Emilia Tennyson

Emilia Tennyson (1811–1887), known simply as Emily within her family, was a younger sister of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and the fiancée of Arthur Henry Hallam, for whom Tennyson's great poem, In Memoriam A.H.H., was written. Emilia met Hallam through her brother, and they became engaged in 1832.

However, the couple were never to marry, as Hallam died suddenly while travelling abroad in 1833. There was much concern for Emily's well-being on the death of Arthur. She later married Richard Jesse, then a midshipman in the British Royal Navy, who later rose at least to the rank of captain. Their marriage came as a considerable shock to Jane Elton, Arthur's cousin. Jesse probably died two years after his wife, in 1889.^[1] Their eldest son was given the forenames Arthur Henry Hallam.

Emilia Tennyson appears as a character in the story "Conjugial Angel" by A. S. Byatt in the book Angels and Insects.

References

• Christopher Ricks, "Tennyson, Alfred, first Baron Tennyson (1809–1892)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 . Retrieved 19 December 2005.
• Angels and Insects, by A. S. Byatt.