Wednesday 1st
At home--fed my bobbies both at the window & in the plantations--went firtopping--got a great
many--read Vicissitudes--delightful old
thing.
Mar 1820
Thursday 2nd
Friday 3rd
At home--went firtopping, got a great many--wrote a handbill for Mr. Monck--Drum heard from Mr.
Johnson.
Saturday 4th
At home--went firtopping--got a great many--two Bobbies I
think man & wife followed me all over the plantation & behind the house & ate bread that I threw
them in half a dozen different places--heard from Sir William Elford--Molly
brought to bed of two live puppies & two dead ones--Molly as well as can be expected poor dear.
Sunday 5th
At home--heard from Miss James--went to Farley Hill--came home
to dinner--wrote to Dr. Harness &
Miss James--nursed Molly.
Monday 6th
Tuesday 7th
At home--Dear Mrs. Dickinson brought to bed of a girl--went firtopping, got a great many--read the Life
of Wesley (Charles &
John) stupid enough.
Wednesday 8th
Thursday 9th
At home--went into Reading to the Election--called on Mrs. Jolliffe--the
Brookes--the
Tuppens-- the Valpys--dined with
Mrs. Marsh--came home at night--a very pleasant day.
Friday 10th
Saturday 11th
Sunday 12th
At home--went with dear Drum to Farley
Hill--saw Mrs. Dickinson,
Mrs. Allingham & the sweet little
baby--dined at the Webbs when I met John
Wheeler--came home at
night--pleasant day.
Monday 13th
Tuesday 14th
At home--went to the Election--called
on Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Tuppen & Miss
Brooke--got a cook--sat at
Lane's--went to the Hall--dined at the Valpy's--very pleasant day.
Wednesday 15th
At home--went to the Election with
Drum--heard from Miss James--called at the Anstruthers & Valpy's--saw the Members (Monck & Palmer) chaired from Mr.
Cowpers at the Crown--heard
the speeches at Mrs. Letchworth's--saw
Mr. Weylands shabby procession from
Mrs. Jolliffe's--dined with Mrs. Marsh--a delightful day--gloriously bright
& sunshiny--the Chairing the finest sight I ever beheld--upwards of ten
thousand people--all quiet & rejoicing.
At home Thursday 16th
At home--went firtopping, got a few--went primrosing,
got a good many--read Memoires de Napoleon en 1815 par M. Fleury de
Chaboulon--a good fellow-- but the book rather
dull.
Friday 17th
Mr. Elliot & his son came to take possession--Tom White & Captain Tuppen called--read Memoires de Napoleon--a most interesting book. At home all day with a bad cold.
Saturday 18th
At home--went Firtopping in the middle
Plantation--got a great many--heard from Mary Webb--read Vicissitudes--my cold a good deal better--nursed Molly.
Sunday 19th
At home--cold better--went firtopping--read Shakespeare & his Times, good materials badly used--nursed
Moll & the Pups.
Monday 20th
At home--wrote to Mrs. Rowden, Mrs.
Dickinson & Sir
William--walked to the
Cross with dear Granny to
look at Mr. Bodys house--read Shakespeare & his Times.
Tuesday 21st
At home--Drum went to London--Mrs. Rowden came to
see us, dined & slept there--a very pleasant day indeed--I was delighted to
see her.
Wednesday 22nd
At home--took Mrs. Rowden back to
Reading--called on the Valpy's, Hawkes's, Brookes, Bulleys &c.--hired a
Cook--came back to dinner--pleasant morning.
Thursday 23rd
At home--heard from dear Drum--went flowering
in Mr.
Body's Fields & my
own--got a great many violets in
Mr. Bodys
fields (the first this year) & primroses yellow, white & coloured in our own--Dear Drum came home in the
evening--read Shakespeare & his
Times.
Friday 24th
At home--went firtopping--did not get many--Heard from Mrs. Hudswell about our old
Cook's misconduct--& from Mary
Webb--Had a quarrel with Mrs.
Howell about my Carnations which she
stole--made Drum's old Cocked Hat into a
bonnet--read Combers Parisian Massacre--bad--& Wentworth's Account
of New South Wales--not good.
Saturday 25th
Sunday 26th
Monday 27th
Tuesday 28th
Wednesday 29th
Thursday 30th
Friday 31st
At home--Drum & Granny went to
Reading--went violetting Pinge wood way--got
a great many--read the New London Magazine--very
good--wrote to Mrs. Jolliffe.
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
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.
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.
flower
Flowering plants, whether domesticated or wild.
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
carnation
- species: Dianthus Caryophyllus
- genus: Dianthus
- family: Caryophyllaceae
Cultivated variety of the clove or clove-pink. Scentless types are used for men's buttonholes.
Places
Publications
Vicissitudes
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Author and date unidentified. May be On the Origin and Vicissitudes of Literature, Science and Art, And Their Influence on the Present State of Society (1817) or Vicissitudes of life (1815).
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).
The Life of Wesley
- Author:
- Date:
2 volumes. Full title: The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism. Mitford rated it very good.
Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa, by the late J. Leyden
- Author:
- Date:
Full title: Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa, by the late J. Leyden, enlarged and completed to the present time, with illustrations.
Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la vie privée, du retour, et du règne de Napoléon en 1815
- Author:
- Date:
Mitford rated it rather dull but then also called it a most interesting book.
Shakespeare and His Times: Including the Biography of the Poet; Criticisms on his Genius and Writings; A New Chronology of the Plays; A Disquisition on the Object of His Sonnets; And a History of the Manners, Customs, and Amusements, Superstitions, Poetry, and Elegant Literature of His Age
- Author: Nathan Drake
- Date:
1817 Sunday 19th
March 1820
Mitford considered it good materials badly used. In journal entry Sunday 19th March 1820 .
The History of the Parisian Massacre
- Author: #Comber_Thos
- Date:
Full title: The History of the Parisian Massacre; Wherein all the minute circumstances of that sanguinary event are faithfully pourtrayed: collected from unpublished manuscripts, impartial historic writers, and other authentic sources.. Mitford rated it bad.
A Description of the Colony of New South Wales
- Author:
- Date:
Full title: A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales, and its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land. Mitford rated it not good.
Quarterly Review
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
1809 1809 until 1824 1825 from 1826 through 1853
Tory periodical founded by George Canning in 1809, published by John Murray. William Gifford edited the Quarterly Review from its founding in 1809 until 1824, was succeeded briefly by John Taylor Coleridge in 1825, until John Gibson Lockhart took over as editor from 1826 through 1853. Archived at Romantic Circles, Quarterly Review Archive
The London Magazine
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
1820 to 1829 1732 to 1785 1820 1829 27 February 1821 April 1821
An 18th-century periodical of this title (The London Magazine, or Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer) ran from 1732 to 1785 . In 1820, John Scott launched a new series of The London Magazine emulating the style of Blackwood’s Magazine, though the two magazines soon came into heated contention. This series ran until 1829, and this is the series to which Mitford and her correspondents frequently refer in their letters. Scott’s editorship lasted until his death by duel on 27 February 1821 resulting form bitter personal conflict with the editors of Blackwood’s Magazine connected with their insulting characterization of a London Cockney School. After Scott’s death, William Hazlitt took up editing the magazine with the April 1821 issue.
Persons, Personas, and Characters
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.
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.
J. B. Monck
- John Berkeley Monck
Member of Parliament for Reading area
1820-1830, who frequently franked Mary Russell Mitford’s letters. Mitford’s letter to Sir William
Elford of 20 March 1820 about the
election of Monck describes him in context with a politically active
Patriot shoemaker, Mr.
Warry, who brought him from France. Monck was the author of
General Reflections on the System of the Poor Laws
(1807), in which he argued for a gradual approach
to abolishing the Poor Laws, and for the reform of workhouses. Francis Needham claims that it is he who
is referred to in Violeting, when the narrator thinks she sees Mr. and Mrs.
M. and dear B.. (Dear B. would be their son,
Bligh.) Dr. Webb’s research suggests that celebrated
shoemaker is Mr. Warry, possibly Joseph
Source:
Francis Needham, Letter to
William Roberts, 26 March 1954. Needham Papers, Reading Central
Library.
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.
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.
Rev. William Harness
- William Harness
- Wickham, Hampshire, England
- Battle, Sussex, England
A lifelong friend of Mary Russell Mitford
who knew her from their childhood in the 1790s, Harness launched the first
major effort to collect and edit Mitford’s letters into a series of volumes,
which was completed by his assistant, Alfred Guy
Kingan L’Estrange a year after Harness’s death, and published
as The Life of Mary Russell Mitford, Related
in a Selection from her Letters to her Friends. This collection
was originally intended to be six volumes, but was cut back to three by the
publishers, to Harness’s distress. Harness and Byron were also friends from
their schooling at Harrow, as Byron sympathized with Harness’s experience of
a disabled foot, crushed in an accident in early childhood. Byron considered
dedicating the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage
to Harness, but refrained so as not to taint Harness’s reputation as
he was taking orders as an Anglican curate. Harness admired and encouraged
Mitford’s playwrighting in particular, and she commented that he was one of
the few of her friends who thought she should prioritize the drama over
prose. When William Macready was
attacked in an anonymous Blackwood’s Magazine piece
in 1825 for his demands and rudeness to Mitford over revisions to
Rienzi, Macready assumed that Harness was
the author of the anonymous piece, though in 1839
after many years of distance, Harness assured Macready in person that he was
not the writer, though he may have shared word of the poor treatment his
friend had endured. William Harness was the son of John
Harness, M.D. and Sarah Dredge; he was baptized at Whitchurch, Hampshire on
April 13, 1790. He received his B.A. in 1812 and his M.A. in 1816 from
Christ’s College, Cambridge. He served as curate at Kelmeston, Hampshire
(1812) and Dorking (1814-1816). He was preacher at Trinity Chapel, Conduit
Street, London and minister and lecturer at St. Anne’s in Soho. He was Boyle
lecturer in London (1822) and was curate at Hampstead from 1828 to 1844. In
1825, he published an eight-volume edition of Shakespeare, including a
biography; his friends would later endow a prize in his name at Cambridge
for the study of Shakespearean literature. He also authored numerous essays
and reviews, some for the Quarterly Review. From 1844 to 1847 he was
minister of Brompton Chapel in London. He undertook to raise the funds to
build the church of All Saints, Knightsbridge, in the parish of St.
Margaret’s Westminster, which opened in 1849, and he then became perpetual curate
of
that congregation. At the 1851 and 1861 censuses, he lived at 3 Hyde Park
Terrace, Westminster St. Margaret, Middlesex, with his sister Mary Harness
and his first cousin Jemima Harness, daughter of his uncle William. He died
while on a visit to one of his former curates in
Battle, Sussex. At the time of his death he living at the same address at 3
Hyde Park Terrace; he is buried in Bath.Sources:
Duncan-Jones, Miss Mitford and Mr. Harness
(1955); Lord Byron and His Times:
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).
John Leyden
- John Leyden
- Denholm, Roxburghshire, Scotland
- Cornelis, Batavia, Java
Scottish antiquary, poet, and orientalist who assisted Walter Scott in compiling the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Sources: LBT, DNB.
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.
Mrs. Marsh
- Marsh Mrs.
Likely the spouse of Harry Marsh. Associated with Reading. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
Mrs. Allingham
- Allingham Mrs.
Likely the mother of Catherine Dickinson. Mitford visited them at Farley Hill in 1820, when their daughter Frances was born. Source: Journal.
Frances Vikris Dickinson Elliott
- Elliott Geils Dickinson Frances Vikris
- Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, England
- Siena, Toscana, Italy
Frances Dickinson was the only child of Charles Dickinson and Catherine Allingham.
Her father Charles died when she was seven years old, and she inherited the considerable
wealth that had descended to him from his extended family's West Indian ventures.
She is buried in Rome. She was married to and divorced from her first husband, John
Edward Geils (1813-1894) and later married the Rev. Gilbert Elliott (1800-1891).
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,
.
Cook
Cook Mitford hired Reading for Bertram House on March 14, 1820. She is employed for about a week, then resigns or is fired, as another Cook is hired
on March 21. Mrs. Hudswell tells her about their
old Cook's misconduct, as reported in the Journal on March 14, 1820. Name unknown. Dates unknown.
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 Weyland
- Weyland John
- England
- Woodrising, Norfolk, England
Tory journal editor and political figure. He and William Roberts founded the Christian
evangelical periodial the British Review and London Critical Journal, a quarterly that appeared between 1811 and 1825. He authored several publications
on population and the English poor laws, including A Short Enquiry into the Policy, Humanity, and Effect of the Poor Laws (1807); Observations on Mr. Whitbread's Poor Bill and on the Population of England (1807); The Principle of the English Poor Laws, illustrated from the Evidence given by Scottish
Proprietors (before the Corn Committee,) on the Connexion observed in Scotland between
the Price of Grain and the Wages of Labour (1815); and The Principles of Population and Production as they are affected by the Progress of
Society (1816). He believed that hardship was an incentive to industry and he did not support
further education of the poor. On March 16, 1820, Weyland was the Blue (or Tory) candidate, supported by the municipal corporation,
in the Reading election. Three candidates ran: John Berkeley Monck (418 votes), Charles Fyshe Palmer(399 votes), and John Weyland (395 votes.); Weyland was not returned. See . Weyland later won a seat as Member of Parliament for Hindon, Wiltshire, and served
from 1830 to 1832.
Pierre Alexandre Edouard Fleury de Chaboulon
- deChaboulon Pierre Alexandre Edouard Fleury
Tom White
- White Tom
Mentioned in connection with Captain Tuppen, may be a relation of Mr. White of Reading. Dates unknown. Source: Journal.
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.
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)
.
Richard Body
- Body Richard
- Arborfield, Berkshire, England
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
Cook
Cook Mitford hired Readingfor Bertram House, ahead of their move to Three Mile Cross on March 21, 1820. Name unknown. Dates unknown.
Thomas Comber
- Comber Thomas
- England
- England
Likely the Rev. Thomas Comber, vicar of Creech St. Michael, Somerset and then rector
of Oswaldkirk, Yorkshire; great grandson and biographer of the Rev. Thomas Comber
(1645–1699), Dean of Durham from 1689. Active 1799 to 1828. Mitford read his History of the Parisian Massacre. Sources: McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia, WorldCat, VIAF, title page of
History of the Parisian Massacre. See also Copinger, W.A., The Comber Family
Notes and Queries (30 Jan. 1904): 89.
William Charles Wentworth
- Wentworth William Charles
- Norfolk Island, New South Wales
- Wimborne, Dorset, England
Mitford read his A Description of the Colony of New South Wales.
Thomas Davies
- Davies Thomas Mr.
- Farmer Davies
Lived in Earley. Owned a neighboring meadow near Bertram House
Francis Beaumont
- Beaumont Francis
- Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire, England
- London, England
Contributor to a corpus of plays published in the seventeenth century as the collaborative
works of Beaumont and John Fletcher. Many of these plays are now thought to have been
composed by only one of the duo, with or without a third author, or by neither. Perhaps
the most famous Beaumont and Fletcher play is the ribald comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Beaumont was also a poet and friend of Ben Jonson. He contributed prefatory verses
to Jonson's comedy Volpone.
John Fletcher
- Fletcher John
- Rye, Sussex, England
- London, England
Playwright following Shakespeare, contemporary of Ben Jonson in the early seventeenth century, and collaborator with Francis Beaumont. Some plays once attributed to Beaumont and Fletcher as a duo were now known to have
been written by only one of them and/or with other collaborators.