Georgina Weldon
Encyclopedia
Georgina Weldon was a British campaigner against the lunacy
laws, a celebrated litigant
and noted amateur soprano
of the Victorian era
.
Thomas) was born at Tooting Lodge, Clapham Common
in 1837, the eldest of three daughters and two sons of Morgan Thomas (1803–1867), a member of the Welsh
landed gentry, and his wife, Louisa Frances, daughter of John Apsley Dalrymple of Mayfield
in Sussex
. Her father was a non-practising barrister
, having inherited a large sum of money from his father and uncle, and concentrated on becoming Conservative Party
MP
for Coventry
. She spent most of her childhood in Florence
in Italy, and her soprano
singing voice was trained by her mother, except for a few lessons she had in 1855 with Jules de Glimes in Brussels. The Thomas family changed its name to Treherne in 1856, the surname of Morgan Thomas' ancestors up to the mid-eighteenth century.
On 21 April 1860, and against her father's wishes, she married William Henry Weldon, a lieutenant
in the 18th Royal Hussars
, causing her father to promptly disinherit her. Georgina Weldon hoped to follow a career on the stage but her husband, like her father before him, refused to allow her to appear as a professional and she was restricted to performing in amateur theatricals and charity concerts.
By 1869 Weldon's childless marriage was breaking down. At this time she devised a scheme for a National Training School of Music to teach music to poor children. The Weldons took over the lease of Tavistock House
in London's Bloomsbury, which she filled with orphans, following a then highly progressive plan of education. She joined Henry David Leslie
's famous choir, through which she met the French composer Charles Gounod
in March 1871.
That year Georgina Weldon sang the solo in Mendelssohn
's Hear my Prayer at several venues in London, and took the solo soprano part in Gounod's cantata
Gallia at the Conservatoire de Paris
and the Opéra-Comique
in Paris. By November 1871 Gounod, who was in poor health, had moved into Tavistock House
with Mr and Mrs Weldon. This close association with the composer benefitted Weldon's singing career. It has been suggested that Georgina and Gounod were lovers, and that he had promised her the title role in his opera
Polyeucte
when it opened in Paris. However, Gounod became increasingly disturbed by the gossip about the ‘Weldon Affair’, and in June 1874 he returned to his wife in Paris. Feeling slighted by Gounod's departure, Georgina Weldon refused to send on his personal belongings, including the draft of his opera Polyeucte.
When he asked her to return these belongings to him, she insisted that he return to London to claim them from her in person. Only when he had virtually reconstructed the musical score nearly a year later, did she return the original draft to him with her name scrawled diagonally across each page in crayon. She then instigated a number of lawsuit
s against him for libel, attempting to sue him for £10,000, but none of the actions was successful. Instead, in 1880 and again in 1885, she herself was imprisoned for libels connected with her musical career.
. The couple separated and he gave Georgina the lease to Tavistock House
and £1000 a year as a financial settlement. In 1878 Harry Weldon wanted to reduce or stop this payment, and he tried to use Georgina's interest in spiritualism to prove that she was insane in an attempt to have her confined in a lunatic asylum kept by L. Forbes Winslow
. Georgina was seen by the necessary two doctors, who obtained an interview with her under false pretences, pretending they were interested in her musical orphanage, and they signed the lunacy order. Georgina realised that something was wrong and, when people from the asylum arrived to take her away by force, she escaped and evaded capture for the seven days that the order remained valid. She then went to Bow Street Magistrates' Court
to press charges for assault. The magistrate
sympathised with her situation and was convinced that she was sane, but, under Victorian
law, a married woman could not instigate a civil suit against her husband. However, having proved her point, Mrs Weldon publicised her story by giving interviews to the daily newspapers and the spiritualist press in an attempt to provoke her husband and the two doctors into suing her for libel.
In 1882 Georgina Weldon successfully sued her husband for the restoration of her conjugal rights, but he refused to return to Tavistock House
, the marital home. The passing of the Married Women's Property Act
in 1882 allowed her to instigate the civil suit against her husband she had wanted to pursue in 1878. Between 1883 and 1888 she successfully sued all those involved in trying to have her committed in 1878, at one stage in 1884 having seventeen cases in progress at the same time. She always represented herself and conducted all her cases without legal counsel. She became known as the 'Portia
of the Law Courts', and her image appeared everywhere, even in an advertisement for Pears Soap
. To finance her legal actions in 1884 she would sing two songs an evening at the London Pavilion
music hall
, and in 1886 appeared in a brief run of the melodrama
Not Alone, but this was not a success.
in France where she became a keen gardener and where she wrote her memoirs. She was thrust into the spotlight again through her association with the descendants of Karl Wilhelm Naundorff
, a pretender to the title of Louis XVII of France
. By now tired of her, the public ignored Weldon's book Louis XVII, or, The Arab Jew, and her eight volumes of legal memoirs. She took part in a series of séance
s during which she claimed to have contacted the recently deceased Gounod
. Becoming increasingly impoverished, she returned to London in 1905, where she began an unsuccessful libel action to clear her name with Gounod's biographers.
Her final years were spent in London and Brighton, where she died at 6 Sillwood Street on 11 January 1914.
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
laws, a celebrated litigant
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
and noted amateur soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
of the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
.
Early years
Georgina Weldon (néeMarried and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Thomas) was born at Tooting Lodge, Clapham Common
Clapham Common
Clapham Common is an 89 hectare triangular area of grassland situated in south London, England. It was historically common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, but was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878.43 hectares of the common are within the...
in 1837, the eldest of three daughters and two sons of Morgan Thomas (1803–1867), a member of the Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
landed gentry, and his wife, Louisa Frances, daughter of John Apsley Dalrymple of Mayfield
Mayfield and Five Ashes
Mayfield and Five Ashes is a civil parish in the High Weald of East Sussex, England. The two villages making up the principal part of the parish lie on the A267 road between Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne: Mayfield, the larger of the two villages is ten miles south of Tunbridge Wells; with Five...
in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. Her father was a non-practising barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, having inherited a large sum of money from his father and uncle, and concentrated on becoming Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
for Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
. She spent most of her childhood in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in Italy, and her soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
singing voice was trained by her mother, except for a few lessons she had in 1855 with Jules de Glimes in Brussels. The Thomas family changed its name to Treherne in 1856, the surname of Morgan Thomas' ancestors up to the mid-eighteenth century.
On 21 April 1860, and against her father's wishes, she married William Henry Weldon, a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in the 18th Royal Hussars
18th Royal Hussars
The 18th Royal Hussars was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, first formed in 1759. It saw service for two centuries, before being amalgamated into the 13th/18th Hussars in 1922....
, causing her father to promptly disinherit her. Georgina Weldon hoped to follow a career on the stage but her husband, like her father before him, refused to allow her to appear as a professional and she was restricted to performing in amateur theatricals and charity concerts.
Gounod
Tavistock House
Tavistock House was the London home of the noted British author Charles Dickens and his family from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forster's Life of...
in London's Bloomsbury, which she filled with orphans, following a then highly progressive plan of education. She joined Henry David Leslie
Henry David Leslie
Henry David Leslie was an English composer and conductor. Leslie was a leader in supporting amateur choral musicians in Britain, founding prize-winning amateur choral societies. He was also a supporter of musical higher education, helping to found national music schools.-Biography:Leslie was...
's famous choir, through which she met the French composer Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
in March 1871.
That year Georgina Weldon sang the solo in Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Hear my Prayer at several venues in London, and took the solo soprano part in Gounod's cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
Gallia at the Conservatoire de Paris
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...
and the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
in Paris. By November 1871 Gounod, who was in poor health, had moved into Tavistock House
Tavistock House
Tavistock House was the London home of the noted British author Charles Dickens and his family from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forster's Life of...
with Mr and Mrs Weldon. This close association with the composer benefitted Weldon's singing career. It has been suggested that Georgina and Gounod were lovers, and that he had promised her the title role in his opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Polyeucte
Polyeucte (opera)
Polyeucte is an opéra by Charles Gounod based on the play about Saint Polyeuctus by Pierre Corneille. The libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré is more faithful to its source than Les martyrs, Scribe's adaptation for Donizetti, and Gounod hoped to express "the unknown and irresistable...
when it opened in Paris. However, Gounod became increasingly disturbed by the gossip about the ‘Weldon Affair’, and in June 1874 he returned to his wife in Paris. Feeling slighted by Gounod's departure, Georgina Weldon refused to send on his personal belongings, including the draft of his opera Polyeucte.
When he asked her to return these belongings to him, she insisted that he return to London to claim them from her in person. Only when he had virtually reconstructed the musical score nearly a year later, did she return the original draft to him with her name scrawled diagonally across each page in crayon. She then instigated a number of lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
s against him for libel, attempting to sue him for £10,000, but none of the actions was successful. Instead, in 1880 and again in 1885, she herself was imprisoned for libels connected with her musical career.
Litigation
By 1875 Harry Weldon had tired of his wife's orphanage scheme and her growing interest in spiritualismSpiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
. The couple separated and he gave Georgina the lease to Tavistock House
Tavistock House
Tavistock House was the London home of the noted British author Charles Dickens and his family from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forster's Life of...
and £1000 a year as a financial settlement. In 1878 Harry Weldon wanted to reduce or stop this payment, and he tried to use Georgina's interest in spiritualism to prove that she was insane in an attempt to have her confined in a lunatic asylum kept by L. Forbes Winslow
L. Forbes Winslow
Lyttelton Stewart Forbes Winslow MRCP was a British psychiatrist famous for his involvement in the Jack the Ripper and Georgina Weldon cases during the late Victorian era.-Career:...
. Georgina was seen by the necessary two doctors, who obtained an interview with her under false pretences, pretending they were interested in her musical orphanage, and they signed the lunacy order. Georgina realised that something was wrong and, when people from the asylum arrived to take her away by force, she escaped and evaded capture for the seven days that the order remained valid. She then went to Bow Street Magistrates' Court
Bow Street Magistrates' Court
Bow Street Magistrates' Court was the most famous magistrates' court in England for much of its existence, and was located in various buildings on Bow Street in central London close to Covent Garden throughout its history.-History:...
to press charges for assault. The magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
sympathised with her situation and was convinced that she was sane, but, under Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
law, a married woman could not instigate a civil suit against her husband. However, having proved her point, Mrs Weldon publicised her story by giving interviews to the daily newspapers and the spiritualist press in an attempt to provoke her husband and the two doctors into suing her for libel.
In 1882 Georgina Weldon successfully sued her husband for the restoration of her conjugal rights, but he refused to return to Tavistock House
Tavistock House
Tavistock House was the London home of the noted British author Charles Dickens and his family from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forster's Life of...
, the marital home. The passing of the Married Women's Property Act
Married Women's Property Act 1882
The Married Women's Property Act 1882 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that significantly altered English law regarding the property rights granted to married women, allowing them to own and control their own property....
in 1882 allowed her to instigate the civil suit against her husband she had wanted to pursue in 1878. Between 1883 and 1888 she successfully sued all those involved in trying to have her committed in 1878, at one stage in 1884 having seventeen cases in progress at the same time. She always represented herself and conducted all her cases without legal counsel. She became known as the 'Portia
Portia
-Biology:*Portia , a genus of jumping spiders*Anaea troglodyta, a brush-footed butterfly commonly known as the Florida Leafwing, Florida Goatweed, or Portia*Portia tree, a plant native to Polynesia*Ctt...
of the Law Courts', and her image appeared everywhere, even in an advertisement for Pears Soap
Pears soap
Pears transparent soap is a brand of soap first produced and sold in 1789 by Andrew Pears at a factory just off Oxford Street in London, England. It was the world's first transparent soap. Under the stewardship of Thomas J. Barratt, A. & F. Pears Ltd. company initiated a number of innovations in...
. To finance her legal actions in 1884 she would sing two songs an evening at the London Pavilion
London Pavilion
The London Pavilion is a building located on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street on the north-east side of, and facing, Piccadilly Circus in London...
music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
, and in 1886 appeared in a brief run of the melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
Not Alone, but this was not a success.
Later life
By the late 1880s Georgina Weldon's popularity had waned. In her latter years she was a paying guest for 12 years at a convent in GisorsGisors
Gisors is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located northwest from the center of Paris.Gisors, together with the neighbouring communes of Trie-Château and Trie-la-Ville, form an urban area of 12,669 inhabitants...
in France where she became a keen gardener and where she wrote her memoirs. She was thrust into the spotlight again through her association with the descendants of Karl Wilhelm Naundorff
Karl Wilhelm Naundorff
Karl Wilhelm Naundorff was a German clock- and watch-maker who until his death claimed to be Prince Louis-Charles. Naundorff was one of the more stubborn of more than thirty men who claimed to be Louis XVII.-Biography:...
, a pretender to the title of Louis XVII of France
Louis XVII of France
Louis XVII , from birth to 1789 known as Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy; then from 1789 to 1791 as Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France; and from 1791 to 1793 as Louis-Charles, Prince Royal of France, was the son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette...
. By now tired of her, the public ignored Weldon's book Louis XVII, or, The Arab Jew, and her eight volumes of legal memoirs. She took part in a series of séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
s during which she claimed to have contacted the recently deceased Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
. Becoming increasingly impoverished, she returned to London in 1905, where she began an unsuccessful libel action to clear her name with Gounod's biographers.
Her final years were spent in London and Brighton, where she died at 6 Sillwood Street on 11 January 1914.
External links
- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F04E6D71630E53ABC4F51DFB4678382669FDE"Mrs Weldon's Libels.; How She Sought Revenge Against A Concert Manager". The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. December 27, 1879] - Full text of Weldon's Louis XVII ; or, The Arab Jew