Author: Kelly, Isabella
Biography:
KELLY, Isabella formerly Fordyce later Hedgeland (1759-1857: ODNB)
Born at Cairnburgh Castle, Aberdeenshire, she was baptised 4 May 1759, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Fraser) Fordyce. Her parents’ clandestine marriage meant ruptures with their wealthy families, but Isabella’s father served with the Royal Marines and became a groom of the bedchamber to George III. On 15 Nov. 1789 at St. James, Clerkenwell, London, Isabella married Robert Hawke Kelly, a cavalry officer who, after financial difficulties following the death of his father, travelled to Trinidad to take up a civil appointment and died there soon after his arrival (information from Kelly’s letter of 25 Oct 1832 to the RLF; she seems not to have followed him to Trinidad). She began publishing Gothic fiction to support the family; Madeline (1794) was followed by nine more novels. She also wrote educational texts, including The Child’s French Grammar (1805). One of her sons was supported financially by Matthew “Monk” Lewis, and another, George Edward Fitzroy Kelly, studied law and was to become solicitor-general in 1845. In 1809 she married a wealthy merchant, Joseph Hedgeland, but he lost his money through unwise speculations and died in 1812. Isabella first wrote to the Royal Literary Fund in 1828 and wrote again in 1830-32 when her letters were addressed from 20 Compton Street, Brunswick Square; she was awarded a total of £70. She died at London on 25 June 1857 and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. (ODNB 4 Sept 2019; RLF file 632, NCCO; ancestry.co.uk 18 Aug. 2025) SR
Other Names:
- Mrs. Isabella Kelly