Lady Eleanor Butler

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One of the two renowned Ladies of Llangollen, LEB produced life-writing (diaries, letters, and some poems) during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, which structured, recorded, and celebrated their shared way of life. Today the writing of her partner, Sarah Ponsonby , is also receiving attention.
  • BirthName: Lady Eleanor Butler
    In 1791 Eleanor Butler's family was restored to their attainted title as Earls of Ormond or Ormonde. Sarah Ponsonby and Eleanor's whole circle at once began using her courtesy title.
    Butler, Lady Eleanor, and Sarah Ponsonby. Life with the Ladies of Llangollen. Editor Mavor, Elizabeth, Viking, 1984.
    165

  • Styled:

Milestones

1739

Eleanor Butler was born at Cambrai, considerably the youngest of three sisters; the arrival of a brother the following year made her position in the family still less important.
Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Michael Joseph, 1971.
21

January-December 1785

LEB kept the first of her journals to survive, prefaced with lines adapted from Thomas Gray 's Elegy in a Country Churchyard about the short and simple annals of the poor.
Butler, Lady Eleanor et al. The Hamwood Papers of the Ladies of Llangollen and Caroline Hamilton. Editor Bell, Eva Mary, Macmillan, 1930.
54
qtd. in
Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Michael Joseph, 1971.
68
Butler, Lady Eleanor et al. “Foreword and Editorial Materials”. The Hamwood Papers of the Ladies of Llangollen and Caroline Hamilton, edited by Eva Mary Bell, Macmillan, 1930, p. vii - viii; various pages.
45, 371

2 June 1829

LEB died at Plas Newydd, Llangollen; her companion Sarah Ponsonby survived her by two years, dying in early December 1831.
Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Michael Joseph, 1971.
186, 192

Biography

Birth and Background

1739

Eleanor Butler was born at Cambrai, considerably the youngest of three sisters; the arrival of a brother the following year made her position in the family still less important.
Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Michael Joseph, 1971.
21

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