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Author: Fortnum, Sophia

Biography:

FORTNUM, Sophia, formerly KING (b c. 1782)

The King sisters Charlotte and Sophia led unconventional lives, the histories of which are further complicated by scandal and name-changing. Their father, born Jacob Rey in a Jewish family, changed his name to John King when he left school; as John King, Esq.--who had become wealthy as a broker and extortionist--his daughters thanked him for their education in the dedication to their first book, Trifles of Helicon (1798). Both went on to fulfil the promise of that dedication by publishing frenetically. King had married their mother, Sara Lara, in 1776, but he divorced her through a rabbinical court in Italy in 1785 (or 1784--sources disagree, and the records have not been seen) and married his mistress, the widowed Countess of Lanesborough.  On 19 July 1801, already the author of four novels, Sophia married Charles Fortnum (1770-1860), a London merchant but unfortunately not the partner in Fortnum and Mason. They had three children, the last of them, Charles, born in 1803. Her husband went bankrupt in 1804. Sophia's last novel, The Adventures of Victor Allen, appeared in 1805 and nothing more is known of her. Her husband married again in 1817: his second wife was Laetitia (Stevens) Basden (1782-1853), a widow since 1810 with whom he had one illegitimate son, Charles Stuart Fortnum (1812-91), and one legitimate one, Charles Edward (later Drury) Fortnum (1820-99), who became an eminent collector. Sophia Fortnum must have died before the second marriage and probably not long after 1805. (ODNB 6 Oct. 2021: Sophia Fortnum, Charles Drury Edward Fortnum, John King, Charles Fortnum [1738-1815]; Orlando; findmypast.com 6 Oct. 2021; Adriana Craciun and Robert Miles, "Introduction" to Waldorfin Anti-Jacobin Novels, Pt. 2 Vol. 9 [2005]) 

 

Other Names:

  • Mrs. Fortnum
  • Sophia King
 

Books written (2):

London: James Ridgway, 1798
London: for the author by S. Burchett, 1804