William Nightingale
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William Edward Nightingale ( Shore; 15 February 1794 – 5 January 1874) was a noted English Unitarian and the father of
Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, i ...
, "the lady with the lamp".


Biography

William Nightingale (known also as W.E.N.) was born William Edward Shore on 15 February 1794, in
Lea, Derbyshire Dethick, Lea and Holloway is a civil parish (and, since 1899, an ecclesiastical parish), in the Amber Valley borough of the English county of Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 1,027. It is located in c ...
. His father was William Shore (1752-1822). His mother was Mary née Evans (1760-1853) who died at
Tapton House Tapton House, in Tapton, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, was once the home of engineer George Stephenson, who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives. In its time Tapton has been a gentleman's residence, a ...
,
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
. She was the niece of one Peter Nightingale, a lead mining entrepreneur, under the terms of whose will William Shore inherited the Lea Hall estate in Derbyshire, but also assumed the name and arms of Nightingale in 1815. He was appointed Sheriff of Hampshire in 1828. He had two sisters, Anne and Mary. By his early twenties, William Nightingale had an income of £8,000 which made him very wealthy. He liked to hunt, read, and follow social issues of his day. As well as
Lea Hurst Dethick, Lea and Holloway is a civil parish (and, since 1899, an ecclesiastical parish), in the Amber Valley borough of the English county of Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 1,027. It is located in c ...
, he also owned Embley Park, an estate in
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
. In 1818, when he was 23 and she was 29, he married Frances "Fanny" Smith (1789–1880), from Parndon in
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
, daughter of the Whig M.P. William Smith, a noted
abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...
. They had two daughters, both born while the family was on the
Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...
of what would later become
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. The elder, Parthenope Nightingale, was born in Naples and named after the city's Greek title. The younger was
Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, i ...
, best known for her nursing career but also notable in the development of modern hospital design and the gathering of health statistics. Nightingale was the architect of Lea Hurst, a house which survives today and which was highly innovative for its time. Lea Hurst was designed to offer the Nightingale family considerable privacy. In contrast to the manors of other wealthy gentlemen, Lea Hurst was designed to blend in with its environment. It was made of the same local gray stone as other, less affluent houses were made of. When his daughters were of school age, Nightingale devoted himself to their education. As a consequence, Parthenope and Florence were educated well beyond what was typical of young ladies of their age.


Interest in politics

William Nightingale had a keen interest in politics, and in 1829, he was appointed as the
High Sheriff of Hampshire This is a list of High Sheriffs of Hampshire. This title was often given as High Sheriff of the County of Southampton until 1959. List of High Sheriffs *1070–1096: Hugh de Port "Domesday Book Online" *1105: Henry de Port (son of Hugh) *1129: W ...
. In the summer months of 1834, he stood for parliament as a Whig candidate for Andover. He supported the
Reform Bill In the United Kingdom, Reform Act is most commonly used for legislation passed in the 19th century and early 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...
and opposed any form of bribery for the encouragement of the electors. His views cost him the election, which left him shocked. As a result, he resolved never to be persuaded into political life again. In 1838 he took his family on tour in Europe. In Paris he was introduced to Mary Elizabeth Clarke, an English-born salon hostess. "Clarkey" generally rejected female company and spent her time with male intellectuals, but she made an exception in the case of the Nightingale family. She and Florence were to remain close friends for 40 years despite their 27-year age difference.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nightingale, William Edward 1794 births 1874 deaths English Unitarians Florence Nightingale High Sheriffs of Hampshire People from Dethick, Lea and Holloway
William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...