Lady Frances Compton’s Library » bookplate_Mrs Gosling

bookplate_Lady Frances

2 Comments

  1. Stephen said,

    August 10, 2015 at 9:17 am

    Hi,

    I recently picked up a couple of volumes with this same bookplate in both, for Mrs Gosling. They are 1809 editions of Maria Edgworth’s ‘Tales of Fashionable Life’.

    Do you know who this Mrs Gosling was?

    Best wishes,
    Stephen

    Reply

  2. Janeite Kelly said,

    August 12, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    Hi, Stephen – it is GREAT to hear of an “unknown” title that once was in the Gosling library!

    My own book I believe was published in the 1780s; it is a French-language conduct manual, which I thought would have been in use with the Gosling daughters. From that my guess has been that the plate indicated the Mrs Gosling who was the mother of William, Harriet and Maria = Mrs Robert Gosling (nee Elizabeth Houghton).

    However, there were a few other Mrs. Goslings, including Mrs Francis Gosling II.

    Elizabeth (Houghton) Gosling died in 1811; I’ve found her in letters and diaries typically in company of her son and daughter-in-law, but also with her daughter Maria (Mrs Henry Gregg); fewer sightings of the Davisons, but her elder daughter married Alexander Davison (who is mentioned in many biographies of Horatio Nelson). Robert Gosling died in the 1790s, but Langleys continued to be visited by William and his family – so it did stay within the family for some little time to come.

    Robert Gosling (William’s grandfather) had been a printer; William’s father Robert went into banking. The family firm continues to this day as Barclays Bank.

    Kelly

    Reply

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