![Esther Vanhomrigh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Esther_Vanhomrigh.jpg)
Esther Vanhomrigh or Van Homrigh (known by the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Vanessa; c. 1688 – 2 June 1723), an Irish woman of
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
descent, was a longtime lover and correspondent of
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
. Swift's letters to her were published after her death. Her fictional name "
Vanessa Vanessa may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Vanessa'' (Millais painting), an 1868 painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais
* ''Vanessa'', a 1933 novel by Hugh Walpole
* ''Vanessa'', a 1952 instrumental song written by Bernie ...
" was created by Swift by taking ''Van'' from her surname, Vanhomrigh, and adding ''Esse'', the pet form of her first name, Esther.
She was fictionalized as "Vanessa" in Swift's poem ''
Cadenus and Vanessa
Cadenus and Vanessa is a poem by Jonathan Swift about one of his lovers, Esther Vanhomrigh (Vanessa), written in 1713 and published as a book in 1726, three years after the death of Vanhomrigh. It contains in its title an anagram and a neologism: ' ...
'' (1713). In the poem, he wrote:
:''Each girl, when pleased with what is taught,''
:''Will have the teacher in her thought.''
Life
Esther was the daughter of
Bartholomew Van Homrigh
Bartholomew Van Homrigh, also Vanhomrigh (d. 29 December 1703) was a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish-born Kingdom of Ireland, Irish merchant, estate agent and politician who served as the 33rd Lord Mayor of Dublin and twice MP for Londo ...
, a merchant of
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
and afterwards of
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, who was appointed
commissary
A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop.
In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...
of the stores by King William upon his expedition into Ireland: he was
Lord Mayor of Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin ( ga, Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ga, Cathaoirleach, links=no ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The ...
1697–8. Her mother, also named Esther, was the daughter of John Stone, an Irish commissioner of revenue. She grew up at
Celbridge Abbey in
County Kildare
County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...
.
Her father died in 1703, and his widow moved her family to London in 1707. Esther became acquainted with Swift in December of that year while the family was en route for London, at
Dunstable
Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...
, and it was here that their intense 17-year relationship began. She was 22 years younger than Swift, and it was obvious from the beginning that he admired Esther for her rugged qualities; he did not admire very delicate women. Esther was said "not to be a beauty", although it is difficult to be sure about this since no contemporary portrait of her exists (the famous 1868 Millais portrait is a work of artistic imagination). Swift later served as her
tutor
TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...
. After her mother died in 1714, Esther followed Swift to Ireland, and returned to Celbridge Abbey, but she was desperately miserable there.
Their relationship was fraught. It was broken up after 17 years by Swift's relationship with another woman,
Esther Johnson
Esther Johnson (13 March 1681 – 28 January 1728) was the English friend of Jonathan Swift, known as "Stella". Whether or not she and Swift were secretly married, and if so why the marriage was never made public, is a subject of debate.
Pare ...
, whom he called "Stella", in 1723. Swift had known Stella since about 1690, when she was a little girl in the household of his employer
Sir William Temple
Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet (25 April 162827 January 1699) was an English diplomat, statesman and essayist. An important diplomat, he was recalled in 1679, and for a brief period was a leading advisor to Charles II, with whom he then fell ...
; their relationship was intense and it is possible that they had secretly married in 1716. Esther is thought to have asked Swift not to see Stella again, and he apparently refused, thus putting an end to their relationship.
Esther never recovered from his rejection and died on 2 June 1723, probably from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
contracted from nursing her sister Mary, who had died of the same disease in 1720, as had their mother before her; some accused Swift of inadvertently causing her death.
Her father had left her well provided for, but she was burdened by debts accumulated by her mother and her spendthrift brother Bartholomew. In her will, she named the barrister
Robert Marshall and
George Berkeley
George Berkeley (; 12 March 168514 January 1753) – known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland) – was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immate ...
, the celebrated
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
and future
Bishop of Cloyne
The Bishop of Cloyne is an episcopal title that takes its name after the small town of Cloyne in County Cork, Republic of Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is a separate title; but, in the Church of Ireland, it has been united with other ...
,
executors
An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, may sometimes be used.
Overview
An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker of a ...
and joint residuary
legatee
A legatee, in the law of wills, is any individual or organization bequeathed any portion of a testator
A testator () is a person who has written and executed a last will and testament that is in effect at the time of their death. It is any "person ...
s of her estate, although she knew neither man well. Due to the debts, a protracted
lawsuit
A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. T ...
ensued and a large part of the estate was lost in legal costs. It was widely reported that she had made it a condition of the inheritance that her executors publish all her correspondence with Swift, but in fact, no such stipulation seems to have been made.
Swift, whose letters to her were published after her death, is not mentioned in her will, perhaps a final retaliation against a man whose neglect made her "live a life like a languishing death".
[November/December 1720, Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, 2.524.]
Legacy
![Millais - Vanessa, 1868](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Millais_-_Vanessa%2C_1868.jpg)
A ward in
St Patrick's University Hospital
St Patrick's University Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Ollscoile Naomh Pádraig) is a teaching hospital at Kilmainham in Dublin. The building, which is bounded by Steeven's Lane to the east, and Bow Lane West to the south, is managed by St Patrick’s ...
is named “Vanessa” in her honour.
Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
artist
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
painted a
fancy portrait
A fancy portrait is a portrait of a real or literary character that takes the form of a conventional portrait, but is defined by the fact that its depiction of the character is derived from the artist's imagination rather than any authentic record ...
of her in 1868, over 100 years after her death: ''
Vanessa Vanessa may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Vanessa'' (Millais painting), an 1868 painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais
* ''Vanessa'', a 1933 novel by Hugh Walpole
* ''Vanessa'', a 1952 instrumental song written by Bernie ...
''. The painting depicts Esther holding a letter, presumably written to or from Swift. The portrait is an imagined likeness: no contemporary portrait of Esther is known to survive and there are only a few rather vague descriptions of her appearance.
Margaret Louisa Woods
Margaret Louisa Woods (née Bradley; 20 November 1855 – 1 December 1945) was an English writer, known for novels and for her lyrical and socially conscious poetry.
Life
She was born in Rugby, the daughter of the scholar George Granville ...
wrote a novel inspired by her life titled ''Esther Vanhomrigh'' (1891).
Elizabeth Myers, wife of
Littleton C. Powys, who was a brother of
John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
, wrote a novel titled ''The Basilisk of St. James'', (London, 1945,
Chapman and Hall
Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 184 ...
), which has as its protagonist
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
. Central to the plot is the personal conflict that arose from Swift's relationships with both Esther Vanhomrigh (Vanessa) and
Esther Johnson
Esther Johnson (13 March 1681 – 28 January 1728) was the English friend of Jonathan Swift, known as "Stella". Whether or not she and Swift were secretly married, and if so why the marriage was never made public, is a subject of debate.
Pare ...
, nicknamed Stella by Swift.
In the 1994 film ''
Words Upon the Window Pane
''Words Upon the Window Pane'' is a 1994 Irish drama film directed by Mary McGuckian and starring Geraldine Chaplin, Ian Richardson, and Jim Sheridan. McGuckian directorial debut, it is based on William Butler Yeats' one-act play of the same name ...
'', based on the play by
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
, she is played by
Orla Brady
Orla Brady (born 28 March 1961) is an Irish theatre, television, and film actress born in Dublin. She has been nominated for several awards from the Irish Film & Television Academy for her work in televised programs, as well as starring in the ...
: the plot turns on a
seance in Dublin in the 1920s where the ghosts of Swift, Stella and Vanessa appear to resume their 200-year-old quarrel.
References
Sources
* Evelyn Hardy, ''The Conjured Spirit, Swift: A Study in the Relationship of Swift, Stella, and Vanessa'', 1949
*
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
, ''Life of Jonathan Swift'', 1829
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanhomrigh, Esther
1680s births
1723 deaths
18th-century deaths from tuberculosis
English letter writers
Women letter writers
English people of Dutch descent
Irish people of Dutch descent
17th-century Irish women writers
18th-century Irish women writers
Jonathan Swift
Tuberculosis deaths in Ireland