Georgiana Chatterton
Georgiana, Lady Chatterton, later Mrs Dering was an English aristocrat, traveller, and author. Her first travelogue, Rambles in the South of Ireland, was published in 1839.
Life
Henrietta Georgiana Marcia Lascelles Iremonger was born at 24 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, on 11 November 1806, the only child of the Rev. Lascelles Iremonger, a prebendary of Winchester Cathedral, and his second wife, the former Harriett Gambier, youngest sister of Admiral Lord James Gambier. Her mother's family had been acquainted with Samuel Johnson, William Wilberforce, Madame de Staël, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Hannah More, among other public figures, who visited their seat at Barham Court. According to parish records, Georgiana was baptised on 2 December 1805 at St George's Hanover Square Church, suggesting that her reported year of birth may be inaccurate. Georgiana's family travelled frequently, visiting various relatives. They more commonly stayed with her Uncle William Pitt Morgan and Aunt Margaret, who often had lunch with King George III.On 3 August 1824, Georgiana was presented before the Court to the King and Queen in a formal ceremony. At her debutante's ball, she met Sir William Abraham Chatterton, 2nd Baronet of Castle Mahon, County Cork, who was 18 years her senior. She married him aged 17 on 3 August 1824 at St George's Hanover Square Church. They spent their early married years at his home in Castle Mahon, Cork, Ireland, and in Winchester with Georgiana's parents. While living in County Cork, Georgiana's poor health caused her to move to Florence, Italy, a city which at the time was expanding with cultural and social diversity and ideas. This increased her interest in writing novels. She spent several subsequent winters abroad.
After her father's death, the couple moved to Seamore Place in Mayfair where they were known for their wealth and were regular guests of King William IV. Georgiana often visited Princess Victoria at Tunbridge Wells. There she wrote her first work of fiction, entitled Aunt Dorothy's Tales, and published it anonymously. Soon after, in 1839, she published a second novel, Rambles in South Ireland, which was well received, selling out within weeks. She would continue writing novels every two years, while keeping up a thriving social life with London's literary intelligentsia.
In 1845–1851, the Great Irish Famine deprived her husband of his rents and forced them to move back to England and stay in Rolls Park in Essex until 5 August 1855, when Sir William Chatterton died. After two years of grieving, Georgiana and Rebecca Orpen, Sir William's niece, who was in her care, decided to resume regularly attending parties and social gatherings. Soon after, Georgiana met a fellow novelist, Edward Heneage Dering,. Edward's intention was to marry Rebecca, but due to poor hearing Lady Chatterton assumed the proposal was made to her. On 1 June 1859, the widow married Dering and they took up residence in 1869 with Rebecca and her husband Marmion, the last old squire of Baddesley Clinton Hall, Warwickshire. There Marmion and Dering took to wearing 17th-century costume.
Within six years of their marriage, Dering was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Georgiana herself wavered, but after a correspondence with William Bernard Ullathorne, Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, she converted as well in August 1875. Her husband stated that she lived by three principles during her lifetime: to know the will of God and do it; to see everything exactly how it was, without reference to her own wishes; and never to turn aside from a difficulty, however easily avoided.
Georgiana Dering died at Baddesley Clinton Hall on 6 February 1876, aged 69. She was a successful author, and died extremely wealthy, leaving an estate valued at just under £40,000. She was buried at the Catholic Church of St Francis of Assisi, where Edward Dering, Rebecca Ferrers and her husband Marmion would later be buried as well.
Writings
Lady Chatterton's first book, Aunt Dorothy's Tales, was published anonymously in two volumes. Two years later came Rambles in the South of Ireland, whose first edition sold out in weeks. Many other tales, novels, poems and travel accounts followed, under the name Georgiana Chatterton. Despite the extreme success of her first two novels, Georgiana would often remark that her books never made "a hit".In her novel Allanson, or The Infidel, she explains how she feared she might appear a different person to others than she really was: "Most of us try to be blind to our own inconsistencies, and this, perhaps, makes us less aware of the inconsistency of others". Later, she noted how there were good men that would not commit a bad act even when tempted and bad men who would never do a good act when tempted. While writing this book, Lady Chatterton kept up a self-enforced solitude.
Chatterton's poem "Leonore" indicated her kindness to others. Her behaviour towards strangers and friends is described in her writings: "The most agreeable persons are certainly those who have the greatest faith in the goodness of others. By appealing to the best feelings of those with whom we converse, by giving them credit for good qualities... these good feelings into play."
Lady Chatterton, in Spain and the Pyrenees, wrote of her adventures and travels around the world, making observations and telling stories. One such is a disagreement with the Pope, in a short story that explains how marriage is banned on pain of excommunication. Cardinal John Henry Newman praised her refinement of thought in her later fiction. More recently, however, her work has been described as banal and called "uniformly unmemorable".