Description
Frances Milton Trollope (1780-1863) was born in Stapleton, near Bristol, England. She briefly lived in the U.S., but returned
to England in 1831. Out of the experience came her best known work,
The Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832). Frances and her husband, Thomas Adolphus, both wrote many novels and books. The collection consists of letters, manuscripts,
and historical documents of the Trollope family. Most of the collection consists of the correspondence of Frances Milton Trollope,
Thomas Adolphus Trollope, and Frances Ternan Trollope.
Background
Frances Milton Trollope was born on March 10, 1780 in Stapleton, near Bristol, England; married barrister Thomas Anthony Trollope;
they had seven children, including the writer Thomas Adolphus; Frances sailed to the U.S. in 1827, opening a store in Cincinnati,
Ohio; the enterprise failed, and she returned to England in 1831; out of the experience came her best known work, The Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832); after the family became officially bankrupt, they moved to Bruges, Belgium in 1834, the father dying the following
year; after returning to England and living in various places the next 10 years, Frances and Thomas Adolphus moved to Florence,
Italy, where she wrote novels and travel books, including The Widow Barnaby (1839), The Widow Married (1840), and Petticoat Government (1850); Thomas Adolphus' published works include A Decade of Italian Women (1859), Durnton Abbey (1871), and What I Remember (1888); Frances died on October 6, 1863 in Florence, Italy, and Thomas Adolphus in 1892; Frances Eleanor Ternan married Thomas
Adolphus in 1866, and cultivated a literary circle at the Villino Trollope in Florence.Mrs. Frances Eleanor Ternan was an actress well known by her maiden name of Fanny Jarman. Her three daughters were put on
the stage at an early age, appearing in the lesser theatricals of the time. From this, each embarked on her own particular
and interesting career. The eldest, Frances Eleanor, married Thomas Adolphus in 1866 after the death of his first wife, Theodosia
Garrow, taking over the care of Beatrice (Bici), Thomas Adolphus' daughter, and the cultivation of a brilliant literary circle
at the Villino Trollope in Florence. Maria Ternan, afterwards Mrs. W. Rowland Taylor, lived with her husband in Rome and became
noted as artist, portrait painter, and news correspondent. The youngest, Ellen Lawless Ternan, formed a relationship with
Charles Dickens, and according to Ada Nisbet, was his mistress for the last twelve years of his life. In 1876, she married
the Rev. George Wharton Robinson, an Anglican clergyman who later gave up orders and established his own school at Margate
in which he and his wife both taught. There were two children, Geoffrey Wharton Robinson, b. 1879, and Gladys Eleanor Wharton
Robinson, b. 1885.
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including
copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds
the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.