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Frances Anne Edgeworth

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Frances Anne Edgeworth
Born
Frances Anne Beaufort

1769 (1769)
Navan, County Meath, Ireland
Died10 February 1865(1865-02-10) (aged 95–96)
Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland
NationalityIrish
Other namesFanny
Occupations
  • Artist
  • Memoirist
Known forBotanical painting
Parents
Relatives

Frances Anne Edgeworth (née Beaufort) (1769–1865), known as Fanny, was an Irish botanical artist and memoirist. She was the stepmother and confidant of the author Maria Edgeworth.[1][2]

Early life

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Frances Anne Beaufort was born at Flower Hill in Navan, County Meath, in 1769.[3] She was one of four children of Daniel Augustus Beaufort and Mary Beaufort (née Waller). Her brother was Admiral Francis Beaufort, and her sisters were the writers Harriet and Louisa. She was educated at Mrs Terson's School at Portarlington, learning writing, drawing, dancing and French. She studied art further under the English artist Bowring, Dublin-based Francis Robert West, and Raymond Deshouilleres of London.[3] In 1788, she accompanied her father on a tour of Ireland, recording archaeological sites and objects. The family lived in London from 1789 to 1790.[1]

Later life

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On 31 May 1798, she married Richard Lovell Edgeworth, becoming his fourth wife and stepmother of Maria Edgeworth and her 11 siblings. Edgeworth and Maria, who was a year older than her stepmother, would become close to Maria, describing her as "her beloved friend and mother".[3] There is evidence that Edgeworth was a writer like her sisters and stepdaughter, but her work was largely overlooked. A visitor to Edgeworthstown in 1813, James Hall, makes reference to her as a "successful" author, with a published novel, What You Choose to Call it or The Good Wife. This attribution was repeated in 1884, but is not mentioned by the family or their papers. It is known that Edgeworth wrote a memoir of Maria Edgeworth, containing selected letters. Some of Edgeworth's letters are held by the National Library of Ireland,[1] and in the Bodleian Library.[4]

The Edgeworths went on to have six children together: Frances Maria Edgeworth (1799 – 4 February 1848), Harriet Edgeworth (1801–1889), Sophia Edgeworth (1803–1836), Lucy Jane Edgeworth (1805–1897), Francis Beaufort Edgeworth (1809–1846), and Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (24 May 1812 – 1881).[5][6][7] Edgeworth died on 10 February 1865 at Edgeworthstown, County Longford.[3] Amongst her grandchildren is the philosopher and political economist, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth.[8]

Artistic work

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Edgeworth was a contemporary of other botanical women artists of the time, such as Mary Delaney.[9] Her father's biographer, Ellison, describes her as "an exceptionally talented artist in oils and crayons", though Edgeworth also worked in watercolour. She illustrated her father's 1792 A New Map of Ireland.[1]

After her marriage, Edgeworth helped in the illustration of her husband's engineering projects. She produced illustrations for Maria Edgeworth's The Parent's Assistant, which were used in the third edition. It was the production of these drawings that led to Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Frances meeting and subsequently marrying.[3] The private collection at Edgeworthstown House holds an album containing some of these drawings. The Huntington Library in California has a volume of her botanical watercolours of plants from her home and around Ireland, dating from 1798 to 1807.[1] These botanical paintings are of well-known plants from her home and surroundings and consist of 101 drawings. The drawings are very detailed and show a keen interest in botany. Edgeworth includes the Linnaean names, with her primary interest being in a complex group of plants, the Cryptogams.[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Loeber, Rolf; Loeber, Magda; Mullin Burnham, Anne. "EDGEWORTH, Mrs Frances (Fanny) Anne". An Electronic Version of A Guide to Irish Fiction 1650–1900. An Foras Feasa, NUI Maynooth. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  2. ^ Desmond, Ray (1994). Dictionary of British And Irish Botanists And Horticulturalists Including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 58. ISBN 9780850668438.
  3. ^ a b c d e Butler, Patricia (2000). Irish Botanical Illustrators & Flower Painters. Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club. pp. 64–65. ISBN 9781851493579.
  4. ^ "Catalogue of the papers of Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849), and the Edgeworth family, 17th–19th century". University of Oxford, Bodleian Library. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  5. ^ "Frances Ann Beaufort". The Peerage. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  6. ^ Friedman, Jean E.; Schroeder-Lein, Glenna R. (2001). Ways of Wisdom: Moral Education in the Early National Period. Georgia: University of Georgia Press. p. 247. ISBN 9780820322520.
  7. ^ McWilliams, Brendan (30 November 2000). "Illustrious family came from a faulty line". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  8. ^ Barbe, Lluis (2010). Francis Ysidro Edgeworth: A Portrait with Family and Friends. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9781849803229.
  9. ^ a b Kelley, Theresa M. (2012). Clandestine Marriage: Botany and Romantic Culture. Maryland: JHU Press. ISBN 9781421405179.
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