The daughter of Thomas Sheridan and the
granddaughter of English poet, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, eight-year-old
Caroline Sheridan found herself one of five children living in poverty
when her father died. By the time she was sixteen, George Norton, a
barrister who did not practice the law, asked her to marry him. Although
she refused, she reconsidered and married him at age nineteen, partly
to help the financial status of her family.
Caroline Norton was regularly beaten
and viciously terrorized by her husband, who resented her clever wit.
By the time she had separated from him in 1836, she had borne him three
sons, one of whom, William, would die in childhood from an untreated
cut from a riding accident; the untreated cut permitted blood poisoning
to take the youngster's life.
For the next twenty years Caroline fought
vigorously against Norton's attempts to deprive her of her income and
to scandalize her name and reputation. She was already fairly well-known
because of her poems and novels. For much of this time Caroline's solace
lay in her mastery of the written word and her efforts to overturn English
law regarding women's rights in Victorian England. As a result of her
efforts to help divorced women retain custody of their children and
their material wealth, the Marriage and Divorce Act of 1857 became her
lasting legacy.
Caroline Norton died at age 69, only
three months after marrying William Stirling Maxwell.
The poem above reflects the author's
devotion, love, and concern that a life entrusted to her should remain
cared for, despite the personal privations of poverty and hunger. In
spite of her own suffering and degradation, Caroline Norton demonstrated
the values she held most dear: liberty and honor.
My
Beautiful! My Beautiful! That standest meekly by,