A Georgian Heroine by Joanne Major

Author:Joanne Major
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women
ISBN: 9781473863484
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2017-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The Royal Jubilee

Now that Charlotte had a little income from the rents of the property she had inherited as well as from her annuities, she could exercise more independence. She moved from her manor house at Farrington Gurney in Somerset to a large and comfortable house in the tiny hamlet of Boughspring, 3 miles outside Chepstow on the border of Gloucestershire in south-west England and Monmouthshire in south Wales. It is not clear whether Charlotte lived there on her own or with Benjamin Hunt Biggs but it was certainly very commodious if she was living there with only a handful of servants for company. Benjamin remains elusive, still suffering ill health and living in a form of gentlemanly retirement, never venturing too far from home when in England and frequently travelling abroad on a kind of extended Grand Tour, seeking warmer climes to improve his constitution and perhaps even enjoying the company of fellow male travellers in relative anonymity.

Boughspring was, until the early nineteenth century, known as Boughwells (or Bowels) Green, and that is how Charlotte referred to her new home. By 1815 the hamlet consisted of around ten cottages and a property known as Caine’s Hill House that dated from the late 1600s. The area is bounded by the Anglo-Saxon earthwork known as Offa’s Dyke to the west and to the east by the River Severn, of which Charlotte had a picturesque view. As well as being close to Chepstow, Boughspring was just a short distance from Tidenham and Charlotte had friends and family in both locations. Her father had mentioned a Reverend James Williams, son of the late James Williams of Chepstow, in his will and at Tidenham House was a related Williams family. When Charlotte moved to Boughspring, Tidenham House was owned by the widowed Harriett Maria Williams née Lowder, something of a bluestocking who would no doubt have got on famously with Charlotte (in her will dated 1829, Harriett Maria left specific bequests for, among other things, a complete set of Hannah More’s works, her telescope and a microscope). Thomas Williams, Harriett Maria’s husband who died in 1806, had been the brother of the Reverend James Williams. Indeed, the relationship was even closer as Harriett Maria was first cousin to her husband through her mother, Sarah Lowder née Williams. As well as Tidenham House, Harriett Maria owned several properties in the surrounding area, one a large and comfortable property known as Boughwells Green House. This was the house that Charlotte now occupied for a couple of very significant years. A slightly later newspaper advertisement gives details of the house:1

BOUGHWELLS GREEN HOUSE; containing two Parlours, five Bedchambers, Servants’ Rooms, Kitchens, and other convenient Offices; Coach-House and Stabling, Gardens, and with or without a few Acres of LAND adjoining.

The above Premises are delightfully situated about half a mile from the Turnpike-Road, where coaches pass daily; 3 miles from Chepstow, 18 from Bristol 30 from Bath, and 26 from Gloucester.

It was while living in this remote location that Charlotte conceived the idea of instigating a national jubilee celebration for King George III.

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