Andalusia Molesworth born Andalusia Carstairs also known as Andalusia Grant; Lady Molesworth and Andalusia West ( – 16 May 1888) was a British singer and society hostess.
Andalusia Molesworth | |
|---|---|
| Born | Andalusia Carstairs |
| Died | 16 May 1888 |
| Education | Royal Academy of Music |
| Known for | Society hostess |
| Spouses |
|
| Partner | George Byng, 7th Viscount Torrington |
Life edit
Molesworth did not come from a noble family. She entered the Royal Academy of Music and on leaving she demonstrated her abilities as a soprano singer at Covent Garden, although her acting abilities were unimpressive. She was known as Miss Grant and she appeared in a play about Rob Roy MacGregor, Guy Mannering and Isidore de Merida with the tenor John Braham.[1]
She retired and married an older landowner, Temple West, of Mathon Lodge, Worcestershire, in 1831.[2] When he died in 1839 she moved to London and took a house at 29 Half Moon Street.[1]
She married Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet after a one-month engagement on 9 July 1844. His family were not keen given her lack of background and that she was maybe too old to deliver an heir.[1] Sir William had enjoyed the support of Harriet Grote and her husband,[3] but Harriet broke with him over his marriage.[1] An ambitious and scheming character in Dickens' Bleak House was said to be based on Molesworth.[4] She became known as a hostess inviting notable people to stay at Pencarrow House in Cornwall including Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Sullivan and Emperor Napoleon III.[5]
George Byng, 7th Viscount Torrington was her companion after she became a widow. When she died she left her fortune to Byng's nephew and heir, as she was estranged from her dead husband's family.[1] However she still remembered her last husband and in 1869 she had the Molesworth Mausoleum constructed at Kensal Green Cemetery.[5]
Molesworth continued to be a society hostess for thirty years until she died in Eaton Place on 16 May 1888.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f "Molesworth [née Carstairs; other married name West], Andalusia Grant, Lady Molesworth (c. 1809–1888), society hostess | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47908. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Death of Lady Molesworth, of Pencarrow". The Cornishman. No. 516. 24 May 1888.
- ^ "Sir William Molesworth, 8th Bt - Art UK". artuk.org.
- ^ Cobden, Richard; Morgan, Simon (5 July 2012). The Letters of Richard Cobden: Volume III: 1854-1859. OUP Oxford. p. 159. ISBN 9780199211975.
- ^ a b dijit.net. "Molesworth Mausoleum - Mausolea & Monuments Trust". www.mmtrust.org.uk. Retrieved 29 August 2018.