Butler, Eleanor (c. 1738–1829)
Butler, Eleanor (c. 1738–1829)
Irish diarist and letter writer. Name variations: Ladies of Llangollen; became Lady Eleanor when brother John recovered earldom of Ormonde (1791). Born in Cambrai, France, in 1738 or 1739; died in Llangollen, Wales, June 2, 1829; dau. of Eleanor (Morris) Butler and Walter Butler, de jure earl of Ormonde.
One of the celebrated women of Llangollen who lived with Sarah Ponsonby for 50 years in rural Wales in an age when romantic friendship between women and retirement to the countryside were fashionable; left Ireland forever (May 1778), to avoid being sent back to the nunnery in Cambrai; settled with Ponsonby in rural Llangollen in northern Wales, residing in a cottage they called Plas Newydd (New Place); read and studied the classics as well as contemporary literature in English, French, Italian and Spanish; tended a large garden; kept up a voluminous correspondence with the greatest minds of the day; frequently entertained genteel neighbors as well as distinguished persons who went out of their way to visit Llangollen, "the vale of friendship." Tourists still stream to Llangollen to visit Plas Newydd.
See also Elizabeth Mavor, The Ladies of Llangollen: A Study in Romantic Friendship (Michael Joseph, 1971); and Women in World History.