The MacDonald sisters were four British sisters, notable for their marriages to well-known people of the Victorian era. Alice, Georgiana, Agnes and Louisa were four of the seven daughters and 11 children of Reverend George Browne MacDonald (1805–1868), a Methodist minister, and Hannah Jones (1809–1875).
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There were 11 children in the Macdonald family: seven daughters and four sons. Mary (1834–1836) was the firstborn; followed by Henry (1836–1891), called Harry, who introduced his younger sisters Georgiana and Agnes to his artistic friends, known as the Birmingham Set; then Alice; Caroline (1838–1854); Georgiana; Frederick William (1842–1928); Agnes; Louisa; Walter (1847-1847); Edith (1848–1937), who never married, and lived at home until her mother's death; and Herbert (1850–1851).[1]
Alice (1837–1910) married John Lockwood Kipling, and was the mother of Rudyard Kipling. A Viceroy of India once said, "Dullness and Mrs. Kipling cannot exist in the same room."[2]
Georgiana (1840–1920) married the pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones. She became the mother-in-law of John William Mackail and grandmother of Angela Thirkell.
Agnes (1843–1906) married the president of the Royal Academy Edward Poynter.
Louisa (1845–1925) married the industrialist Alfred Baldwin and was the mother of prime minister Stanley Baldwin, and grandmother to Oliver Baldwin. Louisa wrote novels, short stories, and poetry, sometimes credited as "Mrs. Alfred Baldwin."[3][4][5]