Frances, Lady Norton (; 1644 – 20 February 1731) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

religious poet and prose writer who primarily wrote about

grief Grief is the response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or some living thing that has died, to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, grief also has physical, cogni ...

and particularly the loss of her daughter,

Grace Gethin Grace Gethin (; 1676 – 1697) was an English essayist. She died young and her parents paid for memorials to her. Life Gethin was born in 1676, probably at Abbotsleigh. She was the last child of Frances Norton, Lady Norton and her husband Sir ...

.Ross, Sarah. "Frances Norton, Lady Norton" in Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. ''

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

.'' vol. 41, p 169. London:

OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004 She was a sister of the memoirist Elizabeth Freke.

Life

Grace Gethin memorial a 1723 engraving by James Cole

She was born Frances Freke, daughter of Ralph Freke and Cicely Culpepper, daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper of

Hollingbourne Hollingbourne is a village and civil parish in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The parish is located on the southward slope of the North Downs to the east of the county town, Maidstone. The parish population is around 900 and has th ...

, in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and married Sir George Norton in 1672. This George Norton was the son of Sir George Norton who hid Charles II at the time of the

regicide Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...

of Charles I. The couple had three children, but only one, Grace, survived infancy.

Grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...

died aged twenty-one, and Frances Norton went into a deep state of grief. Monuments to her daughter were created at Hollingbourne ChurchDavid Wilson, ‘Gethin , Grace, Lady Gethin (1676–1697)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 23 Dec 2014
/ref> and in the south transept of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

.Grace Gethin, Westminster Abbey, retrieved 23 December 2014
/ref> She published a collection of Grace's own writings, ''Reliquae Gethinianae'', in

1699 Events January–March * January 5 – A violent Java earthquake damages the city of Batavia on the Indonesian island of Java, killing at least 28 people * January 20 – The Parliament of England (under Tory dominance) limits the size ...

, and in 1705 she wrote two tracts on grieving and consolation. These were ''The Applause of Virtue'' and ''Memento mori, or, Meditations on Death,'' which were sold together in a

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

. They were dedicated to two women who had helped Lady Norton in her grief and who had themselves experienced a recent loss. The books are pious and collect together consoling thoughts from

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, Classical, and philosophical literature. In 1714, she produced ''A miscellany of poems, compos'd, and work'd with a needle, on the backs and seats &c. of several chairs and stools.'' According to near contemporaries, Frances Norton did a great deal of

needlepoint Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, m ...

work on furniture in

Abbots Leigh Abbots Leigh is a village and civil parish in North Somerset, England, about west of the centre of Bristol. History The original Middle English name was ''Lega'', and the village became Abbots Leigh in the mid-12th century when Robert Fitzhardi ...

(where the Norton estate was). She composed her own short poems, almost always with a pious theme, for such embroidery. In 1710 she was so ill that her family were wrongly informed of her death, but she recovered. In 1715, her husband died. She married his cousin, Colonel Ambrose Norton, in 1718, and, when he died, married a man named William Jones in 1724. She outlived her third husband by a few years and was buried in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Frances 1644 births 1731 deaths 17th-century English women writers 17th-century English writers 18th-century English women writers Burials at Westminster Abbey English religious writers English women poets 18th-century English people