NORTON: THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF CAROLINE NORTON (1808-1877)

Brief Chronology

1808: 22 March.   Birth of Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Sheridan, daughter of Caroline :Henrietta (née Callander) of Craigforth, Scotland, and Thomas Sheridan, son :of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Publication of Goethe’s Faust, Part I.

1811: Publication of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

1813: Caroline’s father, Thomas Sheridan, leaves for the Cape of Good Hope, for :the sake of his health, together with his wife, Henrietta, and eldest daughter, :Helen.  Caroline and Georgiana are left in the care of two Scottish aunts.

Publication of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

1814: Publication of Waverley by Sir Walter Scott and The Excursion by :Wordsworth.  George Stephenson builds first practical steam locomotive.

1815: The Battle of Waterloo.

1817: Caroline’s father dies.  Henrietta Sheridan returns to England with Helen and :two boys, Frank and Charles, born at the Cape.  Together with Caroline, :Georgiana and Richard (the eldest brother) they move into a grace and favour :residence in Hampton Court.   Caroline Sheridan is sent to school in Surrey.

Publication of Biographia Literaria by Coleridge.

1818: Publication of Endymion by Keats and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Posthumous publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion by Jane Austen.

1820: Accession of George IV.  The trial of Queen Caroline of Brunswick.

1823: Caroline Sheridan meets George Norton at Wonersh Park, the home of his :elder brother, Lord Grantley.  George proposes to her, but is told that he must :wait three years for her answer (until she is eighteen).

1824: Death of Lord Byron (1788-1824).  Byron’s Don Juan is completed.

1825: Publication of The Dandies Rout by Helen and Caroline Sheridan.

1826: Caroline Sheridan’s eldest sister, Helen, marries Captain Price Blackwood.

Publication of Vivian Grey by Disraeli.

1827: 30 June.  Marriage of Caroline Sheridan and George Chapple Norton at :St George’s, Hanover Square, London.

Death of Beethoven (1770-1827).

1829: 10 July.  Birth of Fletcher Sheridan, Caroline Norton’s first son.

Publication of The Sorrows of Rosalie by Caroline Norton.

Passage of Catholic Emancipation Bill.

1830: Death of King George IV.  Accession of King William IV.

Performance of The Gypsy Father by Caroline Norton.

Publication of Tennyson’s Poems, Chiefly Lyrical and Cobbett’s Rural Rides.

1831: 4 November.  Birth of Brinsley Norton, Caroline Norton’s second son.

1832: Caroline Norton made editor of La Belle Assemblée and Court Magazine.  :Death of Goethe (1749-1832) and posthumous publication of Faust, Part II.

Passage of Reform Bill.

1833: Birth of William Charles Norton, Caroline Norton’s third and last son.

Abolition of slavery in British colonies.

1834: Birth of William Charles Norton.  Melbourne is made Prime Minister, but is :dismissed by the King after a few months and replaced by Sir Robert Peel.

1835: Lord Melbourne’s second ministry (1835-1841).

Publication of The Wife, and Woman’s Reward by Caroline Norton.

1836: 23 June.  Divorce Trial - Norton vs Melbourne.  Caroline Norton is found :guiltless, but George Norton keeps the children and all her earnings.

Publication of A Voice from the Factories by Caroline Norton.

1837: Death of King William IV.  Accession of Queen Victoria.

Publication of Pickwick Papers by Dickens.

1838: Rise of Chartism in England.

Publication of Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby by Dickens.

1839: Publication of A Plain Letter to the Lord Chancellor on the Infant Custody :Bill by Caroline Norton.  Passage of the Infant Custody Bill.

1840: Publication of The Dream, and other poems by Caroline Norton.

1841: Caroline Norton is allowed to see her children for a week at Christmas.

1842: Death of Caroline Norton’s youngest son, William, from complications following a riding accident.

1843: William Wordsworth is appointed poet laureate, despite Caroline Norton’s :wishes to receive the title.

1845: Publication of The Child of the Isles by Caroline Norton.

1847: Publication of Aunt Carry’s Ballads for Children by Caroline Norton.

Publication of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

1848: The year of revolutions in Europe, with riots in France, Italy, Spain, Germany :and Austria.   Publication of Letters to the Mob by Caroline Norton.

George and Caroline Norton sign a ‘separation agreement.

Death of Lord Melbourne, leaving Caroline Norton a legacy of £200 a year.

1850: Publication of Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Tennyson succeeds Wordsworth as poet laureate.

1851: Death of Caroline Norton’s mother, Henrietta Sheridan, leaving Caroline :a legacy of £480 a year.

Publication of Stuart of Dunleath by Caroline Norton.

The Great Exhibition in London.

1853: Thrupps vs Norton, re debt owed by Caroline Norton but passed to her :husband.  Caroline Norton gains sympathy, but loses the case.

The Crimean War (1853-1856).

1854: Publication of English Laws for Women in the Nineteenth Century by :Caroline Norton.

1855: Publication of A Letter to the Queen by Caroline Norton.

Publication of The Warden by Trollope.

1857: Passage of the Divorce Bill.  The Indian Mutiny.

1859: 13 October. Death of Caroline Norton’s eldest son, Fletcher from tuberculosis.

1860: Publication of the Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.

1862: Publication of The Lady of La Garaye by Caroline Norton.

1863: Publication of Lost and Saved by Caroline Norton.

1864: Publication of War and Peace by Tolstoy.

1867: Publication of Old Sir Douglas by Caroline Norton.

1875: Deaths of George Norton and his elder brother, Lord Grantley.  Caroline :Norton’s second son, Brinsley, succeeds to the title.

1877: 1 March. Marriage of Caroline Norton and William Stirling-Maxwell.

15 June.  Death of Caroline Stirling-Maxwell.

24 July.  Death of Brinsley Sheridan.

1882: Passage of  the Married Woman’s Property Act.

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