Amelia Matilda Murray (30 April 1795 – 7 June 1884) was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
botanist, writer, and courtier. She wrote a book in defence of slavery in 1856.
Life
Murray was born in
Kenton to
Lord George Murray and Anne Charlotte. Her eldest brother was
George Murray who became the Bishop of Rochester. She and her mother became known to
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
and as a consequence her mother became a maid in waiting to the Princesses Elizabeth and Augusta. Murray herself met George III.
She came to notice when she was chosen to be a
Maid of Honour
A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts.
Role
Traditionally, a queen ...
to the young
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
. She was one of the eldest of the young Victoria's servants and she became known as the "Maid of Honour".
In 1854, she set out on a tour of North America and Cuba where she indulged her interest in botany as she investigated the institution of slavery. She published a book in defence of slavery that was based around letters to her friend
Lady Byron
Anne Isabella Noel Byron, 11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron (''née'' Milbanke; 17 May 1792 – 16 May 1860), nicknamed Annabella and commonly known as Lady Byron, was wife of poet George Gordon Byron, more commonly known as Lord Byro ...
. Murray had even prepared sketches to illustrate her book but these were not used.
[ Lady Byron had been an active abolitionist and she had attended the 1840 ]World Anti-Slavery Convention
The World Anti-Slavery Convention met for the first time at Exeter Hall in London, on 12–23 June 1840. It was organised by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, largely on the initiative of the English Quaker Joseph Sturge. The ex ...
.[The Anti-Slavery Society Convention]
1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon
Benjamin Robert Haydon (; 26 January 178622 June 1846) was a British painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactles ...
, accessed 19 July 2008 Murray wrote "Slavery does for the negro what European schemers in vain attempt to do for the hireling. It secures work and subsistence for all. It secures more order and subordination also."woman of the bedchamber
In the Royal Household of the United Kingdom the term Woman of the Bedchamber is used to describe a woman (usually a daughter of a peer) attending either a queen regnant or queen consort, in the role of lady-in-waiting. Historically the term 'Ge ...
. She later published two further works.[
Murray died at her home in Glenberrow, ]Castlemorton
Castlemorton is a village and civil parish close to Malvern in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England. It consists of a village centre, a large common and many farms and houses within the area.
In 2013 the Worceste ...
in 1884.[K. D. Reynolds, 'Murray, Amelia Matilda (1795–1884)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 3 Feb 2015
/ref>
Selected works
*''Remarks on Education in 1847'', 1847.
*''Letters from the United States, Cuba, and Canada''[ 1856.
*''Recollections from 1803 to 1837, with a Conclusion in 1868'' 1868.
*''Pictorial and Descriptive Sketches of the Odenwald'' 1869
]
References
Sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Amelia Matilda
1795 births
1884 deaths
People from Kenton, London
British maids of honour
British women writers
19th-century women writers