Author: Trench, Melesina
Biography:
TRENCH, Melesina Phillipa (1768-1827: ODNB)
Melesina Phillipa Chenevix was born in Dublin, 22 Mar. 1768, the daughter of the Rev. Philip Chenevix and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Gervais, both of whom died in 1771. To age eleven, she lived with her grandfather, Bishop Richard Carlile. Upon his death in 1778, she was for a year a ward in Chancery at the home of Lord Chancellor Lifford. She then went to live with her grandfather Henry Gervais, Archdeacon of Emly. She married, at age nineteen, Colonel Richard St George (1758-1790) of Hatley Manor, County Leitrim, MP for Charleville. Her eldest son was Charles Manners St George (1787-1864). She and St George first lived at Dangan Castle, a property of Lord Mornington. In about 1791, she left Dublin for London accompanied by her second cousin and greatest friend, Sarah Chenevix, the sister of Richard Chenevix (q.v.). A great beauty, Romney painted her portrait in 1792. In Feb 1797, she visited Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, and, in the same year, Anna Seward (q.v.) and a set of the haut ton, Ladies Butler, Palmerston, Buckingham, and Lifford. When in 1799 her son went to Harrow, she sailed to Europe. In Hanover in Nov. 1799, she met Prince Adolphus, the sixth son of George III; on 3 Dec. she opened a ball there on the arm of the prince. Her second marriage took place in France in 1803, to Richard Trench (1774-1860). Her husband was, like her cousin Richard, detained in France in 1803; he was not released until 1807. With Richard Trench, she had three surviving children, the Rev. Francis Chenevix Trench (1805-1886), Richard Chenevix Trench (q.v.), and Philip Charles Trench (1810-1888). In Lisbon, she was entertained by Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. These and other meetings with illustrious persons, along with her correspondence with her close friend Mary Leadbeater, are portrayed in her journals and letters, published posthumously by her son Richard. Melesina published all of her works anonymously. (ODNB 5 Apr. 2023; Reports of Cases … Chancery [1839], 1:417; R. C. Trench, ed., Remains of the Late Mrs. Richard Trench [1862]; S. Behrendt, “The Letter and the Literary Circle: Mary Leadbeater, Melesina Trench, and the Epistolary Salon” in M. Callaghan, ed., Romanticism and the Letter [2020], 29-44) JC