“The first mistake I made was being born at all” was Rosina Bulwer Lytton’s sardonic retrospective response to the event that had taken place on the dreary and drizzly morning of 4 November 1802 at the house of Ballywire, at Lizard Connell on the Tipperary and Limerick border. This was the family home of her father Francis Massey Wheeler, the grandson of a Baron, who at the age of 19 had married the 15 or 16 years old Anna Doyle, the daughter of a Protestant Archbishop. Francis had hoped for a son to inherit the estate but as it transpired, the surviving children from Anna’s six pregnancies were both girls: Rosina and her elder sister Henrietta. Although their parents came from privileged backgrounds, they were intellectually and temperamentally unsuited. Anna was an avid reader…
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Citation: Mulvey-Roberts, Marie. "Rosina Bulwer-Lytton". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 January 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=637, accessed 22 November 2024.]
