Queer Places:
Tixall Gatehouse, Tixall, Stafford ST18 0XT, UK
Chandos House, 27 Chapel St, Belgravia, London SW1X 7DA, UK
Convent of the Sacred Heart Cemetery
Roehampton, London Borough of Wandsworth, Greater London, England
Georgiana
Fullerton (September 23, 1812 - January 19, 1885) was an English novelist,
philanthropist, biographer, and school founder. She was born into a noble
political family. She was one of the foremost Roman Catholic novelists writing
in England during the nineteenth century.[1]
In her youth,
Anne Isabella
Thackeray Ritchie recorded in an 1854 journal entry how she “fell in love
with Miss Geraldine Mildmay” at one party and Lady Georgina Fullerton “won
[her] heart” at another.
Lady Georgiana Fullerton, born as Lady Georgiana Charlotte Leveson-Gower,
was born at home in
Tixall Hall,
Staffordshire, England. She was the second daughter of
Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, the first Earl of Granville, and
Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish.[2]
She was baptized in the
Anglican faith on 10 October 1812, in Tixall Hall,[3]
where her family was staying at the time.
For many of her younger years, she resided in
Paris, where
her father served as the English ambassador.[4]
While there she had occasion to take piano lessons from a young
Franz
Liszt.[5]
On 13 July 1833 she married embassy attaché Alexander George Fullerton, in
Paris. She and her husband left Paris 8 years later, when her father retired
from the embassy. They lived in
Rome for a few
years, where her husband converted to
Roman Catholicism. She followed in his footsteps and was received into the
Roman Catholic Church on
Passion Sunday, 29 March 1846 in London.[4]
In 1855, her only son died at the age of 21,[4]
overwhelming her with grief and throwing her and her husband into a permanent
state of mourning. After the loss of her only son, she devoted herself to
works of philanthropy and charity. In 1856, she adopted the
Franciscan tradition by enrolling herself in the
third order of St. Francis. A the time of the 1861 England Census, she,
her husband, and eleven servants lived at 27 Chapel St in the fashionable
St. George Hanover Square,
Mayfair,
London.[6]
The Fullerton residence in
Sussex was
the center of her charitable works, which include her efforts to bring the
sisters of
St. Vincent of Paul to England. In 1872, she assisted in the founding of
Frances Margaret Taylor's school and religious community
Poor Servants of the Mother of God Incarnate in which she served as the
benefactor.
Three years later, she moved for the final time with her husband and eight
servants to
Bournemouth, into their home called Ayrfield, Gervis Road in which she
passed away on 19 January 1885.[7]
Her remains are in the Cemetery of the Sacred Heart,
Roehampton. Following her death, Madame, Augustus Craven (née La
Ferronays) published a work titled Lady Georgiana Fullerton, sa Vie et ses
Œuvres, documenting Fullerton's philanthropic work.[2]
A Blue Plaque commemorating her charitable activities can be found on the
Sacred Heart Church in Bournemouth.
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgiana_Fullerton
- Marcus, Sharon. Between Women (p.32). Princeton University Press.
Edizione del Kindle.