Georgiana Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire

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Standard Name: Devonshire, Georgiana Cavendish,,, Duchess of
Birth Name: Georgiana Spencer
Styled: Lady Georgiana Spencer
Married Name: Lady Georgiana Cavendish
Titled: Lady Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Pseudonym: A Young Lady
Nickname: The Rat
An occasional or amateur author during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , wrote in a number of genres: poetry, diaries, travel writings, letters, and possibly two novels. Much of her work remains unpublished and her canon, both in prose and poetry, is far from certain.
Portrait of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, by Thomas Gainsborough, between 1785 and 1787. She stands with her body facing to her left, her face tilted towards the viewer, and her arms crossed, with one hand holding a pink rose. She wears a white gown with a high, ruffled neckline and lace detail around the cuffs, and a large, black, broad-brimmed hat. Her hair is pulled away from her face to flow down her back. Chatsworth.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Cultural formation Elizabeth Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire
Her sexuality was and remains a large part of her reputation. She seems to have begun on her pattern of extramarital affairs while still with her first husband. While on her travels she was constantly...
death Elizabeth Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire
Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire , died in Rome, eighteen years precisely after the death of her predecessor Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire .
Foreman, Amanda. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. HarperCollins, 1998.
399
Dedications Susanna Haswell Rowson
SHR issued by subscription her first novel, Victoria, dedicated to her possible employer (or ex-employer) Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , published for the author.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2 vols.
1: 388-9
Dedications Frances Arabella Rowden
She dedicated the work to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (aunt of her pupil Lady Caroline Lamb ), who blooms the sweetest flow'r in Britain's isle.
Rowden, Frances Arabella. A Poetical Introduction to the Study of Botany. T. Bensley, 1801.
She explained its genesis in an advertisement (dated 23 May...
Dedications Radagunda Roberts
Hawkesworth, in suggesting this translation, had observed that as a woman's work of truly delicate female type this novel needed a female translator. He then revised, corrected, and approved the manuscript, but mere chance prevented...
Dedications Charlotte Smith
She dated her preface 19 November 1794. Further editions followed, and Rambles Farther (a sequel from the same publishers, Cadell and Davies ) appeared in August 1796, dedicated by permission to the twelve-year-old daughter of...
Dedications Sydney Owenson Lady Morgan
She was working on the research for this novel before she married; the work was interrupted by her father's death in May 1812. After it she wrote: He was the object for which I laboured...
Dedications Ann Hatton
The future AH published with her name (Ann Curtis, sister of Mrs. Siddons) Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, with a strong subscription list, dedicated to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire .
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
57 (1784): 314
Employer Susanna Haswell Rowson
It was during this lean period that she began writing, teaching (she was probably though not certainly a governess, and possibly worked for Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire ), and acting.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Family and Intimate relationships Elizabeth Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire
Bess attached herself sentimentally to both the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire . Georgiana loved her from the first; it is not clear exactly how soon the duke (known in this intimate circle as Canis...
Family and Intimate relationships Georgiana Fullerton
GF 's mother was born Lady Henrietta Elizabeth (Harriet or Harryo) Cavendish , daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire and of the writer and patron Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire . A shrewd and intelligent...
Family and Intimate relationships Georgiana Fullerton
GF 's celebrated or notorious maternal grandmother, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , died six years before her grand-daughter and namesake was born. Nevertheless, her reputation (as a beauty, a gambler, a scandalous woman, and a...
Family and Intimate relationships Lady Caroline Lamb
LCL 's mother, Henrietta Frances Ponsonby , later Countess of Bessborough and known as Harriet, was the sister of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , and, like her, a patron of women writers and of the...
Family and Intimate relationships Harriette Wilson
Some months before her twentieth birthday, HW fell in love at first sight with Lord John Ponsonby (a relation of the famous Duchess of Devonshire and cousin of Lady Caroline Lamb ), who became second...
Family and Intimate relationships Lady Caroline Lamb
Her aunt the Duchess of Devonshire (whose wealth, or rather that of her husband the duke, helped support Caroline's parents) wrote a new year poem for the little girl, instructing her to use her gift...

Timeline

22 March 1754: A group of Nobles, Clergy, Gentlemen, & Merchants...

Building item

22 March 1754

A group of Nobles, Clergy, Gentlemen, & Merchants met to establish what became the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
Mackay, David. In the Wake of Cook: Exploration, Science and Empire, 1780-1801. Croom Helm, 1985.
14
Allan, D. G. C., and John L. Abbott, editors. The Virtuoso Tribe of Arts and Sciences. University of Georgia Press, 1992.
3, 16-17, 44

1771: In a year when Sir Joshua Reynolds painted,...

Women writers item

1771

In a year when Sir Joshua Reynolds painted, as Girl Reading, his niece Theophila Palmer perusing Richardson 's Clarissa, five novels by women advertised their Clarissa kinship.
Perry, Ruth. “Clarissa’s Daughters, or The History of Innocence Betrayed. How Women Writers Rewrote Richardson”. Clarissa and Her Readers: New Essays for the Clarissa Project, edited by Carol Houlihan Flynn and Edward Copeland, AMS Press, 1999, pp. 119-41.
133-5

1777: Henry Mackenzie published his sentimental...

Writing climate item

1777

Henry Mackenzie published his sentimental novel Julia de Roubigné, whose heroine is poisoned by the jealous husband she has married to please her father.
Manning, Susan. “Julie de Roubigné: Last Gasp, or First Fruits?”. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
24
, No. 2, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2001, pp. 161-73.
163

17 June 1783: Sir Cecil Wray, a maverick independent politician...

National or international item

17 June 1783

Sir Cecil Wray , a maverick independent politician and reformer, presented in the House of Commons a Quaker petition for the abolition of slavery.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Cecil Wray

5 November 1788-10 March 1789: George III's illness and palpable incapacity...

National or international item

5 November 1788-10 March 1789

George III 's illness and palpable incapacity produced the Regency Crisis: the issue was whether or not power would devolve to the Prince of Wales .
Foreman, Amanda. “A politician’s politician: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and the Whig party”. Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities, edited by Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus, Longman, 1997, pp. 179-04.
188-9
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.

July 1796: The explorer Mungo Park, abandoned and anxious...

Building item

July 1796

The explorer Mungo Park , abandoned and anxious on the banks of the Niger River in what is now Mali, was taken in, housed and fed by African village women, who composed and sang...

24 December 1799: Samuel Taylor Coleridge published in the...

Writing climate item

24 December 1799

Samuel Taylor Coleridge published in the Morning Post his ode in praise of the poetry of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire .
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Poetical Works [of] Coleridge, including poems and versions of poems herein published for the first time. Editor Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, Oxford University Press, 1969.
335

9 June 1819: The library of the late Queen Charlotte was...

Building item

9 June 1819

The library of the late Queen Charlotte was auctioned by Christie's ; it included Jane Austen 's works, plus titles by Catherine Cuthbertson , Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , Christian Isobel Johnstone , Alethea Lewis

Texts

Devonshire, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of. Emma. T. Hookham, 1773, 3 vols.
Devonshire, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of. Memorandums of the Face of the Country in Switzerland. Cooper and Graham, 1799.
Devonshire, Elizabeth Cavendish, Duchess of, and Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. Sketch of a Descriptive Journey through Switzerland; The Passage of the Mountain of Saint Gothard. J. J. Burgdorfer, 1816.
Devonshire, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of. The Passage of the Mountain of Saint Gothard. Prosper and Company, 1802.
Devonshire, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of. The Sylph. T. Lowndes, 1779, 2 vols.
Devonshire, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of, and Elizabeth Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. The Two Duchesses, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire. Editor Foster, Vere, Blackie and Son; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898.