A 1815 portrait of the acclaimed actress Miss Walstein – did the artist realise that his subject had been born a man?
Life
1833: The extraordinary life and shocking death of the actor Eliza Edwards aka Miss Lavinia Walstein
After a mostly illustrious career in Ireland and England appearing as Lavinia Walstein, actress Eliza Edwards’ star waned.
Cross-dressing: “Two females would have excited suspicion”
Another in the series about transsexuals and cross-dressing. Two women disguise themselves as a couple in order to steal cattle as two women driving through the countryside would have looked dodgy. A singular circumstance occurred at the Devon gaol on Sunday last. In the course of that day two persons, the one in male, the […]
Transvestism, 1792: Warrington girl enlists and is discovered
A young female, from the neighbourhood of Warrington, last week applied to a Recruiting Serjeant in Chester and voluntarily offered herself to serve his Majesty : – Being habited in male attire, suspicion slept, and the corporal eagerly cross’d her palm with the royal profile, set in silver; – being initiated – a barber was […]
Trans in the newspaper archives: 1829
Lately I have been digging out stories about cross-dressers and trans people from the British Newspaper Archive and tweeting them. It’s become a little bit of a series so I’ll add them here on this website too. There have been some corkers and, as you might imagine, some of the stories have shown a lack […]
Elopement in Georgian England: Catherine Grierson and Thomas Thomasson (1781)
1781: A young lady elopes from her boarding school. The tale of Catherine Grierson and Thomas Thomasson. The case ends up in court.
Henry Fielding’s attempted abduction of Sarah Andrew
In 1725, 17-year-old Henry Fielding tried to abduct his distant cousin Sarah Andrew. He later based his Tom Jones character Sophia Western on her.
How girls were meant to behave: Georgian conduct books
How the works of Hester Chapone, Hannah More, Mary Wollstonecraft, Erasmus Darwin reflected and influences the upbringing of girls in 18th century Britain
Lord Hardwicke’s Act: Marriage in the Georgian era
Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act (1754) aim to prevent clandestine marriage and impose stricter rules. But there were ways to get around it.
Elopement board game (1820)
An 1820 board game themed with elopement – flight, pursuit, and marriage at Gretna Green.
Elopement in the works of Jane Austen
Elopements occur frequently in Jane Austen’s works and perfectly reflect the anxieties about marriage at the time
The Abduction Club
The film The Abduction Club is based on the shocking conspiracy of Garrett Byrne and James Strange in 18th-century Ireland
Thomas Cochrane and Kitty Barnes
1812: The elopement of naval hero, politician, inventor and radical Thomas Cochrane with Katherine (Kitty) Barnes to Scotland.
Sark Toll Bar – first stop over the border and nearer than Gretna Green!
Read about Sark Toll Bar, which was preferred by couples who feared a parent was about to catch up with them. It was half a mile closer than Gretna Green!
Elopement in Vauxhall Gardens popular song
The Honeymoon: An elopement song performed by Mary Ann Wrighten (1751-1796) at Vauxhall Gardens.
“Drive on, drive on, drive on!”: Ode on Moderation by Peter Pindar
Peter Pindar’s Ode on Moderation (1797). A satirical poem on the perils of elopement.
Post-chaises and postilions
The hiring of a post-chaise (or several) was typical of Georgian elopements – where could you get one and and who or what was the postilion?
Two 18th-century bride abductions
Two cases of bride abductions: Pleasant Rawlins and Lucy Ramsay. Their abductors were tried and executed.
Thomas Rowlandson: The Elopement
In Thomas Rowlandson’s 1792 watercolour The Elopement a schoolgirl lowers herself down from the first floor on to her lover’s shoulders, while his servant puts her trunk in the waiting post-chaise.
George Morland: The Laetitia series
George Morland’s (1763-1804) Laetitia series shows the trajectory of an elopement – from romantic aspiration and seduction through to abandonment and regret
The Elopement (John Collet)
John Collett’s Modern Love was a variation on Hogarth’s more famous Marriage a-la-mode: courtship, elopement, honeymoon and finally the unhappy marriage.
Grandmamma’s Elopement
1878: Nostalgic double page spread from The Graphic tells the story of “Grandmamma’s Elopement”. The Regency was seen as the golden age of runaway love.
John Fane and Sarah Anne Child
1782: John Fane and Sarah Anne Child married at Gretna Green. Her fabulously wealthy banker father cut her off without a penny.
Eliza Stables and Anthony Deane
1819: Eliza Stables and Anthony Deane ran off to Gretna Green but the marriage was opposed by his mother.
The Bristol elopement: Clementina Clerke and Richard Vining Perry
In 1791 14-year-old heiress Clementina Clerke was abducted by Richard Vining Perry, in a case that was dubbed the Bristol elopement.
The Shrigley Abduction: Edward Gibbon Wakefield
1826: Edward Gibbon Wakefield abducted and married Ellen Turner, only child and heiress of the wealthy manufacturer William Turner.