Dec 1819: Mary Russell Mitford's Notebook of 1819 to 1823

Dec 1819

Wednesday 1

At home--heard from Mrs. Hofland--Mr. & Mrs. Dickinson came & dined here--dear Drum came home in the evening--a very pleasant day--wrote in the morning to Drum at night to Granny.

Thursday 2

At home--Heard from dear Granny Mr. Johnson, & Sir Williamwith an excellent letter enclosed from Lord Ashburton to Mr. Waristoun which I transcribed. Wrote to dear Granny--read the Eclectic & British Critic Reviews.

Friday 3

Luigi Pulci, 1431.

At home--Captain Tuppen came to course with Drum--wrote to Mrs. Dickinson, Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Hofland, & dear Granny--read Memoirs of the Rev. H. Martyn. Methodistical.

Saturday 4

At home--Sent a hare & some beetroot with my note to Mrs. Dickinson--Heard from dear Granny & Mary Webb--wrote to Sir William--read memoirs of H. Martyn.

Sunday 5

At home--walked with dear Drum & the pets--Luce washed Molly who looked like a little snowball sweet love--wrote to Granny--read Decision--rather methodistical but clever & interesting.

Monday 6

At home--wrote to Mr. Palmer--heard from dear Granny--went firtopping--got a great many--a sweet dear little Bobby came to me to be fed & ate as I threw it to him sweet lamb.

Tuesday 7

At home--Heard from Mrs. Dickinson--went Fir topping--begin to get scarce--fed my Bobbies under the trees--read Florence Macarthy.

Wednesday 8

Milton, 1608.

At home--Heard from Miss James--went firtopping--fed my bobbies--wrote to Mr. Haydon & Granny--read Life of Princess Charlotte by Booth--a catch penny thing.

Thursday 9

At home--Heard from Granny--wrote to Mary Webb & the Butcher--went firtopping--fed a great many Bobbies dear lambs.

Friday 10

At home--heard from Mr. Fyshe Palmer--fed my Bobbies a great many poor dears came to the board at the Window to eat it being a snow--Wrote to dear Granny & Miss James.

Saturday 11

At home--sent dear Miss Morse to Mr. Haydon--heard from Mary Webb & Granny--fed a great many Bobbies & other birds off my board.

Sunday 12

At home--walked with dear Drum & the pets--fed a great many bobbies & other birds--read Blackwood's Magazine--famous--& the Life of Sand--pretty well.

Monday 13

At home--heard from dear Granny & Mr. Johnson--went with dear Drum to Reading--called at the Brookes--Whites--Newberys & Valpys--came home to dinner--a pleasant day--fed my bobbies.

Tuesday 14

At home--heard from Mr. Haydon--called at the Dickinsons--came home to dinner--read Clan Albyn--a pretty thing only too Highlandish--fed my dear bobbies & a great many others--poor lambs.

Wednesday 15

At home--dear Granny came back in great trim from Winchester--God bless her!--fed my poor Bobbies & other birds.

Thursday 16

At home--my Birthday--went Firtopping with Drum & the Pets--fed my Bobbies both at the window & in the Plantations--the dear Bobbies very tame sweet loves eat as I threw bread to them.

Friday 17

At home--received the Statesman from Mr. Johnson with a peppering of Frank Cowslade--curled Granny's Wigs--fed my Bobby's--poor Jessy Cliff brought us a present of a very fine pig--wrote to Mary Webb.

Saturday 18

At home--went firtopping--fed my Bobbies--read The Carib Chief by Horace Twiss--a tolerable Tragedy--& Dr. Franklin's Correspondence--famous.

Sunday 19

At home--fed my Bobbies--read Dr. Franklin's Correspondence which is excellent--& Bubb Doddington's Diary which is Corruption itself.

Monday 20

Sir Isaac Newton, 1647.

At home--went firtopping with Molly & the other Pets--read Mr. Quillinan's Sacrifice of Isabel--an elegant Poem--very short.

Tuesday 21

At home--heard from Mr. Haydon--worked at my shirt--fed my Bobbies at the Window--read Mordaunt--an excellent old Novel.

Wednesday 22

At home. Heard from Miss James--went firtopping--fed a charming Bobby in the plantation--read Memoirs of the Marquis of Montrosea very great man & great poet!--did some tatting.

Thursday 23

At home--Heard from Mary Webb & Heard from Miss Nooth--went firtopping--Mr. Dickinson called--wrote to Mary Webb & lent Charles Knyvett six of Dr. Russell's sermons.

Friday 24

At home--went firtopping--fed my bobbies--wrote to Miss James--read Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the slave trade. Good.

Saturday 25

At home--received a proof sheet from Mr. Dickinson, corrected it & wrote a note to him. Walked with dear Drum--fed my bobbies--read the Munster Cottage boy Middling.

Sunday 26

At home--heard from Sir William--went Firtopping--fed my bobbies--wrote to Mr. Johnson--read the Munster Cottage Boy.

Monday 27

At home--walked out with Drum & my pets--fed my Bobbies--read Rhoda--pretty good but too dismal--Molly a sweet lamb.

Tuesday 28

At home--heard from Mrs. Dickinson--fed my bobbies--wrote to Sir William Elford & Miss Nooth--read Queenhoo Hall--good.

Wednesday 29

At home--walked with dear Drum in the Snow--fed my bobbies--worked at my shirt--read M. Visconti's Catalogue of pictures &c in the Louvre.

Thursday 30

At home--heard from --went to Reading with Drum--called at Mr. Harris's, the Rowdens, Brookes, Marshes, Whites, Newbery's & Jolyffe's--came home to dinner--a very pleasant morning.

Friday 31

At home--Heard from Miss Webb--wrote to Mrs. Rowden & Heard from Miss Nooth--fed my Bobbies--tried a pattern upon some net--wrote to Mr. Haydon.

Gloss of Names Mentioned

Nature

brown hare

species: Lepus europaeus
genus: Lepus
family: Leporidae

Hares and jackrabbits are wild members of the rabbit family. Brown hares are small, furry mammals with golden brown fur with white underbellies and tails and black-tipped ears. They have longer ears and more powerful legs than European rabbits and live alone or in pairs, rather than in groups. Thought to be introduced into Britain from Eurasia with the Romans or earlier.

beetroot

species: Beta vulgaris
genus: Caryophyllales
family: Amaranthaceae

Garden plant grown primarily for its edible roots, but also for its edible leaves, sometimes known as chard or beet greens. Cultivated in the ancient world for food and for medicinal use. Other important subspecies are sugar beet, grown to make table sugar, and mangelwurzel, an animal fodder crop.

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.

robin redbreast

species: Erithacus rubecula
genus: Erithacus
family: Muscicapidae

Small songbird, native to Europe, now considered a type of Old World flycatcher. In Mitford's time, believed to be part of the thrush family, along with nightingales. Not to be confused with the American robin, a new World thrush, this bird is sometimes referred to as an English robin in North America. Frequently referenced in British folk tales and popular culture, the bird became associated with the Christmas holiday in the mid-nineteenth century. The bird's name derives from the male forename Robin or Robert, which led to nicknames of Bob and Bobby. Robins in Great Britain are generally less wary of humans than their counterparts in continental Europe. Mitford calls the tame robins she feeds her bobbies.

domestic pig

species: Sus domesticus
genus: Sus
family: Suidae

Large omnivorous domestic animal kept as livestock primarily for meat, but pig's bristles and hide are also used. Likely domesticated from wild boar in three separate areas: first in the Near East and China and later in Europe. By the 19th century, native UK breeds included: Tamworth, Large White, Large Black, British Lop, Berkshire, and Oxford Sandy and Black. The Berkshire is considered the oldest British breed; it's a stocky, medium-sized black pig with white patches and legs. The Oxford Sandy and Black developed in Oxfordshire in the 18th century; it's a medium-sized pig with reddish, sandy-colored skin and black patches.

Places

Publications

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).

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).

Memoirs of the Rev. Henry Martyn

Author:
Date:

Full title: Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D. late fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and chaplain to the East India Company.

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

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 .

Biographical Memoir of the Public and Private Life of the Much Lamented Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and Saxe-Coburg

Author:
Date:

Full title: A biographical memoir of the public and private life of the much lamented Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and Saxe-Coburg: illustrated with recollections, anecdotes, and traits of character, including incidental observations upon persons and events connected with the subject of the memoir, accompanied by explanatory and authentic documents in an appendix. Mitford rated it a catch penny thing.

Blackwood’s Magazine

Author: No author listed.
Date:

Founded as a Tory magazine in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Review.

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

The Private Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin

Author:
Date:

Full title: The private correspondence of Benjamin Franklin [ . . .]: comprising a series of letters on miscellaneous, literary, and political subjects written between the years 1753 and 1790, illustrating the memoirs of his public and private life, and developing the secret history of his political transactions and negociations. Mitford rated itfamous.

The Diary of the late George Bubb Dodington

Author:
Date:

Full title: The Diary of the Late George Bubb Dodington, Baron of Melcombe Regis, from March 8, 1749, to February 6, 1761. Mitford called it Corruption itself.

The Sacrifice Of Isabel: A Poem.

Author:
Date:

Mitford rated it an elegant Poem.

Mordaunt: Sketches of Life, Characters, and Manners, in Various Countries

Author:
Date:

Full title: Mordaunt: Sketches of Life, Characters, and Manners, in Various Countries; including the Memoirs of a French Lady of Quality.. Mitford rated it an excellent old Novel.

Memoirs of the Most Renowned James Graham, Marquis of Montrose

Author: #Duke_Montrose #Wishart_Geo
Date:

Full title: Memoirs of the most renowned James Graham, Marquis of Montrose. Translated from the Latin of the Rev. Dr. George Wishart, afterwards Bishop of Edinburgh. To which are added, sundry original letters, never before published. After reading, Mitford commented that Graham was a very great man & great poet!.

Manuscript sermons

Author: #Russell_Richard
Date: No date listed.

Unpublished manuscript sermons by Mitford's grandfather. Mitford owns a copy, which she loans to Charles Knyvett.

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

Italian Translations

Author: #Dickinson_Charles
Date:

Unpublished manuscript translations of works in Italian. Mitford reviewed the manuscript proofs.

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

Queenhoo Hall, A Romance

Author:
Date:

3 volumes. Published with Ancient Times, a drama as volume 4.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the Royal Museum, or, the Louvre

Author:
Date:

Full title: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the Royal Museum, or, the Louvre; also, A description of the sculpture in the lower gallery.

Persons, Personas, and Characters

Barbara Wreaks Hofland

Hofland Wreaks Barbara
Yorkshire, England
Richmond-on-Thames

Novelist and writer of children’s books popular in England and America, Barbara Hofland was a native of Sheffield, Yorkshire, where she published poems from July 1794 in the local newspaper, The Sheffield Iris. Her first marriage to Thomas Bradshawe Hoole left her widowed and in poverty, raising a son, Frederic, on her own, and she supported herself by publishing poems and children’s books, and by running a girl’s school in Harrogate. second marriage was to the artist Thomas Christopher Hofland. (Source: ODNB)

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.

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).

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.

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.

John Johnson

Johnson John Mr.
the Junius of Marlow
Timothy Trueman

Friend who leaves his collection of political books to Northmore upon his death in 1821. Mitford helps his sister, Miss Johnson, sort out the books that are part of the estate, according to her letter of 1 July 1821. Lived at Seymour Court near Great Marlow before his death. Mitford reports meeting Mr. Johnson and Mr. Northmore for the first time in March 1819 in a letter to Elford. She describes him as one of those delightful old men that render age so charming--mild playful kind & wise--talking just as Isaac Walton would have talked if we were to [have] gone out fishing with him. The Gentleman’s Magazine obituary lists his full name as John Johnson, esq. and gives his date of death as 5 April 1821. See Obituary; with Anecdotes of Remarkable Persons. Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Review 91.1 (1821): [Died] April 5 . . . John Johnson, esq. of Seymour-court, near Great Marlow, a celebrated member of the Hampden Club, and author of various political letters, &c., under the signature of Timothy Trueman (381). The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature 16 (1821), lists the same death date and notes that he was author of various political letters and essays in Mr. B. Flower’s Political Register and other periodical works, under the signature of Timothy Trueman (314).

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.

Alexander Baring, Baron Ashburton

Baring Alexander 1st Baron Ashburton
Lord Ashburton
Longleat, Wiltshire, England

Influential financier, politician, and government official. Head of Baring Brothers, Merchants, which later operated as Barings Bank, which upon its collapse in 1995 was Britain's oldest merchant bank. Barings also served as Member of Parliament for Taunton and later, for North Essex, and as Master of the Mint, President of the Board of Trade, and Ambassador to the United States. In 1842, as Ambassador, he was responsible for the Ashburton Treaty, which delimited the frontiers between British North America and the USA.

Luigi Pulci

Luigi Pulci
Florence, Italy

Forentine poet, patronized by the Medici family.

William Tuppen

William Tuppen Captain
Captain Tuppen

In Mitford's time, a captain retired from the Royal West regiment of the London militia. Later became a magistrate and served as mayor of Reading.

Henry Martyn

Martyn Henry
Truro, Cornwall, England
Tokat, Anatolia, Turkey

Church of England clergyman, chaplain to the British East India Company, and missionary to India and Persia. Translated the Book of Common Prayer and parts of the Christian Bible into several Indo-Aryan languages. Mitford read his autobiography: Memoirs of the Rev. Henry Martyn.

http://viaf.org/viaf/64842594

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.

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.

Molly

Mitford's dog, whom she describes in a letter of 1820-11-27 as a pretty little Spaniel with long curling hair--so white & delicate & ladylike.

Charles Fyshe Palmer

Palmer Charles Fyshe
Long Fyshe
Luckley House, Wokingham, Berkshire, England
Wokingham, Berkshire, England

Charles Fyshe Palmer was the son of Charles Fyshe Palmer and Lucy Jones. He married Lady Madelina Gordon Sinclair in 1805 at Kimbolton Castle in Kimbolton, Herefordshire . They lived at Luckley House, Wokingham, Berkshire and at East Court, Finchampstead, Berkshire. Through her siblings, Lady Madelina was connected to several of the most influential aristocratic families in the country, and Charles Fyshe Palmer’s marriage to Lady Madelina thus gained him access to aristocratic houses, including the Holland House.

A Whig politician, Palmer began running for Parliament elections as the member for Reading after 1816, and appears to have served off and on in that role until 1841. He led the Berkshire meetings to protest British government’s handling of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. On March 16, 1820, Palmer ran for a seat in Parliament against two other candidates. The votes ran: John Berkeley Monck (418 votes), Charles Fyshe Palmer(399 votes), and John Weyland(395 votes.) Mitford’s letters around this time indicate she much preferred his opponent J. B. Monck, and she had earlier satirized Palmer in 1818 as vastly like a mop-stick, or, rather, a tall hop-pole, or an extremely long fishing-rod, or anything that is all length and no substance.

Mitford also mentions Palmer in connection with a legal issue surrounding the Billiard Club, in her letter to Talfourd of 31 August 1822 . Mitford also mentions the ways that Palmer’s political opponents sometimes undermined his Whig reformist positions by referencing the noble privileges (and money) he accrued by marrying the Lady Madelina Gordon in 1805.

John Milton

John Milton
Secretary for Foreign Tongues
Bread Street, Cheapside, London, England
Bunhill, London, England

English poet and polemical essayist who wrote in support of Parliamentary and Puritan causes, best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667).

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.

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.

Charlotte Augusta, Princess of Wales and Saxe Coburg

Hanover Charlotte Augusta Princess of Wales and Saxe Coburg
Princess Charlotte
London, London, England
London, London, England

Only child of the Prince Regent and Princess Caroline and second in line to the throne of Great Britain. She died in childbirth after giving birth to a stillborn son. She was a populat Royal and her death prompted an outpouring of grief across the British Empire and Europe. Mitford read a biography about her: Biographical Memoir of the Public and Private Life of the Much Lamented Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and Saxe-Coburg.

http://viaf.org/viaf/10708649

John Booth

Booth John
England
England

Mitford read his Biographical Memoir of the Public and Private Life of the Much Lamented Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and Saxe-Coburg.

http://viaf.org/viaf/251043202

Francis (Frank) Cowslade

Francis Cowslade
Frank

As Coles notes, Francis or Frank Cowslade was one of the publishers of the Reading Mercury newspaper (Coles # 16, p.95, note 11). He appears to have also worked as a Reading jobbing printer and bookseller; he is listed as such on two of the published political essays of the pseudonymousTimothy Trueman.

Jesse Cliff

Cliff Jesse

Jesse Cliff gave the Mitford family elderly bantams (chickens) in 1819. Source: Journal.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin
Boston, Massachusetts Bay, British America
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Polymath, naturalist and inventor. Newspaper editor, printer and postmaster in Philadelphia. Author of Poor Richard's Almanack. Later served as Ambassador to France and spent many years in Europe. He is one of the framers and signers of the Declaration of Independence; he was also a signer of the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and the United States Constitution. He also served as the first United States Postmaster General and as President (similar to Governor) of Pennsylvania. In letters of 1819, Mitford names Franklin as one of only two Americans she admires; the other was George Washington, a view she shared with many of her contemporaries of moderate political views.

George Bubb Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe

Dodington George Bubb 1st Baron Melcombe
George Bubb
London, London, England
London, London, England

Whig M.P. from 1715 to 1761 and government minister. Mitford read his posthumously-published memoir, The Diary of the late George Bubb Dodington.

http://viaf.org/viaf/36909450

Edward Quillinan

Quillinan Edward
Oporto, Portugal
Loughrig Holme, Ambleside, Westmorland, England

Son of a wine merchant of Irish descent who made his fortune in Portugal, his family emigrated to England and he joined the British army as a young man. Translator of Portuguese literature. Spouse of Dora Wordsworth.

Charlotte Nooth

Nooth Charlotte
Ireland

A friend of Dr. Richard Valpy, who resided at Kew, Surrey, but often visited Paris. She wrote a poem to Dr. Valpy and published volumes of poetry in 1815 & 1816, including a verse tragedy, as well as a novel, Eglantine, published by A.J. Valpy

Charles Knyvett

Knyvett Charles

Young clergyman to whom Mitfordlends six of Dr. Russell's sermons in 1819. Source: Journal.

Rev. Dr. Richard Russell

Russell Richard Reverend Dr.
Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
Ashe, Hampshire, England

Mary Russell Mitford's maternal grandfather. The Rev. Dr. Richard Russell was the son of William Russell and Jane Coleman, and was a distant relation of the Dukes of Bedford (sixth creation, 1694). He was married twice; first, to Elizabeth Boulte, by whom he had a daughter, Ann Russell; second, to Mary Dicker, by whom he had three children: Charles William, Frances, and Mary. The Rev. Dr. Richard Russell was the rector of Ashe and the Vicar of Overton and the family lived at Ashe, Hampshire. He likely died in early 1783, before Mitford was born, since his will was probated on February 25, 1783.

Ennio Quirino Visconti

Visconti Ennio Quirino
Rome, Italy
Paris, France

Expert on Roman sculpture and other antiquities of the ancient world. With his father, art conservator and cataloguer of the Roman antiquities owned by the Vatican in the 1780s. In the 1790s, he also published catalogs of Richard Worsley's Greek antiquities and of the sculptures in the Villa Borghese. Emigrated to Paris, where he became curator of Napoleon's collections at the Louvre and a professor of archaeology. Published 7 volumes of Greek and Roman ancient world portraits, in French. One of the experts consulted on the Elgin Marbles. He believed that Roman sculptures did not imitate but improved upon the works of the Greeks. Mitford read his A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the Royal Museum, or, the Louvre.

http://viaf.org/viaf/12366161

Mr. Harris

Harris Mr.

Dates unknown. Local doctor, not the same person as Henry Harris, the Covent Garden Theatre manager. Forename unknown.

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) .