Lady Amabel Kerr | |
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.png) Photo inA Round table of the representative Irish and English Catholic novelists, 1897 | |
| Born | Lady Amabel Frederica Henrietta Cowper 24 March 1846[1] St George Hanover Square,London, England |
| Died | 15 October 1906 (aged 60) Melbourne, Derbyshire, England |
| Resting place | St. David's Churchyard,Dalkeith,Midlothian, Scotland |
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| Language | English |
| Nationality | British |
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Lady Amabel Frederica Henrietta Kerr (néeCowper; 24 March 1846 – 15 October 1906) was a British aristocrat and writer of religious literature, biographies, children's literature, and novels. She was also a translator from German to English, and a magazine editor. She was described in theUniversity of Ottawa Review as "a rare example of strenuous devotion to the service of God and His Church, rendered all the more forcible by reason of the obscurity in which she endeavored to shroud her work".[2] Kerr was the author of a number of books, among them:Unravelled Convictions, being the reasons for her conversion;Before Our Lord Came, anOld Testament history for little children;A Mixed Marriage, a novel;Life of Joan of Arc, andLife of Blessed Sebastian Valfre.[3] She died in October 1906.[4][a]
Lady Amabel Frederica Henrietta Cowper was born inSt George Hanover Square, London, England, 1846.[6] Her father wasGeorge Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper,[3] her mother Lady Anne Florence de Grey (who after her husband's death succeeded as sixth Baroness Lucas of Crudwell), daughter ofThomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey. Her siblings were:
While still a girl, and before her conversion, she started her literary career with a journal, afterward published with the titleUnravelled Convictions, in which she recorded the various mental stages through which she was led through many doubts and bewilderments to find peace and rest in theCatholic Church. It was an instructive history of her feelings and convictions up to November 1868.[7] Thirty years afterward, it was republished in a second edition by theCatholic Truth Society.[2]
She was received into the Catholic Church in 1872, and the following year marriedLord Walter Kerr, laterAdmiral of the Fleet.[8] After her conversion, Lady Amabel was constantly publishing what might serve for instruction or edification. In particular, she was a most strenuous and efficient member of the Catholic Truth Society, a regular attendant at its committee meetings, and one of the most prolific contributors to its literature, most of her work being done for it.[2]
To begin with, she did much to spread amongst Catholics a knowledge of the Bible story by her most successful small volumes,Before Our Lord Came (Old Testament history for young children),Bible Picture Book for Catholic Children, andLife of Our Lord. Of many saints and holy persons, she likewise wrote lives — some on a larger scale as substantial books, others in outline as penny tracts. Of the former class, there wereB. Sebastian Valfre;Monsignore Cacciaguerra ("A Precursor of St. Philip");Joan of Arc;B. Anthony Grassi ("A Saint of the Oratory");St. Felix of Cantalice ("A Son of St. Francis"); andSister Chatelain ; or, Forty Years' Work in Westminster. The shorter biographies include those of St. Martin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis Xavier, St. Philip Benizi, Mother Mary Hallahan, and two who commenced life as French naval officers, and a tribute to whom came from Lady Amabel, the wife of a British Admiral; they were Alexis Clerc, and Auguste Marceau.[2]
To devotional literature, Lady Amabel was also a considerable contributor. From the German of Father Maurice Meschler, S.J., she translatedThe Gift of Pentecost (meditations on the Holy Ghost), and from the letters ofFrançois Fénelon, she selected a volume which she entitledSpiritual Counsels. In fiction, too, she produced two stories which achieved some success, despite a purpose. These appeared originally under the titles,A Mixed Marriage andOne Woman's Work, the latter being altered when the tale was published separately toThe Whole Difference.[2]
Besides all these various productions, Lady Amabel edited theCatholic Magazine, the organ of the Catholic Truth Society, established in 1895, during the greater part of its career, and was on the committee of the Society.[3][2]
The translation from German to English of Dr.Ludwig Pastor'sHistory of the Popes (1908) was a massive work of which the volume comprisingLeo X'spontificate was taken up by Lady Amabel,[2] and she had almost completed the work when in the autumn of 1906, she died.[9][4]
In 1903, it was reported that Lady Amabel was one of the co-heirs to the barony of Butler, other coheirs to the same barony beingMr. Auberon Herbert andMrs. W. H. Grenfell.[10]As Lady Amabel's brother, Lord Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper, died childless and there were no other male-line descendants of thefirst Earl Cowper at the time of his death, his wealth stated mainly devolved to issue of his three married sisters. Amabel's descendants, who later succeeded asMarquesses of Lothian, inherited the Melbourne part of the Cowper estates includingBrocket Hall inHertfordshire andMelbourne Hall inDerbyshire.
George Robinson, Marquis of Ripon was her cousin.[11]
Lady Amabel Kerr died atMelbourne, Derbyshire, England, 15 October 1906, and was buried at St. David's Churchyard,Dalkeith,Midlothian, Scotland.[12]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.Burnand-1908
kerr-1878
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