Henrietta Georgiana Marcia Lascelles Chatterton

Henrietta Georgiana Marcia Lascelles Chatterton, Lady Chatterton (née Iremonger; other married name Dering] (11 November 1806– 6 February 1876), was a British traveler and author.

Lady Chatterton was the only child of the Rev. Lascelles Iremonger, prebendary of Winchester Cathedral, and Harriett Gambier, youngest sister of Admiral Lord James Gambier. This was the second marriage for Rev. Iremonger, who died on 6 January 1830. Lady Chatterton was born at 24 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, on 11 November 1806. On 3 August 1824 she married Sir William Abraham Chatterton of Castle Mahon, County Cork, bart.

In 1837 her first book, Aunt Dorothy's Tales, was published anonymously in two volumes. Two years afterward it was followed by Rambles in the South of Ireland, which was so successful that the first edition sold out in a few weeks. After this she wrote many tales, novels, poems, and accounts of travels under the name Georgiana Chatterton.[1] Cardinal John Henry Newman praised the refinement of thought in her later works of fiction.

The Great Irish Famine in 1845–1851 deprived her husband of his rents. They retired to a small residence at Bloxworth in Dorset, where they lived until 1852. They then removed to Rolls Park, Essex, and Sir William Chatterton died there on 5 August 1855. On 1 June 1859 the widow married Edward Heneage Dering (b 1827), youngest son of John Dering, rector of Pluckley, Kent, and prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral, who had retired from the army in 1851. Within six years of their marriage Mr. Dering entered the Roman Catholic Church. She herself long wavered, but after a correspondence with William Bernard Ullathorne, bishop of Birmingham, she was received into the Roman church in August 1875.

She died at Malvern Wells, a village in Worcestershire, England, on 6 February 1876.

Works

  1. Aunt Dorothy's Tales anonymous, 1837
  2. Rambles in the South of Ireland 1839, ²1839
  3. A Good Match, The Heiress of Drosberg, and The Cathedral Chorister 1840; another edition, 1868
  4. Home Sketches and Foreign Recollections 1841
  5. The Pyrenees, with Excursions into Spain 1843
  6. Allanston, or the Infidel 1843
  7. Lost Happiness, or the Effects of a Lie a tale, 1845
  8. Reflections on the History of the Kings of Judah 1848
  9. Extracts from Jean Paul F. Richter 1851
  10. Compensation anonymous, 1856
  11. Life and its Realities 1857
  12. The Reigning Beauty 1858
  13. Memorials of Admiral Lord Gambier 1861
  14. Selections from the Works of Plato 1862
  15. The Heiress and her Lovers 1863
  16. Leonore, a Tale, and other Poems 1864
  17. Quagmire ahead privately printed, 1864
  18. Grey's Court edited by Lady Chatterton, 1865
  19. Oswald of Deira a drama, 1867
  20. A Plea for Happiness and Hope privately printed, 1867
  21. Country Coteries 1868
  22. The Oak original tales and sketches by Sir J. Bowring, Lady Chatterton, and others, 1869
  23. Lady May a pastoral poem, 1869
  24. The Lost Bride 1872
  25. Won at last 1874
  26. Extracts from Aristotle's Work privately printed, 1875
  27. Misgiving privately printed, 1875
  28. Convictions privately printed, 1875
  29. The Consolation of the Devout Soul by J. Frassinetti, translated by Lady Chatterton, 1876

References