Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Frances Seymour, Countess of Hertford
-
Standard Name: Hertford, Frances Seymour,,, Countess of
Birth Name: Frances Thynne
Married Name: Frances Seymour
Titled: Frances Seymour, Countess of Hertford
Titled: Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset
Nickname: Fanny
Pseudonym: Eusebia
Nickname: Renée
Used Form: Renee
Living an upper-class life in the eighteenth century, Lady Hertford
did not publish; her patronage activity was as important as her writing. But as well as letters, a fragmentary political journal, and commonplace-books, she wrote poems, some of which, circulating in manuscript, drifted into print in her lifetime, while a few achieved some notoriety. She claimed that she wrote for her own pleasure and found it easy to suppress any stirrings of ambition.
Kennedy, Deborah. Poetic Sisters. Early Eighteenth-Century Women Poets. Bucknell University Press.
CT
met the widowed Duchess of Somerset (better known by her former title of Lady Hertford
), who had been a patron of Elizabeth (Singer) Rowe
, and was herself an amateur writer.
Myers, Sylvia Harcstark. The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England. Clarendon.
215
Friends, Associates
Anne Finch
AF
enjoyed personal friendships with a number of distinguished men, among them Bishop Thomas Ken
. She valued female friendship very highly; women friends figure prominently in her poetry. Lady Catherine Jones
, to whom...
Education
Elizabeth Singer Rowe
Besides this, Henry Thynne
, son of Viscount Weymouth
of Longleat House (nephew by marriage of Anne Finch
, and father of the future Lady Hertford
), taught ESR
French and Italian. She read very...
Education
Elizabeth Grant
EG
refers to a number of texts that influenced her as a child. She learned to read by the age of three, taught by loving aunts, and remembered in particular Puss in Boots, Bluebeard...
Dedications
Charlotte Lennox
The full title was Memoirs for the History of Madame de Maintenon and of the last age; Lennox published it as the author of The Female Quixote. The price was fifteen shillings; the...
Dedications
Elizabeth Boyd
She dedicated it to her patron Lady Hertford
. The British Library
copy is 12604 ccc. 7. Harvard University
holds the only known copy of an undated set of subscription proposals, which is headed Any...
Dedications
Elizabeth Singer Rowe
Watts wrote that he had finished revising her papers on 13 October. Lady Hertford
(who had declined to be named in a dedication) wrote on 27 October to thank for the eventual dedication to her...
Dedications
Dorothea Du Bois
She dedicated it to Lady Hertford
. A manuscript note on the title-page of the British Library
copy says, containing her own Life and Adventures;
Du Bois, Dorothea. Theodora. Printed for the author by C. Kiernan.