Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- ANASTASIA VENETIA STANLEY, LADY DIGBY
- THE COUNTESS OF DESMOND
- ELIZABETH CROMWELL AND HER DAUGHTERS
- MRS. LUCY HUTCHINSON
- FRANCES STUART, DUCHESS OF RICHMOND
- DOROTHY SIDNEY, COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND
- ELIZABETH PERCY, DUCHESS OF SOMERSET
- LADY RACHEL RUSSELL
- MARGARET, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE.
- ANNE, COUNTESS OF WINCHELSEA
- MRS. KATHERINE PHILIPS
- JANE LANE
- ANNE KILLIGREW
- FRANCES JENNINGS, DUCHESS OF TYRCONNEL
- MARY BEALE
- ANNE CLARGES, DUCHESS OF ALBEMARLE
- LADY MARY TUDOR
- ANNE HYDE, DUCHESS OF YORK
- ANNE SCOTT, DUCHESS OF MONMOUTH
- STELLA AND VANESSA
- SUSANNAH CENTLIVRE
- Plate section
STELLA AND VANESSA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- ANASTASIA VENETIA STANLEY, LADY DIGBY
- THE COUNTESS OF DESMOND
- ELIZABETH CROMWELL AND HER DAUGHTERS
- MRS. LUCY HUTCHINSON
- FRANCES STUART, DUCHESS OF RICHMOND
- DOROTHY SIDNEY, COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND
- ELIZABETH PERCY, DUCHESS OF SOMERSET
- LADY RACHEL RUSSELL
- MARGARET, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE.
- ANNE, COUNTESS OF WINCHELSEA
- MRS. KATHERINE PHILIPS
- JANE LANE
- ANNE KILLIGREW
- FRANCES JENNINGS, DUCHESS OF TYRCONNEL
- MARY BEALE
- ANNE CLARGES, DUCHESS OF ALBEMARLE
- LADY MARY TUDOR
- ANNE HYDE, DUCHESS OF YORK
- ANNE SCOTT, DUCHESS OF MONMOUTH
- STELLA AND VANESSA
- SUSANNAH CENTLIVRE
- Plate section
Summary
Esther Johnson, the unfortunate object of Dean Swift's singular attachment, who, says Sir Walter Scott in his life of the poet, “purchased, by a life of prolonged hopes and disappointed affection, a poetical immortality under the name of Stella,” was the daughter of a gentleman, the younger son of a good family in Nottinghamshire. Her mother was the friend and companion of Sir William Temple's favourite sister, Lady Gifford, and after the death of her husband resided at Moor-park, with her infant daughter, for many years. The story, therefore, of Stella's being the natural child of Sir William Temple, is clearly without foundation, and probably owed its origin to a wish to elucidate the mystery of Swift's conduct towards her, by assuming the fact of her being his sister, although his own near relationship to his patron is equally uncertain.
Miss Johnson, for her misfortune, first became acquainted with the man who exercised a fatal influence over her fortunes during the period of his second residence with Sir William Temple, as his secretary, and as all the inmates of the family took a lively interest in the progress and improvement of the young girl, now an orphan altogether, who was left to their charge, Swift undertook to guide her studies, and afford her those opportunities which his residence in the same house admitted. He was then thirty, and she of very tender age.
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- Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen , pp. 345 - 379Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1844