Isabella Frances Townshend
Isabella Frances Townshend | |
|---|---|
_-_Isabella_Frances_Vere_Townshend_(Self_Portrait)_-_185_-_Girton_College.jpg) Isabella Frances Vere Townshend (Self Portrait) | |
| Born | Isabella Frances Vere Townshend 1 November 1847 Rosscarbery, County Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 20 July 1882 (aged 34) |
Resting place | St Mary's Perivale |
| Education | Hitchin College (didn't graduate) |
| Relatives | Emily Townshend (sister-in-law) Caroline Townshend (niece) |
Isabella Frances Townshend was an Anglo-Irish artist, and one of the first five students at Hitchin College (present-day Girton College, Cambridge).[1][2]
Early life
Isabella Frances Vere Townshend was born on 1 November 1847 in Rosscarbery, County Cork to Rev Chambré[a] Corker Townshend and Eliza Wilmot Townshend (née Oliver).[3][4] Her father died in 1852.
In 1869, Townshend was one of five women to enrol at Hitchin College.[2] She left the college in 1872 without obtaining a qualification.[1][2][3] By 1874, along with a Mrs Hartley Brown, Townshend had an interior deign business on Bulstrode Street, Marylebone, London. In the early 1880s, she travelled to Italy to study painting.[3]
Death and family
Townshend died on 20 July 1882 in Ealing, Middlesex (present-day London) aged 34,[3][5] possibly of typhoid that she contracted in Italy.[3] On 25 July 1882 Townshend was buried at St Mary's Perivale.[6]
Through her brother Chambré Corker Townshend, she was the sister-in-law of Emily Townshend, a social reformer, suffragette and fellow-student at Hitchin College, and the aunt of the artist Caroline Townshend.[3]
In her memoir, Emily Townshend recalls that Townshend "had a great influence on my views of life and on my life altogether. She was about a year older that myself, small and plain. She had considerable ability, indeed, many of us gave her credit for a touch of genius, yet she never accomplished much definite work of any kind."[3]
Notes
- ↑ Alternatively spelt Chambrey
References
- 1 2 "Isabella Frances Vere Townshend (Self Portrait)". Art UK Discover. Art UK. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Student Experience: Stroll through history with Girton's students". Pioneering History. Cambridge: Girton College, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Isabella Frances Vere Townshend (5D22)". The Townsend (Townshend) Family Records. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin–Madison. 23 January 2023. Archived from the original on 15 December 2025. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
- ↑ "Isabella Frances Vere Townshend". 1871 England Census; Derbyshire; Beeley; ALL; 20. Kew, Richmond: The National Archives: 7. 1871.
- ↑ "Townshed, Isabella Frances Vere". Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London: Principal Probate Registry: 262. 1890.
- ↑ "Isabella Frances Vere Townshend [Burial Record]". London Church of England Parish Registers; Ealing; Saint Mary the Virgin, Perivale: Perivale Lane; 1813–1886. London: The London Archives. 1882.