Henrietta Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley
The Lady Stanley of Alderley | |
---|---|
Born | Henrietta Maria Dillon-Lee 21 December 1807 |
Died | 16 February 1895 (aged 87) |
Spouse | Edward Stanley |
Children | 10 |
Henrietta Maria Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley (née Dillon-Lee; 21 December 1807 – 16 February 1895), was a British Canadian-born political hostess and campaigner for the
She was a founder and benefactor of Girton College at the University of Cambridge, but also a signatory of a petition against women's suffrage. She was the grandmother of philosopher Bertrand Russell.
Early life and family
Born in
In the 1790s her father served as an officer in the
My grandmother's outlook, throughout her life, was in some ways more Continental than English. She was always downright, free from prudery, and eighteenth-century rather than Victorian in her conversation. Her French and Italian were faultless, and she was passionately interested in
Italian unity.[2]
In Florence she met Edward Stanley and married him on 7 October 1826. She became Baroness Eddisbury when her husband was created a peer in 1848. Two years later he succeeded as Baron Stanley of Alderley, by which title the couple was subsequently known. She corresponded with her mother-in-law, Maria, who had received an exceptional education. Maria wrote to her to applaud that she had admonished her son John Stanley for calling Indian people, "niggers".[5]
Education campaigns
Lady Stanley cultivated friendships with
She proceeded to take part in the campaign whose aim was to secure the admission of women to the university local examinations. In 1867, she turned down an offer to become a member of the committee planning a women's university college, saying that "it is not liked to see my name before the public". The death of her husband on 16 June 1869, however, left her more free to pursue her campaign.
In early 1872 she was again invited to participate more formally in the administration of Girton, which she now accepted, and she joined the building subcommittee. The project, seen as daring and even scandalous, benefited from her social position; Lady Stanley considered "social position, good sense and power of governing and conciliating" necessary for the mistress of the college. She donated both money and time to Girton, standing in as its mistress during the illness of Annie Austin, and providing £1,000 for the establishment of its first library, which was built in 1884 and called the Stanley Library. One of the few executive committee members who dared confront Davies, Lady Stanley vehemently opposed the construction of a chapel, and instead favoured improving staff salaries and equipment.[2] In 1888, she helped found Sydenham High Junior and Senior Schools with Maria Grey, Mary Gurney and Emily Shirreff.[citation needed]
Politics and character
The Baroness Stanley of Alderley had great influence in social and political circles. While he was Patronage Secretary, Edward Stanley was described by
Bertrand Russell, her grandson, feared her ridicule and described her as "an eighteenth century type, rationalistic and unimaginative, keen on enlightenment, and contemptuous of Victorian goody-goody priggery". "Grandmama Stanley at Dover Street", according to Russell, "had a considerable contempt for everything that she regarded as silly".[8][9] She died at her home in Dover Street, which she had shared with her unmarried daughter Maude.[2]
Issue
- Henry Edward John, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley (1827–1903)
- Alice Margaret (1828–1910), wife of Augustus Pitt Rivers
- (Henrietta) Blanche (1830–1921), later Countess of Airlie, wife of Clementine Churchill, and a great-grandmother of the Mitford sisters
- Maude Alethea (1832–1915), a youth work pioneer
- Cecilia (d. 1839)
- John Constantine (1837–1878), husband of hostess and politician Mary Jeune, Baroness St Helier
- Edward Lyulph Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley (1839–1925)
- Algernon Charles Stanley (1843–1928), Roman Catholic Bishop of Emmaus (in partibus)
- Katherine Louisa (1844–74), later Viscountess Amberley, suffragette and birth control proponent; mother of the philosopher Bertrand Russell
- Rosalind Frances (1845–1921), later Countess of Carlisle, became the chatelaine of Castle Howard and a radical temperance campaigner.
Lady Stanley's great-great-granddaughter, Nancy Mitford, wrote of the favouritism she showed in treating her children. Her eldest son, Henry, was her favourite, while her eldest daughter, Alice, was her least favourite and treated accordingly.
Arms
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References
- ^ "Types of Canadian women and of women who are or have been connected with Canada". 1903.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26271. Retrieved 5 December 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ISBN 1-85182-810-9.
... the succession of the title and lands of the Dillons in Ireland was assured by the conversion of Henry's eldest son Charles Dillon (later twelfth Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallen) in Dublin of 4 December 1767 ...
- ^ The Encyclopædia Britannica. The Encyclopædia Britannica Company, ltd. 1929. p. 314.
- required.)
- ^ "Girton's Past". Archived from the original on 13 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
- ^ "An Appeal against Female Suffrage, June 1889". June 1889. Archived from the original on 30 December 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
- ISBN 0718500539.
- ISBN 0226065723.
- ^ Burke's Peerage. 1868.
- ^ Burke's Peerage. 1832.