The journey of this book first began in 2009 when I was studying for my Master’s degree in ‘Country House Studies: Art, Literature and History’ at Leicester University and working at Lamport Hall & Gardens in Northamptonshire. Part of my role was to get to know how a country house opened to the public – this included conducting tours of the house for visitors. I had to get to know the ins and outs of the house and family to enable me to deliver a convincing tour.
During this time, there was one character in the house who stood out from the rest due to her personality and tenacity – Mary Isham (née Close) who left her home in Ireland to move to Northampton with her husband Justinian Isham, 8th Baronet of Lamport Hall. Whilst chatelaine of Lamport, Mary established herself as the ruler of the household, making architectural changes to the house and helping in the management of the wider estate. She was so involved in the management and development of the estate that it was sometimes jokingly referred to as ‘Close Castle.’
As I learned more about the family, and particularly about Mary, I realised her life had been tinged with tragedy and sadness. This had me intrigued – what was she like, this woman who had seen such sorrow and yet remained so stoic?
A few years later and with more experience working within country houses, I was given the opportunity to put pen to paper and explore Mary’s story in more detail. It made me wonder if there were other female country house owners out there who had similar stories? I did some research and found a caché of stories of women who had similar personalities and lives within substantial country houses across the country – their stories were begging to be told.
I decided that I wanted to find out more about these women and to compare their stories to see what it was that made them so strong and full of personality; was it their birth and upbringing? Was it a combination of maturity and the right husband who allowed them a certain amount of independence and governance? I then wanted to look at how they acted once they oversaw their own households – if they had children, did they take a hand in their upbringing? How did they stamp their authority on the estates they managed? And did they encounter any setbacks such as tragedy or financial difficulties?
I would like to state at this point that studies about historical women are evolving as humanity evolves and so whilst I have made every attempt to understand as much about eighteenth-century female attitude and expectations, any mistakes made are unintentional. I also appreciate that this study may become ‘outdated’ in decades to come but hope that it inspires other historians to continue to research and retell the stories of women throughout history – they really are an untapped source of information.
All these questions have followed me around over the last twelve months and have culminated in the book you are about to read. Writing the biography of one person is hard enough, trying to squeeze the histories of three women into one book has felt at times like an insurmountable task. Whilst the women themselves are no longer here to judge my efforts, the legacies they left behind are and so I truly hope I have done justice to both.
These women are incredible and I hope that you enjoy reading their stories as much as I enjoyed researching them.
Charlotte