Life
Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Campbell was the daughter and the youngest child of Field Marshal John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll and Elizabeth Campbell, 1st Baroness Hamilton, second daughter of John Gunning, of Castle Coote, County Roscommon, and widow of James Hamilton, 6th Duke of Hamilton. She was born at Argyll House, Oxford Street, London. In her youth she was remarkable for her personal beauty, and the charm of her manners rendered her one of the most popular persons in society, while the sweetness and excellence of her character endeared her more especially to those who knew her in the intimacy of private life. She was always distinguished by her passion for the belles-lettres, and was accustomed to do the honours of Scotland to the literary celebrities of the day. It was at one of her parties that Sir Walter Scott became personally acquainted with Monk Lewis. When aged twenty-two she produced a volume of poems, to which, however, she did not affix her name.
She married on 14 June 1796 Colonel John Campbell (eldest son of Walter Campbell of Schawfield, by his first wife Eleanora Kerr), who, at the time of his decease in Edinburgh on 15 March 1809, was Member of Parliament for the Ayr Burghs. By this marriage she had nine children, of whom, however, only two survived her, Lady A. Lennox and Mrs. William Russell. Lady Charlotte Campbell married secondly, on 17 March 1818, the Reverend Edward John Bury (only son of Edward Bury of Taunton); they had two daughters. Bury received from University College, Oxford, his B.A. in 1811 and M.A. 1817. He assumed the position of rector in Litchfield, Hampshire, in 1814 and died at Ardenample Castle, Dumbartonshire, in May 1832, aged 42.
After Lady Charlotte had been widowed in 1809 she had been appointed Lady-in-Waiting in the household of the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, when it is believed that she kept a diary, in which she recorded the foibles and failings of the unfortunate princess and other members of the court.
After her marriage with Bury she was the author of various contributions to light literature; some of her novels were very popular, although now almost forgotten. When the Diary illustrative of the Times of George IV appeared in two volumes in 1838, it was thought to bear evidence of a familiarity with the scenes depicted which could only be attributed to Lady Charlotte. It was reviewed with much severity, and attributed to her ladyship by both the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. The volumes, however, sold rapidly, and several editions were disposed of in a few weeks. The charge of the authorship was not at the time denied, and as no one has since arisen claiming to have written the diary the public libraries now catalogue the work under Lady Charlotte's name. Volume 3 of the Diary was discovered by William Michael Rossetti to contain an encounter with William Blake; a rare description of the poet and artist from a contemporary.
Lady Charlotte died at 91 Sloane Street, Chelsea, on 31 March 1861. The once celebrated beauty, the delight of the highest circles of London society, was curiously described in her death certificate at Somerset House as "daughter of a duke and wife of the Rev. E. J. Bury, holding no benefice.
Read more about this topic: Lady Charlotte Bury
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“In time, after a dozen years of centering their lives around the games boys play with one another, the boys’ bodies change and that changes everything else. But the memories are not erased of that safest time in the lives of men, when their prime concern was playing games with guys who just wanted to be their friendly competitors. Life never again gets so simple.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“In place of a world, there is a city, a point, in which the whole life of broad regions is collecting while the rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born of and grown on the soil, there is a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the country gentleman.”
—Oswald Spengler (1880–1936)
“Margaret: Some people have life made for them.
Frank: That’s right, Mrs. Hammond, and some people make it for themselves. It’s about time you took that ton of rock off your shoulders.”
—David Storey (b. 1933)