Author: Lytton, Elizabeth Barbara Bulwer
Biography:
LYTTON, Elizabeth Barbara Bulwer (1770-1843: ancestry.com)
Two of her three sons, William Henry and Edward, have entries in this bibliography as Bulwers (qq.v.), although Edward assumed the name Lytton after her death, in accordance with the terms of her will, as heir to the family seat of Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire. She was born on 1 May 1770 and baptised at St. Marylebone, London, on 26 June, the only child and heir of Elizabeth (Jodrell) and Richard Warburton-Lytton. On 1 June 1798 she married General William Earle Bulwer (1757-1807) of Heydon Hall, Norfolk, with whom she had three sons. Already widowed by the time her father died in 1810, she resumed the surname Lytton by royal license and returned to Knebworth, where she undertook extensive renovations. Her mother presumably lived with her until 1 Nov. 1818, when she died at the family’s London residence of 5, Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square. After Elizabeth and her youngest son Edward were reconciled following their dispute over his marriage, they lived together at Knebworth. She died at the London house on 19 Dec. 1843 and was buried in the mausoleum that she had commissioned as part of the earlier renovations to the estate. The little collection of poems that she had privately printed in 1826, containing the melodramatic tale of “The Abbey de la Trappe” (composed 1806) and a few shorter pieces, is her only known experiment as an author, but it demonstrates that she had been an occasional writer of verses for a long time. One little social satire, “The Origin of Detraction,” claims to have been written by her at the age of fourteen; others are dated between 1800 and 1821. The last is a touching tribute to her dog Juba. One of the invitees to a party at Knebworth in 1826 made a remark that provided the title for a modern biography of “Mrs. Lytton Bulwer” (as the newspapers identified her): she was “that odd rich old woman.” (ancestry.com 10 Feb. 2024; findmypast.com 10 Feb. 2024; “Elizabeth Bulwer-Lytton,” Wikipedia 10 Feb. 2024; J. Preston, That Odd Rich Old Woman [1998]; York Herald 23 Dec. 1843; Leicester Chronicle 24 Feb. 1844)
Other Names:
- E. B. B. L.