Goring, Augusta |
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BORN 18 Jul 1807, Thorpe, Norfolk - DIED 8 Aug 1875, Chambéry, Savoie BIRTH NAME Harvey, Augusta |
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Daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel John Harvey (1775-1842) and Frances Kerrison (1765-1809). She was pretty, cultivated and modern thinking. Little is known about her youth, but a miniature painted by John Linnell in 1827 survives. On 2 Aug 1827 she married Sir Harry Dent Goring from Highden, Sussex at Thorpe, Norwich. They had a son, Sir Charles Goring (1828-1884). But she was treated badly by her husband and after she met E.J. Trelawny in 1838, she eloped with him. She pretended to be a Mrs. Ann Granby and gave birth to a son, Edgar, on 5 Aug 1839. Sir Henry brought the case to court and was awarded damages in April 1841, but now Augusta and Trelawny were free to marry and they decided to do so. They lived in Wales and had two more children (Frank and Laetitia). Augusta was a close friend of Mary Shelley, but in 1838 Trelawny had broken off relations with Mary after she had refused his proposal for marriage. It was not until 1848 that Augusta and Mary met again (a correspondence followed). Around 1858 Trelawny installed a young mistress in their house at Usk (a certain Miss B.) and this was too much even for the patient Augusta. They broke up and Trelawny returned to London in the company of Miss B. Augusta left for Italy in 1858 and she died in Italy or in Chambéry in 1875. After her mother's death Laetitia made contact with Augusta's son by her first marriage, Sir Charles Goring, to tell him the news. They had never met before and Sir Charles fell madly in love with his half-sister. This resulted in a spectacular divorce case in 1878, but eventually all charges against Charles and Laetitia were withdrawn. Family • Husband: Trelawny, Edward John (1846-1857, Gloucestershire) (divorce or separation) Related persons • was a friend of Shelley, Mary |
Sources • Armstrong, Margaret, Trelawny, A Man's Life, Robert Hale, London, 1941 • Crane, David, Lord Byron's Jackal, The life of Edward John Trelawny, Harper Collins Publishers, London, 1998 • St Clair, William, Trelawny, The Incurable Romancer, Vanguard Press, New York, 1977 |
