Frances Evelyn "Fanny" Boscawen (née Glanville; 23 July 1719 – 26 February 1805) was an English literary hostess, correspondent and member of the Blue Stockings Society. She was born Frances Evelyn Glanville on 23 July 1719 at St Clere, Kemsing, Kent. In 1742 she married Admiral The Hon. Edward Boscawen (1711–1761). When his navy work took him away from home, his wife would send him passages from her journal, some of which were later published.
Family
Their children were:
- Edward Hugh Boscawen (13 September 1744 – 1774)
- Frances Boscawen (7 March 1746 – 14 July 1801); she married 5 July 1773, aged 27, Admiral Hon. John Leveson-Gower (11 July 1740 - 28 August 1792), younger son of John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower and half-brother of the 1st Marquess of Stafford; they had five sons and two daughters. The heirs-male descending from this marriage are in remainder to the earldom of Gower and the baronetcy only.
- Elizabeth, later Duchess of Beaufort (28 May 1747 Falmouth, Cornwall – 15 June 1828 Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire); she married on 2 January 1766 the Duke of Beaufort at St George's Church, Hanover Square, London. and had eight sons and four daughters by him. She may have been the "Lady in Blue" painted by Thomas Gainsborough.
- William Glanville Boscawen (11 August 1749 – 21 April 1769), died aged 19.
- George Boscawen, 3rd Viscount Falmouth, born 6 May 1758, succeeded his uncle as Viscount Falmouth in 1782. His son was Edward Boscawen, 4th Viscount Falmouth. All the future Viscounts Falmouth and two earls Falmouth are descended from his two sons.
Friendships and influence
Frances' family were aristocratic and members of the court of King George II and King George III. Her son-in-law, Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort was Master of the Horse to Queen Charlotte and her father-in-law Hugh Boscawen, 1st Viscount Falmouth was the brother-in-law of Sir Philip Meadows, Knight Marshal of the King's household whose daughter, Mary, was Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline.
After Boscawen's death in 1761, Frances returned to her London house at 14 South Audley St, where she became an important hostess of Bluestocking meetings. Her numerous guests included Elizabeth Montagu, Horace Walpole, Dr Johnson, Mrs Delany, Anna Letitia Barbauld, James Boswell, Joshua Reynolds - who had painted her husband's portrait - Frances Reynolds, Elizabeth Carter, and later Hannah More, who described her as "sage" (wise) in her 1782 poem The Bas Bleu, or, Conversation, published in 1784. Indeed, Frances had shown wisdom when expressing concern over the notoriously troubled marriage of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Like Frances, the Duchess was a Whig supporter and an associate of the Blue Stockings circle. Frances' widowhood inspired Edward Young's 1761 poem Resignation. She "was widely known in literary London as a model letter-writer and conversationalist, prized for her wit, elegance, and warm heart," according to a present-day scholar.
Frances' influence over King George III was notable, persuading him to employ artist John Opie to paint a portrait of Mrs Delany which hung in the royal bedchamber in a frame designed by Horace Walpole. Opie's wife, Amelia, also associated with the fashionable Blue Stockings Society as did Frances' daughter, Elizabeth, Duchess of Beaufort (née Boscawen) (1747-1828).
Death
Frances died at home in London on 26 February 1805.
References
- Llanover, Lady Augusta Waddington Hall (1862). The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany. R Bentley. p. 521. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
...The Hon. Mrs (Frances Evekyn) Boscawen...
- ^ Eger, Elizabeth. "Boscawen, Frances Evelyn (1719–1805)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47078. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- Aspinall-Oglander, Cecil Faber; Frances E. G. Boscawen (1940). Admiral's wife; being the life and letters of the Hon. Mrs. Edward Boscawen from 1719 to 1761. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
- Aspinall-Oglander, Cecil Faber; Frances E. G. Boscawen (1943). Admiral's Widow: Being the Life and Letters of the Hon. Mrs. Edward Boscawen from 1761 to 1805. London: Hogarth Press.
- Gainsborough's wife Margaret Burr was an illegitimate daughter of the 3rd Duke of Beaufort and so a cousin of the young duke. His father, the 4th Duke (1709–1756), settled a small annuity of £200 on her when she married Gainsborough in 1746. Margaret is not listed in the online peerage references under her ducal father (he officially died without issue), but can be found through a search for her antecedents.
- G. E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 55.
- Llanover, Lady Augusta Waddington Hall (1862). The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany. R. Bentley. p. 573. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
Mrs. Boscawen to Mrs. Delany . ... 3 Sir Philip Meadows (1672-1757) , Knight Marshal of the Palace , the second of that name holding the same office ; married Dorothy Boscawen , sister of Hugh , 1st Viscount Falmouth ...
- Seger, C. (2012). GEORGIANA DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. South Dakota State University. p. 145. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
She was building up a network of relationships within the Devonshire House Circle, at court, and at her social parties, but according to the Honourable Mrs. Boscawen, after the first month it was easy to see that the Duchess was becoming less happy in her marriage and needed something else to fulfill her life. Georgiana started her career at Devonshire House as the hostess for many parties. This position of social hostess that Georgiana held as wife to the Duke would, by the beginning of 1784, develop into her being the political head of the Devonshire House Circle in London. The Devonshire House Circle was where Whig politicians came together to talk about politics, and only the most ardent Whig ladies were allowed into the upper echelon of the Circle.
- Orr, C. (2019). Mrs Delany. Yale University Press. p. 276. ISBN 9780300161137.
5th Duke of Devonshire. But Frances Boscawen had already noticed that the duke had been at Ranelagh pleasure gardens without his wife a few days after their wedding: a bad augury. In January 1775, the young duchess called on Mrs Delany...
- ^ Weld, H. (1842). Brother Jonathan - Chapter: The Blue Stockings. Wilson and Company, New York. pp. 101, 102.
...Mrs Boscawen...Admiral Boscawen...and the lovely and fascinating Duchess of Devonshire, then in the first bloom of youth...
- More, Hannah (1786). Florio, a tale for fine gentlemen and fine ladies; and, The bas bleu, or, Conversation two poems. London: T. Cadell. p. 86.
- Frances Boscawen Reinventing the Feminine: Bluestocking Women Writers in 18th Century London Archived 2013-01-21 at the Wayback Machine
- Bryan, M. (1889). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. George Bell & Sons, London. p. 366. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
...2 Admiral Boscawen . Lord Camden . ... Portrait of Georgiana , Duchess ...
- McCarthy, W. (2008). Anna Letitia Barbauld: Voice of the Enlightenment. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 141–147. ISBN 9780801890161. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
- "Philip Mould - John Opie RA (1761-1807)". Philip Mould Ltd. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
Through the influence of Mrs Boscawen he painted the royal friend and confidante Mrs Delany, whose portrait in a frame designed by Horace Walpole hung in the royal bedchamber. The approval of the garrulous Walpole may also have proved a decisive factor in his success, since he was to a degree arbiter in questions of connoisseurship in late eighteenth century society. Of Mrs Delanys portrait by Opie he says: There is a new genius, one Opy , a Cornish lad of nineteen, who has taught himself to colour in a strong, bold, masterly style by studying nature, and painting from beggars and poor children.
- Boswell, J. (2022). The Correspondence of James Boswell and Sir William Forbes ... Edinburgh University Press. p. 246. ISBN 9780300250381. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
the Duchess of Beaufort upon her marriage in 1766 to Henry Somerset ( 1744-1803 ) , 5th Duke of Beaufort , and other literary women of high social standing ( see Elizabeth Eger's summary article , ' Bluestocking Circle ' , - "and her daughter Elizabeth who had become the duchess of Beaufort upon her marriage...In 1776, Hannah Moore had celebrated the Bluestockings in her poem (dedicated to Horace Walpole The Bas Bleu...
- Johns, A. (2014). Bluestocking Feminism and British-German Cultural Transfer... University of Michigan. p. 173. ISBN 9780472035946. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
....Amelia Opie and Mary Wollstonecraft herself...