Caroline Norton

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Caroline Norton painted by George Hayter in 1832

Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton (born March 22, 1808 in London , † June 15, 1877 ibid), often also Caroline Sheridan Norton , was a British writer and one of the first reformers of society in the United Kingdom . Due to the legal problems she had because of the separation from her husband, and the injustices that wives and divorced women were exposed to through the husband's gender guardianship, a social rethink began that gradually led to the improvement of wives' rights .

Life

Youth and Marriage

Caroline was a daughter of Thomas Sheridan and the novelist Caroline Henrietta, b. Callander and a granddaughter of the Irish playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan . After her father died in South Africa in 1817, she lived for a few years at Hampton Court Palace and grew up there early into better society. She and her two sisters Helen Blackwood, Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye and Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset were known as the " three graces " of London society at the time because of their beauty and skill . In 1827 Caroline married the lawyer George Chapple Norton (* 1800; † 1875), a younger brother of Lord Grantley . Her sisters were similarly "appropriately" married.

Early literary achievement

Caroline began her literary work in her youth. At the age of 17, she anonymously published the amusing satire The Dandies' Rout (London 1825) , which she illustrated herself . Four years later, she made a name for herself with her first serious lyric work, Sorrows of Rosalie (London 1829), which is a touching story of country life. Her poem The Undying One, based on the legend of the Eternal Jew, followed in 1830 . Because of these poems she was called the female Byron , and in fact she was related to this poet by strength of passion, pathos and audacity of thought.

Marital problems and scandal process

Caroline Norton (part of a painting by Frank Stone), around 1845

The marriage to George Chapple Norton was very unhappy. Her husband was jealous and possessive, and he was often violent about Caroline during his bouts of drunkenness. Norton also asked his wife to use her relationships to further his career. After three years of marriage, Caroline moved to live with her sister, returned to him on her husband's affirmation that she was getting better, but then found the situation only worse than before. In 1836 she finally separated from him. Norton then accused the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne in a scandalous trial of an extramarital relationship with Caroline, whom the latter had met in 1831. The case that caused a public scandal was decided against Norton.

Divorced Wife Situation - New Family Laws

Norton refused Caroline a divorce and access to her three sons, which he was possible under the law at the time. He had practically kidnapped the children and placed them with relatives, first in Scotland and then in Yorkshire, the mother remained unaware of their whereabouts. Because of her difficulties, Caroline tried hard, also through political agitation, to improve the legal situation for married and divorced women. She contributed significantly to the passing of the Custody of Infants Act in 1839 , which gave mothers better opportunities to obtain custody or at least visitation rights for their children.

In 1853 there was a lawsuit between Caroline and her husband because Norton refused to give his wife financial support and furthermore claimed the income from the proceeds of her books for himself, which was in line with the common law of the time. Caroline complained in letters of protest to Queen Victoria about the existing divorce laws and thus had a significant influence on the adoption of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 , which reformed divorce law.

Criticism through poetry

Caroline had addressed social problems in two poems, namely in A Voice from the Factories in 1836 an eloquent and rousing condemnation of child labor and in 1845 published The Child of the Islands , whose title denotes the Prince of Wales and in which the author one under the influence of Carlyle and Disraeli gives a poignant portrayal of social grievances in England at the time. She dedicated the children's pamphlet Aunt Carry's Ballads for Children (1847) to her nephews and nieces .

Later life and death

Caroline Norton is believed to have had a five-year affair in the early 1840s with prominent Conservative politician Sidney Herbert . But Herbert married another woman in 1846. In middle age, she was friends with the author George Meredith . She was the inspiration for Diana Warwick, the intelligent, hot-blooded heroine in Meredith's 1885 novel Diana of the Crossways .

The death of her husband George Chapple Norton (1875) set Caroline free and in March 1877, although she was already ailing and 69 years old, she married an old friend, the Scottish historian and politician Sir William Stirling-Maxwell.She died three months ago then on June 15, 1877 in London.

Other works (selection)

  • 1835: The Wife, and Woman's Reward. Novel, 3 volumes
  • 1840: The Dream, and other Poems.
  • 1850: Sketches and Tales in Prose and Verse. Children's font
  • 1851: Stuart of Dunleath. Dark story, 3 volumes; German from Czarnowsky, Leipzig 1852
  • 1854: English Laws for Women in the Nineteenth Century .
  • 1862: The Lady of La Garaye. poetic processing of a Breton legend
  • 1863: Lost and Saved. Novel, 3 volumes; German by Seybold, 4 volumes, Leipzig 1863
  • 1867: Old Sir Douglas. Novel, 3 volumes
  • 1870: The Rose of Jericho.

literature

  • Caroline Norton . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 12, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 244.
  • Norton, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah , in: Encyclopædia Britannica , 11th Edition, 1910-1911, Volume 19, p. 797.
  • Alice Acland: Caroline Norton. Constable, London 1948.
  • Diane Atkinson: The Criminal Conversation of Mrs. Norton. Preface, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-8480-9301-0 .
  • Alan Chedzoy: A Scandalous Woman. The Story of Caroline Norton. Allison & Busby, London 1992, ISBN 978-0-7490-0166-7 .
  • Randall Craig: The Narratives of Caroline Norton. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-3493-7686-5 .
  • Jane Gray Perkins: The Life of the Honorable Mrs. Norton. H. Holt & Co., New York 1909.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Wroath: Until They Are Seven, The Origins of Women's Legal Rights. Waterside Press 1998. ISBN 1 872 870 57 0
  2. ↑ Woodham-Smith, p. 221
  3. ↑ Mitchell, p. 220
personal data
SURNAME Norton, Caroline
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Norton, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah; Norton, Caroline Sheridan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1877
Place of death London