Theresa Yelverton

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Theresa Yelverton in Yosemite, 1870, seated in manzanita armchair made by James Hutchings. Carte-de-Visite by James Reilly.

Thérèse Yelverton (c. 1832-1836 - 1881) Author.

Born circa 1832 as Maria Teresa Longworth, in Cheetwood, Linconshire, England. She married Major William Charles Yelverton, Viscount Avonmore in 1857, and became Thérèse Yelverton, Viscountess Avonmore. However, the bigamist Viscount remarried then used his influence with the British House of Lords to annul his earlier marriage to Thérèse Yelverton. The case had much notoriety, with great support for her by the public. The Viscount Avonmore was hung in effegy and he had to briefly go into hiding.

Her family's small fortune was robbed by her husband, so she supported herself by writing about her travels. From Francis Farquhar: she ". . . spent the summer of 1870 in Yosemite, where she attached herself to the Hutchings family and made eyes at John Muir. He escaped to the woods, but not before she had noted enough of his conversation and his ways of life to make him over into Kenmuir, the hero of her novel." Although fictional, the characters in the novel are thinly-disguised and provide a useful peek into Yosemite of the early 1870s, especially of a young John Muir. Mrs. Yelverton continued to tour the world and write about her adventures. Thérèse Yelverton died September 13, 1881 in Natal, South Africa.