If you have ever watched the film, Belle, as you would expect, some creative licence was involved, especially when it came to Dido being an orphan, this was not true. Thomas Hutchinson, the former governor of Massachusetts who saw Dido at Kenwood House in 1779 wrote in his diary that Dido’s mother, Maria Belle, was …
Continue reading What became of Dido Elizabeth Belle’s mother, Maria Belle?
As many of you will be aware, research into the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle and her family has been ongoing for quite some time now and today, at the suggestion of Etienne Daly, who has been researching the life of Dido for a number of years, we will take a look at some of …
Continue reading Dido Elizabeth Belle – Ranelagh Street, Pimlico
A question that is frequently asked is, ‘are any of Dido Elizabeth Belle’s descendants still alive?’ The answer in short is no. Today, I thought it worth providing a somewhat lengthy, but nevertheless potted genealogy, to explain how her family line died out. Be prepared, it’s not always an easy read in parts. At the …
Today, I have another guest post, by Etienne Daly about his research into the burial of Dido Elizabeth Belle‘s sons. After establishing early on in my research that Dido Elizabeth Belle, Britain’s first mixed-race aristocrat was buried at St George’s Fields Burial Ground, I next focussed my attention to her two sons – Charles and …
Continue reading Where are Dido Elizabeth Belle’s sons buried?
Today I welcome back Etienne Daly, with whom I’ve been working for a while now, researching Dido Elizabeth Belle, her life and her family. Today, Etienne is going to provide a quick Q&A session about Dido Elizabeth Belle, to set the record straight about some of the misinformation that still circulates in the public domain. …
Continue reading Dido Elizabeth Belle: Questions and Answers
Today I am delighted to welcome an authority on the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, Etienne Daly, whose name you have probably seen in previous articles about Dido. As part of his research into her life he has been taking a closer look at her death, more specifically where she was buried and with that …
As many readers are aware, over the past few months I have been researching the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle and her family, in addition to the usual eclectic mix of posts. Some information about her life has now been in the public domain for a number of years, including the film made about her …
For those of us who watched BBC’s Fake or Fortune which took a look at the stunning painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle and her cousin Lady Elizabeth, we were delighted that the team were finally been able to put a name to the artist which has been unknown for so long, and confirmed – as …
For regular readers, you will by now have probably gathered that as well as all the other research, I have also been investigating the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Dido, her life and family have become something of an obsession of late and hopefully this and other articles on All Things Georgian, will help to …
Continue reading Dido Elizabeth Belle and John Davinière, what became of them?
We’re very excited to be able to bring you some new information about Dido Elizabeth Belle. Dido was the natural daughter of a former African slave woman and Sir John Lindsay; she was brought up alongside her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray at their great-uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield’s estate, Kenwood House in Hampstead, London. …
Continue reading Dido Elizabeth Belle – New information about her siblings
In our previous blog about the turban that Dido Elizabeth Belle was wearing in the portrait of her with her cousin, the Honourable Lady Elizabeth Murray, we mentioned that the portrait was reputed to have been painted by Johann Zoffany and we promised to give you an update with some new information. We now know …
Continue reading Dido Elizabeth Belle – A new perspective on her portrait
Today I once again welcome back Etienne Daly who has been using the ‘lockdown’ very productively continuing his research into Dido Elizabeth Belle and in particular his eye was drawn to the frigate HMS Dido. So, I’ll hand over to him tell you more about his findings: The ‘lockdown’ and Covid-19 may have forced people …
I came across this curious case of a marriage, a few years ago, in connection with Dido Elizabeth Belle’s husband, John Daviniere. It was a case that many of the London newspapers of late 1815 reported upon. I put it to one side as it only appeared for a few days, and with no conclusion. …
I have previously written about Georgian parties and let’s jut say, that no-one hosted more impressive parties than the ‘King of Bling’ himself, Prince George, later George IV. During 1783 and early 1784 his London home, Carlton House was extensively renovated with a grand ball being held early March 1784. Looking at the royal accounts, …
This post is very much about art and family connections, but I have a slight query with this first one, which is a miniature by Richard Cosway, that I first came came across on social media. Being a big fan of miniatures, especially those by Cosway, I wanted to find out more about the sitter …
Continue reading Art Detective: the portrait of Catherine Clemens and her son, John Marcus Clemens
To date, I have written quite a few articles about Dido Elizabeth Belle, along with a few guest posts by Etienne Daly, but suddenly realised that I have largely ignored the co-sitter in the famous portrait, her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Mary Murray, so it’s time to rectify this, but of course it wouldn’t be complete …
Just to let you know, I’m taking a seasonal break now until Wednesday 13 January 2021, and would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone seasons greetings and my sincerest wish for you all, that 2021 will be an improvement on the rollercoaster ride that 2020 has been. This year, apart from my own …
Many people will by now be aware of this painting, ‘Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom’ which was purchased in 2020, by the Art Gallery of Ontario, following its sale by Sotheby’s in New York, where the painting achieved a figure of $68,750, a not insignificant sum. Whilst I wouldn’t normally mention the …
Continue reading Art Detective: Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom
Captain Tyringham Howe, the son of Millicent Philips and William Howe. Tyringham was one of five children. His siblings being – Millicent who married Thomas Wilkinson in 1796 at Harwich, Essex; William Howe, a naval captain, who remained unmarried until his death in 1760; Stephen, who was a lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp to the King, …
Today, I am delighted to welcome to All Things Georgian, Professor Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina whose new book, ‘Britain’s Black Past‘ (*see end) has just been published by Liverpool University Press and is also available from Amazon. Our paths crossed as a result of our shared interest in the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, who features …
Continue reading ‘Britain’s Black Past’ by Professor Gretchen Gerzina
If, like me, you wonder who lived in some of London’s Georgian houses, then today’s post takes a look at one specific London street in the affluent area of Mayfair, or to be more specific, Hertford Street. This is a street which Etienne Daly told me about in connection with Sir John Lindsay, the father …
Continue reading Who lived in these houses on Hertford Street, Mayfair?
We have no idea quite why, but we seem to have been drawn to the East India Company (EIC) or The Honourable East India Company as it was also known, in so much of our research. Whilst researching Grace Dalrymple Elliott and her family we discovered that her cousin John Mordaunt, the illegitimate sons born …
For all regular followers will no doubt be aware that as well as all of my other research, I have, in the background, been researching Dido Elizabeth Belle and her husband. For those aware of Dido’s life you will know that she died in 1804 and was buried at St George’s Field (it appears likely, …
Continue reading 146 Piccadilly – who lived in a house like this?
As you will probably be aware by now, we have been busy researching Dido Elizabeth Belle and as part of this, we have looked at those within the inner circle of her extended family. This has led us to look at Sir Thomas Mills, who was reputed to be the ‘nephew’ of Lord Mansfield. We …
Continue reading Art Detectives: The Mysterious Sir Thomas Mills and Lady Elizabeth
In this post, I thought we would play a quick game of ‘six degrees of separation’. For anyone who is unaware of the concept, you will no doubt be familiar with the phrase ‘it’s a small world’ and it so it is. It’s been quite surprising that throughout my research, I’ve noticed just how relatively small …
Continue reading An Eighteenth Century game of ‘Degrees of Separation’
Here’s a new one for you. What did a calenderer do? Any ideas? I hadn’t, so off down the proverbial rabbit hole I disappeared to find out more. When you’ve visited a stately home and wandered into the bedrooms with those immense four-poster beds, like this one at Houghton Hall, have you ever wondered how …
Continue reading Find out more about the job of a calenderer in the 18th-century
To all our lovely readers, we send a massive ‘thank you‘ for all your amazing support during this year and our best wishes to you all for this holiday season. We will be taking a blog break until January 8th when we will return with plenty more stories for you and some exciting news too! …
One of the things we really enjoy doing during our research is to look at the advertisements in the newspapers of the day to see what sort of items were for sale. Don’t you just wonder what it would have been like to go back in time and visit some of the shops? Perhaps a …
When you begin to research a person’s life, especially one who has frequently been written about, you suddenly find that you’ve opened a real can of worms with more and more information toppling out every day. This has never more so than in the research into the life and extended family of Dido Elizabeth Belle …
Following on from a blog about Dido Elizabeth Belle, one of our lovely readers made us aware of this unusual painting titled, Young Woman with Servant which is on display at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Why unusual? It is odd on so many levels. For starters the subject matter, it is titled ‘young woman with servant’ …
During research into Allan Ramsay, we have noticed that the information given online concerning his children is incorrect and – in some cases – missing altogether. So, today’s post is something of a genealogical exercise to fully document Ramsay’s twelve children, five sons and seven daughters, which, we hope, will prove informative for anyone else …
Continue reading The family of Allan Ramsay, principal portrait painter to George III
I came across this portrait by George Romney, in the Frick Collection purely by chance, and wanted to know more about who the sitter was, so disappeared down one of my proverbial rabbit holes in search of more information about her. The first port of call was the Frick itself, who were extremely helpful and …
Continue reading Art Detectives: Miss Mary Hatton by George Romney
Past Events 2021 12 Nov 2021. Listen to me having a chat with Hazel, CEO of London Guided Walks, all about 18th century dentistry. Be warned it’s rather gruesome! 14 May 2021. You can see me having an informal chat with genealogist, Natalie Pithers about All Things Georgian 2 April 2021. Podcast for HistoryHack – …
It’s been a while since we wrote a fashion post, so to make up for that we’re going to take a look at a piece of headgear – the turban, a piece of headwear that according to Vogue is making a comeback for this Spring and Summer. We were inspired to write this post having …
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