Lady Frances Caroline Wedderburn-Webster (née Annesley; 1793–1837) was an Anglo-Irish woman who became a figure of scandal of the
Regency period
The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, h ...
, for her supposed affairs with the leading celebrities,
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
and the
Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...
. It may be that neither of those relationships went beyond flirtation.
Background
She was the daughter of
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Mountnorris
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Mountnorris FRS (7 August 1744 – 4 July 1816) was an Irish peer.
He was the son of Richard Annesley, 6th Earl of Anglesey, and Juliana Donovan, Countess of Anglesey, who belonged to the junior sept of the O'Donovan ...
, and Sarah, daughter of
Sir Henry Cavendish, 2nd Baronet
Sir Henry Cavendish, 2nd Baronet PC (29 September 1732 – 3 August 1804) was an Anglo-Irish politician noted for his extensive recording of parliamentary debates in the late 1760s and early 1770s.
Early life
Cavendish was the son of Sir Henry ...
.
Relationship with Byron
Frances married James Webster (see below), a crony of Byron, and he introduced Byron to his young wife in 1811. Byron, based on information from Webster's brother, considered that the Websters had a
marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than that of love and commitment. Instead, such a marriage is entered into for personal gain, or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as a political marriage. There are ...
. He coined the nickname "Phryne" for Frances.
Invited to
Aston Hall, Yorkshire
Aston Hall is a former English country house in the village of Aston, South Yorkshire. It is now a hotel, and a Grade II* listed building.
History
Aston Hall was a large country house, in the civil parish of Aston cum Aughton.
The manor house
Th ...
, by the Websters in September 1813, Byron associated the house, but mistakenly, with the place to which his father
John Byron
Vice-Admiral John Byron (8 November 1723 – 1 April 1786) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer. He earned the nickname "Foul-Weather Jack" in the press because of his frequent encounters with bad weather at sea. As a midshipman, he sa ...
took his lover Lady Carmarthen. That had been the rectory at nearby
Aston, South Yorkshire
Aston is a residential village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The village falls within the Holderness ward of the borough. Aston is approximately from Rother Valley Country Park.
History
Aston was tradi ...
, which
William Mason William, Willie, or Willy Mason may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*William Mason (poet) (1724–1797), English poet, editor and gardener
*William Mason (architect) (1810–1897), New Zealand architect
*William Mason (composer) (1829–1908), Ame ...
as incumbent had leased to them. He wished his half-sister
Augusta Leigh
Augusta Maria Leigh (''née'' Byron; 26 January 1783 – 12 October 1851) was the only daughter of John "Mad Jack" Byron, the poet Lord Byron's father, by his first wife, Amelia, née Darcy (Lady Conyers in her own right and the divorced wife ...
to come too, but she refused, despite the family connection that Aston Hall had been the property of
Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness
Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, (17 May 1718 – 16 May 1778), known before 1721 as Lord Darcy and Conyers, was a British diplomat and politician.
Career
In 1741 he collaborated with G.F. Handel in the production of Deidamia. From ...
, her grandfather. Byron then planned to seduce Frances. In a position to do so, he did not, on his own account.
House party at Aston Hall
There were other reasons for Byron to accept the invitation to a house party at Aston Hall. It was quite near
Newstead Abbey
Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, England, was formerly an Augustinian priory. Converted to a domestic home following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it is now best known as the ancestral home of Lord Byron.
Monastic foundation
The prior ...
, his family home, which he was trying to sell to Thomas Claughton in a deal that started stalling in spring 1813. He was settling his servant Robert Rushton in the service of the Websters, which he joined 7 September. The day before, Byron wrote to Webster about untenanted properties within ten miles of Aston Hall. He accepted the invitation on 15 September.
This time at Aston Hall set the terms for the future relationship between Frances and Byron. One of the party was Lady Catherine Annesley, younger sister to Frances, at this time disappointed in her relationship with Viscount Bury ( Augustus Keppel). James Webster had recently visited Newstead Abbey, and wished to return: Byron had reason to believe he was carrying on with one of the servant girls there. Byron broke his visit after not much more than a week, but returned from London early in October. He found two more guests, William Westcombe and George Charles Agar, and Frances hankering after
Viscount Petersham
Earl of Harrington is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created in 1742.
History
The earldom of Harrington was granted in 1742 to William Stanhope, 1st Baron Harrington, the former Secretary of State and then Lord President o ...
.
In a letter to Lady Melbourne, Byron described how he was reluctant to make advances to Frances, who was not reciprocating enough for his taste; but he had tried a speech on Frances in the billiard room, and was being provoked by James Webster's boastful talk. Byron and James did, however, visit Newstead Abbey together, one or two days later. Byron and Frances exchanged notes and tokens, and there apparently the affair rested.
Byron had learned that there was an affair of the heart between Frances and John Campbell, James's lawyer. The widowed Lady Sitwell arrived, Byron was required by Lady Catherine to give up his seat next to her, James calling Byron "ungallant" for his reluctance. Byron agreed to loan James £1000. On 18 October, the day before Byron left, Frances wrote a letter in reply to a cutting note, declaring she was Byron's but would not be "guilty", and asking for a miniature portrait. The next day James and Byron travelled to London together, on the loan business.
Literary aftermath
After the resolution of the affair with Frances Webster as "
Platonic love
Platonic love (often lowercased as platonic love) is a type of love in which sexual desire or romantic features are nonexistent or has been suppressed or sublimated, but it means more than simple friendship.
The term is derived from the nam ...
", Byron in November wrote ''
The Bride of Abydos
''The Bride of Abydos'' is a poem written by Lord Byron in 1813. One of his earlier works, ''The Bride of Abydos'' is considered to be one of his "Heroic Poems", along with '' The Giaour'', '' Lara'', '' The Siege of Corinth'', '' The Corsair' ...
''. In December 1813 the affair descended from the emotional heights.
Jerome McGann
Jerome John McGann (born July 22, 1937) is an American academic and textual scholar whose work focuses on the history of literature and culture from the late eighteenth century to the present.
Career
Educated at Le Moyne College (B.S. 1959), Sy ...
, interpreting Byron's opaque hints, puts the inspiration for the poem down to Byron's recent affairs of 1813, with Augusta and Frances. ''I Saw Thee Weep'', from Byron's ''
Hebrew Melodies
''Hebrew Melodies'' is a collection of 30 poems by Lord Byron. They were largely created by Byron to accompany music composed by Isaac Nathan, who played the poet melodies which he claimed (incorrectly) dated back to the service of the Temple in ...
'', is also associated with Frances.
Later, on hearing of the supposed affair between the Duke of Wellington and Frances, Byron wrote the poem '' When We Two Parted''. There is some uncertainty about when he wrote it, in the period 1815–16, and there is more than one version of the poem; but it was intended for Frances.
Relationship with the Duke of Wellington
The Duke of Wellington wrote a letter to Frances Webster in the early hours of 18 June 1815, the day of the
battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...
. Frances and James Webster subsequently brought a
libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
action over allegations that she was having affair with the Duke. At the time of the letter, she was pregnant, thought to be in the
third trimester
Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins.
Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but can ...
.
The '' St James Chronicle'' claimed that James Webster had demanded a large sum from the Duke, and that the Websters were divorcing. The case came to court on 16 February 1816, with John Campbell as counsel for the Websters. The editor of the ''St James Chronicle'', Charles Baldwin, offered no defence, and the Websters were awarded £2,000.
Later life
Frances Webster did then take as her lover the Regency dandy
Scrope Berdmore Davies Scrope Berdmore Davies (1782–1852), often given incorrectly as Scrope Beardmore Davies, was an English dandy of the Regency period. He is known as a friend of Lord Byron, the dedicatee of Byron's poem ''Parisina''. s:Eight Friends of the Great/5 H ...
.
Frances and Byron kept in touch, Frances sending "long, overwrought letters". In 1823, when the Websters' marriage had broken down, and Byron was trying to raise some cash from the loan to James Webster from ten years before, she wrote to him at
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
from Paris, as a friend.
Family
On 10 October 1810 Frances married
James Wedderburn-Webster
Sir James Webster-Wedderburn (1788–1840), often known as James Webster or Bold Webster, was a British Army officer and dandy. He was a longtime friend of Lord Byron.
Early life
He was the son of David Webster (died 1801), a West India merchant ...
, known as "Bold" Webster. They had five children:
*Lucy Sarah Anne (1812–1864)
*Charles Byron (born 1815–1817). Born in Paris on 28 August 1815 he died at Nantes on October 1817. He was buried in
Caen Cathedral
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Marquis de Lally-Tollendal)
The Websters spent their later years in penury, due to the husband's extravagance. When Frances died in 1837 her husband was reportedly in a
debtors' prison
A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.Cory, Lucinda"A Historic ...
. He died in 1840.
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Frances
Frances
Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the F ...
Frances
Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the F ...