Author: Trollope, Frances
Biography:
TROLLOPE, Frances, formerly MILTON (1779-1863: Orlando)
The Mother’s Manual (1833) as a poem is an anomaly in the literary corpus of Frances Trollope, who is famous for her novels (34 of them) and travel books (6, starting with the sensational Domestic Manners of the Americans in 1832)--but it is typical in its unexpected wit and charm. She was born on 10 Mar. 1779 and baptised at St. Michael’s, Bristol, on 17 Mar., the daughter of the Rev. William Milton (1744-1824), the mostly absentee vicar of Heckfield in Hampshire, and his first wife Mary Gresley (1745-84). She had a good literary education at home, and learnt Italian and French. After her father remarried in 1800 and resumed his parish duties at Heckfield, Frances and a sister went to London in 1803 to keep house for their brother Henry. There she met a barrister, Thomas Anthony Trollope (1774-1835), whom she married at Heckfield on 23 May 1809. The couple had seven children in the next nine years, but two died in infancy, several died of consumption, and only two survived their mother, the younger of them the even more celebrated novelist Anthony Trollope (1815-82). Her husband was not very successful as a barrister and with even less success tried farming at Harrow. As their difficulties increased, Frances in desperation took three of her children and accompanied a friend to a commune in America at the end of 1827. When that failed, she tried several disastrous business ventures in Cincinnati. But she turned the family fortunes around after returning to England in 1831 and publishing Domestic Manners. That gave them only a brief respite, however; fleeing creditors, they left for the Continent, where her husband died in 1835. Frances returned to England and tried various living arrangements, funded by her travel writings and then by a succession of novels. In 1843 she travelled to Italy, where she stayed for the rest of her life. From 1850 she shared a villa in Florence with her eldest son and his wife, both writers. She died at Florence on 6 Oct. 1863 and was buried at the English cemetery there. (Orlando 9 Sept. 2024; ODNB 9 Sept. 2024; ancestry.com 9 Sept. 2024)
Other Names:
- F. T.