Wives of the Prime Ministers, 1844-1906Lee, Elizabeth
History
Wives of the Prime Ministers, 1844-1906
Lee, Elizabeth
Great Britain -- Biography; Statesmen's spouses -- Great Britain -- Biography; Women -- Biography
A house had been found at Farnborough Hill, and at the end of the
month the family settled there. But unhappily it was not to be for
long. At the end of January 1802 the little Flavia was taken ill with
scarlet fever. Her mother insisted on nursing her herself, and took the
infection. The child died on 1st February, and Mrs. Floyd, who was only
thirty years of age, on 3rd February. They were buried at Farnborough,
and there is a tablet to their memory in the church. The three
remaining children were now taken care of by their aunt, Miss Elizabeth
Floyd, who lived at Chalk Farm, near Bromley, Kent. Their father, when
away from them on duty, continued to exhort the children to attend to
their studies, counselled them to take great pains with their writing,
for “you will find it becomes fully as easy to write well as to scrawl
so that nobody can read what you say,” and promised if they made good
progress to take them to Sidmouth for a reward. Besides the writing of
a clear hand[15] he laid much stress on good reading aloud, and also
on reading to improve their minds and to form their style of writing.
They are not to read novels, “for ninety-nine times in a hundred they
are sad stuff, and very poor in thought. Read solid sense--history,
poetry, Shakespeare’s plays, Pliny’s letters,” and this to children
of whom the eldest was only twelve, the very age, her father reminded
her, at which he set out from home to seek his fortune. They are to
study arithmetic, geography, and music, especially singing. Needlework
and, above all, dancing--“I think, with such insteps and ankles as
some folks have, it would be sad indeed if _some folks_ did not skip
over the ground in true airy style of a fairy, preserving always the
beautiful _aplomb_, or plumb line, without stiffness”--are not to be
neglected.
On 29th July 1805 Floyd took a second wife, Anna, daughter of Crosbie
Morgell of Castle Morgell, Ireland, and widow of Sir Barry Denny,
Bart., of Tralee Castle, Co. Kerry. The children still remained with
their aunt in England, and Lady Denny--Floyd never calls her anything
else in his letters--with her husband in Dublin, where he was now on
duty. He became a full General on 1st January 1812, and was appointed
Governor of Gravesend and Tilbury Forts in 1814. His elder daughter
Miranda married, 18th November 1815, General Sir Joseph Fuller.[16] In
1816 Floyd was created a baronet for his services in India seventeen
years before. He died at his house in London, 10 Mansfield Street,
10th January 1818, aged seventy, and was buried in St. James’s Church,
Hampstead Road, London. His wife survived him until 4th December 1844.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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