BIB_ID
318645
Accession number
MA 849.16
Creator
Weston, Henry, Mrs.
Display Date
undated [1815 or later].
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1912.
Description
1 item (2 p.) ; 24.7 cm
Notes
Date of writing based on watermark (1815).
Part of a collection of letters from Laurence Sterne to his mistress Catherine Fourmantel, a professional singer whom he met in York in 1759. Letters in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see related collection-level record for more information.
Part of a collection of letters from Laurence Sterne to his mistress Catherine Fourmantel, a professional singer whom he met in York in 1759. Letters in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see related collection-level record for more information.
Provenance
John Murray (1778-1843), who allowed Isaac D'Israeli to publish five letters from this collection in his Miscellanies of Literature; by descent to his son John Murray (1808-1892); by descent to his grandson A.H. Hallam Murray; purchased by Pierpont Morgan in 1912.
Summary
Giving an account of Catherine Fourmantel's ancestry and relationship with Laurence Sterne. Remarking (erroneously) that Sterne met and married another woman after a one-month courtship even after he had been addressing Miss Fourmantel for five years, and that "the consequence was the total derangement of the intellect of Miss De [Fourmantel]" who ended up in a Private Mad-House. Noting that her own father visited Fourmantel in the madhouse, and eventually acquired Sterne's letters to her, which were passed down in the family to Mrs. Henry Weston.
Catalog link
Department