Reading. A Mr. White was an original member of the Ilsley Coursing Society, with George Mitford. A Tom White, mentioned in connection with Captain Tuppen, may be a relation. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
Sir Francis Bacon
- Francis Bacon Sir
- Viscount St. Alban Attorney General of England and Wales Lord Chancellor of England
- Strand, London, England
- Highgate, Middlesex, England
A writer and philosopher who made important methodological contributions to science,
particularly championing empiricism. His philosophical works include the Novum Organum Scientiarum (New Organon), Advancement of Learning, Essays, and New Atlantis. A nephew of the powerful Elizabethan politician William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (or
Burghley), he served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies at various
times, as an advisor to Elizabeth's doomed favourite and failed usurper Robert Devereux,
Earl of Essex, and as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor under James I. In 1621,
he was prosecuted for corruption and barred from further public service. He has been
controversially reputed to be homosexual, on the grounds that a fellow M.P. called
one of his (Bacon's) servingmen his catamite and bed-fellow. In 1845 (during Mitford's lifetime), this passage was published for the first time.
Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, Duchesse d'Angloulême
- Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France
- Frohsdorf Palace, Lanzenkirchen, Austrian Empire
Eldest child of Louis XVI of France and Queen Charlotte, and the only person to survive
the royal family's captivity in the Temple during the Terror. In 1795, she was allowed
to leave Paris for exile in Vienna in a diplomatic exchange, and she later moved with
the French royal family to Great Britain. She returned to France in the Bourbon Restoration
and became, very briefly, Queen Consort of France, between her uncle Charles X's and
her husband Louis XIX's abdications on 2 August 1830. In 1830, she went again into
exile in Great Britain and then in Prague. Mitford read her Mémoires Particuliers de la Captivité de la Famille Royale de la Tour de Temple.
white kitten
Junius
Pseudonymous author of The Letters of
Junius, active during the 1770s. Still unidentified, although may
have been Sir Philip Francis.
Junius
- Lucius Junius Brutus
- Junius
- Consul of the Roman Republic
- ancient Rome
- 509 BC Silva Arsia, Rome