Jane Stuart-Wortley

Jane Stuart-Wortley , nee Jane Thompson , also Jane Lawley (born December 5, 1820 in York , † February 4, 1900 in Ripley ) was a philanthropist of the Victorian era .

Origin and marriage

Jane Stuart-Wortley was born Jane Thompson, the only daughter of Paul Beilby Thompson and his wife Caroline Neville. Her father was promoted to 1st Baron Thompson in 1839 , after which she took the surname Lawley . She grew up in the family estate Escrick near York, where she developed a love for horses.

Members of the London political celebrities

On May 6, 1846, she married lawyer and politician James Stuart-Wortley, fifteen years her senior . In 1852, after the death of her father, she inherited a considerable fortune, and since her husband had had a career as Crown Attorney and member of the Privy Council , she and her husband, along with the Gladstones and Sidney Herbert, were political celebrities of London.

However, after a serious riding accident, her husband had to resign from all offices in 1858. Impoverished by bad investments, the family had to move to Mortlake , where Jane looked after her disabled and increasingly depressed husband. After her husband's condition worsened, they moved back to London in 1869.

Acting as a benevolent lady of the upper class

As her daughters grew up, they helped her care for her husband so that Jane could increasingly work as a charitable helper in London's East End . She supported the East London Nursing Association , whose nurses wanted to improve health and hygiene in the East End. She tried to offer help for self-help, for example through workers' associations and garden planning. She was convinced that women of her class should be benevolent, as they could influence the lower class religiously, socially and physically through their role model. She was involved in the Female Emigration Society of Louisa Hubbard and later in the British Women's Emigration Society with the aim of civilizing the British colonies through the immigration of the "surplus" population from Great Britain and at the same time enabling the lower classes to start a new life . She published her experiences and ideas in several magazines and books.

After the death of her husband in 1881, she continued her work in London. In 1895 she became seriously ill with influenza , which is why she moved to Ripley, Surrey, near her daughter Mary Caroline. In Ripley, despite her increasing blindness, she became involved in a school and began to set up a nursing service. In December 1899 she contracted influenza again, from which she eventually died.

progeny

From her marriage she had the following children:

1. Mary Caroline Stuart-Wortley (1848–1941) ∞ Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace
2. Margaret Jane Stuart-Wortley (1854–1937) ∞ Reginald Talbot
3. Archibald John Stuart-Wortley (1849–1905)
4. Charles Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley (1851-1926)
5. Caroline Susan Theodora Stuart-Wortley (1856–1940) ∞ Norman de L'Aigle Grosvenor
6. Blanche Georgina Stuart-Wortley (1856–1931) ∞ Frederick Firebrace
7. Katherine Sarah Stuart-Wortley (1860–1943) ∞ Neville Lyttelton

Writings and works

• The East End as represented by Mr. Besant, with a 2 page table of wages paid to female operatives . London 1887.
• Emigration . In: Woman's Mission. A series of congress papers on the philanthropic work of women, 1893
• On nursing . In: Woman's Mission. A series of congress papers on the philanthropic work of women, 1893

Web links

• Lori Williamson: Wortley, Jane Stuart- (1820-1900). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004