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All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
On 6th May 1833 [her father] Robert Burden Stableman (age 23) and [her mother] Ann Maizey Domestic Servant (age 27) were married at St Mary Magdalen's Church.
On 19th October 1839 Jane Morris nee Burden was born to Robert Burden Stableman (age 29) and Ann Maizey Domestic Servant (age 33) at St Helen's Passage.
On 28th December 1840 Jane Morris nee Burden (age 1) was baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church.
In 1851 the Census records [her father] Robert Burden Stableman (age 41), Groom, [her mother] Ann Maizey Domestic Servant (age 45), [her brother] William Burden (age 14), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 11) and [her sister] Elizabeth Burden (age 9) living at 1 King's Head Gardens.
In October 1857 Jane Morris nee Burden (age 17) and her sister [her sister] Elizabeth Burden (age 15) attended a performance of the Drury Lane Theatre Company in Oxford. Jane Burden was noticed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 29) and Edward Burne-Jones (age 24) who asked her to model for them.
1858. George Herbert Watkins (age 30). Photograph of Jane Morris nee Burden (age 18).
1858. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 29). "Study for Guenevere". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 18).
1858. [her future husband] William Morris (age 23). "La Belle Iseult", sometimes referred to as "Queen Guinevere", is Morris' only surviving easel painting, now in the Tate Gallery. The model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 18), his future wife.
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1858. 2nd June 1858. Rossetti called in the evening and stayed till about 12.30 chatting. He told me further particulars about Dickens, who it appears has left his wife and taken to Miss Fernan, the actress, with whom he is infatuated (platonically as he pretends). His daughters side or keep to him and his sons to their mother.18
Note 18. R. had induced, thro' intervention of Tom Taylor, Miss Herbert (age 27) (rightly Mrs. Crabbe, though she doesn't live with her husband) to sit to him for a picture he has commenced. He says she is perfectly beautiful, more so even than she looks on the stage. He made one or two rough pen and ink scratches whilst talking, one of a "Stunner" Oxford, which he tore in fragments, but which I recovered from the fire grate.19
Note 19. The Oxford "stunner" was presumably Jane Burden (age 18) whose arresting looks had attracted Rossetti when painting the Union murals, and who next year was to marry William Morris. Rossetti had admired his present model, "the beautiful Miss Herbert" (?1832-1921), for two years but till now had seen her only on the stage of the Strand and the Adelphi Theatres. After two years marriage she abandoned her husband Edward Crabb, a well-to-do stockbroker, and was set up by a wealthy lover in Cliveden Place (then Westbourne Place), Eaton Square. Her stage career was marked by equal success for now she was playing leads at the Olympic and before long would become manageress of the St. James's Theatre, engaging a little-known actor to join her company, one Henry Irving. Tom Taylor (1817-80), dramatist and editor of Punch, had befriended her and had now effected the introduction between artist and actress. Dazzled by her beauty, Rossetti recorded the likeness of this 'goddess' in a number of portrait studies. The work he was just now starting upon was Mary Magdalene at the door of Simon the Pharisee in which she sat for the Magdalene (Fitzwilliam; S.109).
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The Diary of George Price Boyce 1858. 15th December 1858. To Rossetti. The new things I noticed were an intensely impressive water colour of the Virgin in the house of John, the latter seated at the window and striking a light and looking out upon Jerusalem at twilight. The Virgin is spinning. A Knight girded for combat embracing his Lady Love. Several studies of Miss Herbert (age 27) (Mrs. Crabbe). A most beautiful pen and ink study of Topsy's (Morris's) "Stunner" at Oxford. He showed me some fine medieval drapery and some gorgeous Eastern pieces lent him from the India House. We went off at dusk and dined at the Cock, and afterwards adjourned to 24 Dean St., Soho, to see "Fanny." Interesting face and jolly hair and engaging disposition.29
Note 28. The water-colour of Mary in the house of St. Jobn (Wilmington; S.110) had been nearly completed in November and in a fortnight's time would be hanging at the Hogarth Club. It is clear therefore that Boyce was writing from a faulty memory and that the action of the central figure (taken from Ruth Herbert) was even then as it is today. The spinning-wheel is on the extreme right but Mary has risen from her work and stands before the window filling a lamp with oil. Chapel before the Lists (Tate; S.99) is the second water-colour. The drawing of Jane Burden (age 19) is probably the study for Guenevere inscribed 'Oxford 1858' (National Gallery, Dublin; S.364).
Note 29.
All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
The Diary of George Price Boyce 1859. 6th March 1859. (Sunday). (At Oxford.) Crowe, Faulkner, Jones and self rowed to Godstow where we saw the "Stunner" [Jane Morris nee Burden (age 19)] (the future Mrs. William Morris); on our return we all dined (Swinburne included) at Topsy's (Morris'). He and Swinburne (age 21) mad and deafening with excitement; adjourned to Crowe's to dessert; the chaff and row continued with great spirit and cleverness. Swinburne, a man of great reading, memory, and intellectual cleverness and accomplishment, seemed to be wanting in human feeling.8 In the evening we all went round to Johnson's, where we looked over a bundle of sketches among which were some beautiful things of Rossetti's.9
Note 8. Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), the poet, had gone up to Oxford in 1857 and had known Morris at the time of the Union mural paintings. He was still at Balliol College and while already subject to wild and extravagant conduct, his powers of invective outdid Morris'. Undergraduates together, Charles Faulkener became one of Morris' closest friends. His mathematical brain was of great value when the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. came to be founded in 1861.
Note 9. The reference here is probably to Professor Manuel John Johnson (1805-59), Radcliffe Observer. He is known to have befriended Swinburne, and William Morris was an enthusiastic admirer of his fine collection of mediaeval manuscripts. Johnson had died in February but his widow may have allowed his drawings to be examined. On his walls hung fifteenth and sixteenth-century engravings; perhaps the archaic romanticism of Rossetti's drawings had appealed to him.
On 26th April 1859 William Morris (age 25) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 19) were married at St Michael at the Northgate Church, Oxford.
After 26th April 1859 [her husband] William Morris (age 25) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 19) moved to the Red House.
Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones 1860. It will be taken for granted that the two men visitors had endless jokes together at the expense of their beloved host. The dinner hour, at middle day, was a great time for them because Mrs Morris (age 20) and I were there, either as eager onlookers at the fun or to take sides for and against The dining-room was not yet finished, and the drawing-room upstairs, whose beautiful ceiling had been painted by Mr. and Mrs. Morris, was being decorated in different ways, so Morris' studio, which was on the same floor, was used for living in, and a most cheerful place it was, with windows looking three ways and a little horizontal slip of a window over the door, giving upon the red-tiled roof of the house where we could see birds hopping about all unconscious of our gaze.
Perhaps the joke which made two out of the three men happiest at dinner-time was that of sending Morris to Coventry for some slight cause and refusing to exchange a word with him at his own table: it was carried on with an unflinching audacity that I cannot hope to describe, and occasionally reached the height of their asking Mrs. Morris if she would be good enough to communicate with her husband for them and tell him anything they wished to say - but a stranger coming in upon our merriment would never have guessed from the faces of the company who were the teasers and who the teased.
Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones 1860. Oh, how happy we were, Janey (age 20) and I, busy in the morning with needlework or wood-engraving, and in the afternoon driving to explore the country round by the help of a map of Kent; we went to the Crays one day and to Chislehurst Common another, finding some fresh pleasure everywhere and bringing back tales of our adventures to amuse the men we had left working at home. Sometimes, but not often, they would go with us, for Edward always hated "expeditions," and was only supported in them by good fellowship; nor did he at any time seek the country for its own sake. At this I have often wondered, for the backgrounds of his pictures shew how deeply it touched his imagination and feeling: and I came to the conclusion that one reason why he found so little peace and rest in it might be that he did not, and perhaps could not, submit himself passively to its influence, but was for ever dealing with it as an instrument. In a note written to his father during this very visit to Red House he says, "I hate the country - apples only keep me in good spirits - Topsy's garden is perfectly laden with them." I remember his dread of anything that appealed to the sadness which he shared with all imaginative natures, who "don't need to be made to feel," he said, and I believe that this "hatred" was partly an instinct of self-preservation from the melancholy of autumn in the country.
The Niebelungen Lied design of which Edward speaks was never finished, and if it was begun upon the back of either of the beautiful "Salutations of Beatrice" which Rossetti (age 32) painted on the outside of the doors of the big settle, it may perhaps still remain there.
Around 25th December 1860. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 32). Portrait of Mrs William Morris aka Jane Morris nee Burden (age 21). Signed top-left Upton (ie the Red House) Xmas 1860.
1861. The Census records [her husband] William Morris (age 26), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 21), Algernon Charles Swinburne (age 23), Visitor, four servants and [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris at Red House.
On 17th January 1861 [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris was born to [her husband] William Morris (age 26) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 21) at the Red House.
On 25th March 1862 [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris was born to [her husband] William Morris (age 28) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 22) at the Red House. She was baptised 30th May 1862 at Christ Church, Bexleyheath.
1864. Edward Coley Burne-Jones 1st Baronet (age 30). Portrait of Jane Morris nee Burden (age 24), and his sisters-in-law Alice Macdonald (age 26), Agnes Macdonald Lady Poynter (age 21) and Louisa Macdonald (age 19) listening to his wife Georgiana (age 23) reading aloud.
Alice Macdonald: On 4th April 1837 she was born to Reverend George Browne Macdonald and Hannah Jones at Birmingham, Warwickshire. On 18th March 1865 John Lockwood Kipling and she were married at St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington. On 22nd November 1910 she died. She was buried at St John's Church, Tisbury.
Louisa Macdonald: In 1845 she was born to Reverend George Browne Macdonald and Hannah Jones at Birmingham, Warwickshire. In 1925 she died.
Around 1864. Unknown Photographer. Jane Morris nee Burden (age 24) and [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris (age 2).
All About History Books
The Deeds of King Henry V, or in Latin Henrici Quinti, Angliæ Regis, Gesta, is a first-hand account of the Agincourt Campaign, and subsequent events to his death in 1422. The author of the first part was a Chaplain in King Henry's retinue who was present from King Henry's departure at Southampton in 1415, at the siege of Harfleur, the battle of Agincourt, and the celebrations on King Henry's return to London. The second part, by another writer, relates the events that took place including the negotiations at Troye, Henry's marriage and his death in 1422.
Available at Amazon as eBook or Paperback.
On or before 10th February 1864 [her father] Robert Burden Stableman (age 54) died. He was buried on 10th February 1864 at Holywell St Cross Church, Oxford.
Around 1865. Unknown Photographer. Jane Morris nee Burden (age 25) and [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris (age 3).
June 1865. John Robert Parsons (age 39). Photograph of Jane Morris nee Burden (age 25).
1868. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 39). "Pia de' Tolomei" [An Italian noblewoman from Siena identified as "la Pia," a minor character in Dante's Divine Comedy who was murdered by her husband]. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 28).
1868. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 39). Blue Silk Dress. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 28).
1869. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 40). "The Salutation of Beatrice". Half-length portrait with a cartouche in the upper left corner bearing the Vita Nuova's sonnet "Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 29).
1869. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 40). Mrs William Morris aka Jane Morris nee Burden (age 29).
1870. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 41). Mariana. The bottom of the frame has these words from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure "Take, O Take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn, And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislean the morn. But my kisses bring again, bring again, Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain." Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 30).
1870. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 41). La Donna della Fiamina aka The Woman of Flames. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 30).
In 1871 [her husband] William Morris (age 36), and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 42) took out a joint tenancy on Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire. Moris went to Iceland leaving Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 31) to furnish the house. A relationship between Rossetti and Jane is believed to have begun some years before.
1871. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 42). "Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice". Models: Beatrice: Jane Morris nee Burden (age 31), far left Alice aka Alexa Wilding (age 24), far right Annie Miller (age 36).
1871. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 42). Pandora. Holding the box - see Hesiod's Works and Days Lines 83 to 108 lines 90-94. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 31).
All About History Books
The Deeds of King Henry V, or in Latin Henrici Quinti, Angliæ Regis, Gesta, is a first-hand account of the Agincourt Campaign, and subsequent events to his death in 1422. The author of the first part was a Chaplain in King Henry's retinue who was present from King Henry's departure at Southampton in 1415, at the siege of Harfleur, the battle of Agincourt, and the celebrations on King Henry's return to London. The second part, by another writer, relates the events that took place including the negotiations at Troye, Henry's marriage and his death in 1422.
Available at Amazon as eBook or Paperback.
1871. The census records [her husband] William Morris (age 36), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 31), Elizabeth Burden, sister-in-law, [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris (age 9), [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris (age 8) and three servants living at 21 Queen Square, Bloomsbury.
1874. Frederick Hollyer (age 35). Photograph of the Burne-Jones and Morris families including [her husband] William Morris (age 39), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 34), Edward Coley Burne-Jones 1st Baronet (age 40) and Georgiana Macdonald Lady Burne-Jones (age 33).
1875. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 46). Study of Mrs William Morris aka Jane Morris nee Burden (age 35).
1877. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 48). Astarte Syriaca. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 37).
1877. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 48). "Proserpine". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 37).
1880. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 51). "The Salutation of Beatrice". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 40).
1880. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 51). "The Daydream". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 40).
1880 to 1882. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 51). "The Salutation of Beatrice". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 40).
1881. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 52). La Donna della Finestra aka The Woman at the Window. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 41).
1881. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 52). Joan of Arc. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 41).
In 1883 Jane Morris nee Burden (age 43) met the poet and political activist Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (age 42) at a house party given by her close friend, Rosalind Howard (age 37) who would become Countess of Carlisle in 1889. At sometime after, probably around 1887, they had commenced a relationship.
On 14th June 1890 [her son-in-law] Henry Halliday Sparling (age 30) and [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris (age 28) were married at Fulham Register Office. She the daughter of [her husband] William Morris (age 56) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 50).
On 3rd October 1896 [her husband] William Morris (age 62) died after several months of "general organic degeneration", at Kelmscott House, Hammersmith. He died, Mackail says, 'quietly and without visible suffering' (II, 335)'
On 6th October 1896 [her former husband] William Morris (deceased) was buried at St George's Church, Kelmscott [Map]. His gravestone was designed by his friend Philip Webb. His wife Jane Morris nee Burden (age 56) and daughter [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris (age 34) attended. The funeral is described by William Fredeman here.
In 1898 [her son-in-law] Henry Halliday Sparling (age 38) and [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris (age 35) were divorced.
All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
1901. The Census records Jane Morris nee Burden (age 61), [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris (age 39), Louisa C Strong, companion, and three servants living at Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire.
1903. Evelyn de Morgan aka Mary Evelyn Pickering (age 47). Model Jane Morris (age 63).
1904. Evelyn de Morgan aka Mary Evelyn Pickering (age 48). "Jane Morris (age 64)". This drawing was a study for "The Hourglass".
1904 - 1905. Evelyn de Morgan aka Mary Evelyn Pickering (age 49). "The Hourglass". Also according to Mrs Stirling, Evelyn De Morgan described this work as ‘"n echo of a movemnet in the Waldstein Sonata of ‘Beethoven'." Model Jane Morris (age 65).
In 1906 Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (age 65) and Anne King-Noel 15th Baroness Wentworth (age 68) were legally separated as a consequence of the numerous mistresses he had taken which included Jane Morris nee Burden (age 66), Catherine Walters aka "Skittles", his cousin Mary Wyndham (age 43) and, possibly, her mother Madeline Caroline Frances Eden Campbell.
2nd April 1911. The Census records Jane Morris nee Burden (age 71), [her sister] Elizabeth Burden (age 69) and a Lady's Maid living at 33 St George's Place.
In 1913 Jane Morris nee Burden (age 73) puchased Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire to secure it for her daughters' future.
On 26th January 1914 Jane Morris nee Burden (age 74) died at 5 Brock Street, Bath. On 29th January 1914 she was buried at St George's Church, Kelmscott [Map] in the same grave as her husband [her former husband] William Morris. Her body was driven in a 'motor' from Bath to the manor house just before the service. Her coffin was 17th century style and in oak with brass furniture and a simple inscription of her name and date of death, and was carried into the church by six village men. The church was well attended by the villagers as well as familiar names from the world of art and literature including Marie Stillman (age 69) whose wreath was noted in the papers. The hymn 'Now the labourer's task is o'er' was sung and the organist played the Dead March as the coffin was carried out to where William was already buried.
