The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 12 May 1824
“May 12.
“. . . A piece of news in the fashionable world which has been referred to in the papers is the
separation of Henry B—— from his wife. She has
long been known to be a ‘neat un,’ but her vagaries at Paris were
so undisguised that some friend wrote and advertised her husband of it here,
and he, to justify himself before proceeding to extremities, took to breaking
open her boxes in pursuit of evidence against her. In one of these he is said
to have found 20 locks of hair, with a label on each containing the name of the
lover to whom it belonged, such as ‘dear
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John Warrender’s.’ So having
collected his trophies of this kind, with letters equally instructive, he
sallied forth to meet her return, and Rochester was the place they came
together. Here, upon her giving her solemn word of honor that all the children
but one were his, he banished her and the one from his sight for ever, and has
taken all the other children from her. She is a Yankee by birth and origin: her
husband is a notorious gambler, for whom nobody seems to care a damn.
“Another slip is Mrs. Alderman C—— with our
tragedian, Kean. . . . He has been at his letters too, one of which to the lady was
intercepted by the alderman, and begun—‘You dear imprudent
little ——’ Can anything be more soft or romantic? . .
.
“I don’t know whether you noticed that
Edward Stanley* made a regular attack
upon Hume, defended the Church, and
eventually voted against Hume and our people, as did his
father.†. You may well suppose this heresy was mightily extolled by the
enemy. . . . Lord Derby has been made
really ill by it.”
Charlotte Cox (1825 fl.)
The American-born mistress of Edmund Kean; in she was married to Robert Albion Cox, a
banker and London alderman, who divorced her following a spectacular crim. con. trial in
January 1825.
Joseph Hume (1777-1855)
After service in India he became a radical MP for Weymouth (1812), Aberdeen (1818-30,
1842-55), Middlesex (1830-37), and Kilkenny (1837-41); he was an associate of John Cam
Hobhouse and a member of the London Greek Committee. Maria Edgeworth: “Don't like him
much; attacks all things and persons, never listens, has no judgment.”
Edward Irving (1792-1834)
Popular Presbyterian preacher in London; he was a friend of Coleridge and author of
The Oracles of God and the Judgement to Come (1823).
Edmund Kean (1787-1833)
English tragic actor famous for his Shakespearean roles.
Edward Smith Stanley, twelfth earl of Derby (1752-1834)
Grandson of the eleventh earl (d. 1776); educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge,
he was a Whig MP for Lancashire, a friend of Charles James Fox, nephew of John Burgoyne,
and a committed sportsman.
Sir John Warrender, fifth baronet (1786-1867)
The son of Sir Patrick Warrender of Lochend, third baronet; he fought in the Peninsular
War and served as Grenadier Guards before succeeding his brother George in the title in
1849.
