Georgiana Chatterton

Her mother's family had been acquainted with Samuel Johnson, William Wilberforce, Madame de Staël, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Hannah More, among other public figures, who visited their seat at Barham Court.[1] According to parish records, Georgiana was baptised on 2 December 1805 at St George's Hanover Square Church,[2] suggesting that her reported year of birth may be inaccurate.[3] While living in County Cork, Georgiana's poor health caused her to move to Florence, Italy, a city which at the time was expanding with cultural and social diversity and ideas.[1] In 1845–1851, the Great Irish Famine deprived her husband of his rents and forced them to move back to England and stay in Rolls Park in Essex until 5 August 1855, when Sir William Chatterton died.After two years of grieving, Georgiana and Rebecca Orpen, Sir William's niece, who was in her care, decided to resume regularly attending parties and social gatherings.The assumption that Georgiana drew this sketch is due to her elevated social position, allowing her to travel to Westminster and acquire tickets to enter the House of Commons.This drawing is significant because it shows how women politically engaged, whether it was from listening from a ventilator in the ceiling or persuading men to vote for local leaders.Though such women as Lady Chatterton were often able to influence politics, they could only do so indirectly, still managing to make their mark on a world almost a hundred years before female suffrage was achieved in the United Kingdom.