Frances Evelyn "Fanny" Boscawen (née Glanville) (23 July 1719 – 26 February 1805) was an English literary hostess, correspondent and member of the

Blue Stockings Society The Blue Stockings Society, an informal women's social and educational movement in England in the mid-18th century, emphasised education and mutual cooperation. Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey and others founded it in the early 1750s as a ...

. She was born Frances Evelyn Glanville on 23 July 1719 at St Clere,

Kemsing Kemsing is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The parish lies on the scarp face of the North Downs, 20 miles south east of Central London, north east of Sevenoaks. Also in the parish are the hamlets of Hea ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. In 1742 she married

Edward Boscawen Admiral of the Blue Edward Boscawen, PC (19 August 171110 January 1761) was a British admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall, England. He is known principally for his various naval commands during ...

(1711–1761). When his navy work took him away from home, his wife would send him passages from her journal, some of which were later published.

Family

Their children were: *Edward Hugh Boscawen (13 September 1744 – 1774)
Frances Boscawen
(7 March 1746 – 14 July 1801); she married 5 July 1773, aged 27

(11 July 1740 - 28 August 1792), younger son of

John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, PC (10 August 1694 – 25 December 1754), was an English Tory politician and peer who twice served as Lord Privy Seal from 1742 to 1743 and 1744 to 1754. Leveson-Gower is best known for his political caree ...

and half-brother of the 1st Marquess of Stafford; they had five sons and two daughters. The heirs-male descending from this marriage are in

remainder In mathematics, the remainder is the amount "left over" after performing some computation. In arithmetic, the remainder is the integer "left over" after dividing one integer by another to produce an integer quotient ( integer division). In algeb ...

to the earldom of Gower and the baronetcy only.
Elizabeth
later Duchess of Beaufort (28 May 1747 Falmouth, Cornwall – 15 June 1828 Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire); she married on 2 January 1766 the Duke of Beaufort at St George's Church, Hanover Square, London. and had eight sons and four daughters by him. She may have been the "Lady in Blue" painted by

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

. *William Glanville Boscawen (11 August 1749 – 21 April 1769), died aged 19. *

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

, born 6 May 1758, succeeded his uncle as third

Viscount Falmouth Viscount Falmouth is a title that has been created twice, first in the Peerage of England, and then in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1674 for George FitzRoy, an illegitimate son of King Ch ...

in 1782. All the future Viscounts Falmouth and two earls Falmouth are descended from his two sons. After Boscawen's death in 1761, Frances returned to her London house at 14 South Audley St, where she became an important hostess of

Bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' is a term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800), the "Queen of the Blues", including E ...

meetings. Her guests included

Elizabeth Montagu Elizabeth Montagu (née Robinson; 2 October 1718 – 25 August 1800) was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonnière, literary critic and writer, who helped to organize and lead the Blue Stockings Society. Her parents were both ...

Dr Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer ...

, Joshua Reynolds, Frances Reynolds,

Elizabeth Carter Elizabeth Carter (pen name Eliza; 16 December 1717 – 19 February 1806) was an English poet, classicist, writer, translator, linguist, and polymath. As one of the Bluestocking Circle that surrounded Elizabeth Montagu,Encyclopaedia BritannicRet ...

, and later

Hannah More Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a ...

, who described her as "sage" in her 1782 poem ''The Bas Bleu, or, Conversation'', published in 1784. Her widowhood inspired

Edward Young Edward Young (c. 3 July 1683 – 5 April 1765) was an English poet, best remembered for ''Night-Thoughts'', a series of philosophical writings in blank verse, reflecting his state of mind following several bereavements. It was one of the mos ...

's 1761 poem ''Resignation''. She "was widely known in literary London as a model letter-writer and conversationalist, prized for her wit, elegance, and warm heart," according to a present-day scholar.''Frances Boscawen'' Reinventing the Feminine: Bluestocking Women Writers in 18th Century London
Frances died at home in London on 26 February 1805 and is buried at St Michael Penkevil church in

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

.Record for Frances Boscawen on ''findagrave.com''
/ref>

References

External links

Fanny Boscawen and her legacy at Hatchlands Park
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boscawen, Frances 1719 births 1805 deaths 18th-century English writers 18th-century English women writers British salon-holders English diarists People from Kemsing Women diarists British women memoirists English memoirists 18th-century diarists