Author: Law, Elizabeth Susan
Biography:
LAW, Elizabeth Susan, later ABBOT (1799-1883: ancestry.com)
She was born in London on 6 Sept. 1799 to Edward Law (1750-1818) and his wife Ann(e) Towry (1771-1843), one of ten children and the third of five daughters. Her father, a barrister, was raised to the peerage as the first Baron Ellenborough in 1802 when he was appointed Chief Justice of the King’s Bench--a position he held until resigning on the grounds of ill health two months before he died. She grew up in a large house in St. James’s Square, London, and was well educated as far as literature and modern languages went. Before her marriage, she either published anonymously or had privately printed her translation of Goldsmith’s (q.v.) Deserted Village into Italian (London, 1825); a novel in French with a Spanish theme, Thérèse de Villarejo (Brussels, 1826); and the works listed here. On 3 Feb. 1836 at Great Marylebone church, London, she married Charles Abbot (1798-1867), son of a former Speaker of the House of Commons, who had become a naval commander and succeeded his father as the second Baron Colchester in 1829. Colchester had a distinguished career after the Navy as well as in it: he was President of the Royal Geographical Society (1845-7), Privy Councillor (1852), Paymaster General (1852), and Postmaster General (1858-9). The couple had one son, Reginald Charles Edward, who succeeded his father in 1867. As a widow, the Dowager Lady Colchester is recorded in successive Censuses living at fashionable London addresses, her occupation described as “Peeress.” In 1881 she was resident at 47 Montagu Square with a companion and five servants; there she died on 31 Mar. 1883. (ancestry.com 5 Dec. 2023; ODNB 5 Dec. 2023 [Edward Law and Charles Abbot Sen.]; Morning Post 3 Apr. 1883)
Other Names:
- E. S. L.
- Lady Colchester