Anne Disbrowe

Anne Disbrowe (née Kennedy; 1795 – 18 October 1855) was a British society hostess who lived abroad as the wife of Edward Cromwell Disbrowe, a diplomat. Her letters, written while residing in Russia, were later published and provide historians with valuable first-hand accounts of life at the Russian court in the early 19th century.

Anne Disbrowe
A watercolour of Lady Disbrowe, c. 1825–28
Born	Charlotte Anne Albinia Kennedy 1795 New Jersey, United States
Died	October 18, 1855 (aged 59–60)
Spouse(s)	Sir Edward Cromwell Disbrowe (m. 1821)
Children	Charlotte Disbrowe Jane Harriet Wise
Parent(s)	Hon. Robert Kennedy Jane Macomb

Early life and family

Anne Kennedy was the eldest child of the Hon. Robert Kennedy, a younger son of Archibald Kennedy, 11th Earl of Cassilis.[1] Her mother was Jane Macomb, the daughter of a successful American merchant. The family lived for several years in New Jersey, where Anne was born, before moving their residence to England.[2][3] On 24 October 1821, she married Edward Cromwell Disbrowe, a British diplomat.[1][4] The couple met in Switzerland. Their first child was born the year after their marriage in Berne. In late 1822, they returned to England where Edward became a Member of Parliament (MP) for Windsor (1823–26). The growing family lived in Walton Hall, Derbyshire.[4][5] They eventually had four surviving children: daughters Charlotte and Jane (who later married Henry Christopher Wise), and sons Edward and William.[6]

Life as a diplomatic wife

In April 1825, Edward Disbrowe travelled to Saint Petersburg to serve as Minister Plenipotentiary at the court of Tsar Alexander I. Anne followed in June, accompanied by her father.[7][8][9] Initially told this would be a short-lived posting, they decided to leave their two young daughters behind in England out of fear the sea journey would be too dangerous. The girls stayed with Anne's parents at Walton Hall. Events at court quickly extended the couple's stay; Tsar Alexander died, which precipitated the Decembrist revolt and Nicholas I's eventual succession. The Disbrowes were then posted to Moscow in 1826, as part of a large English delegation for the new tsar's coronation. As there was no permanent ambassador to Russia in place, Anne was the highest ranking English lady present and had many social duties to perform, further delaying their return home. Anne's letters reveal her anguish at being separated from her children. She and her husband considered sending for them, but worried about the serious risks associated with travel and Russia's climate. Anne would not see them again until her return to England in March 1828, a gap of three years.[10]

After Russia, Disbrowe held appointments in Württemberg and Stockholm, and in 1831 he was knighted into the Royal Guelphic Order. Beginning in January 1836, he and his family moved to The Hague where he served as an envoy.[4][11][12] There he fell ill in September 1851, and died on 29 October. His grieving family then returned to England.[13] In his will, he left his widow and two daughters an annuity of £500.[12] The family properties were later divided among both daughters; Walton Hall was inherited by Charlotte, and Jane acquired an estate in Northamptonshire.[14] Their son Edward died in 1854, and according to his sister Charlotte, Anne's "health never recovered from that terrible loss".[15] Anne died in October of the following year.[15]

Legacy

Charlotte later published much of her mother's correspondence; these letters have provided historians with valuable first-hand accounts of life at the Russian court in the early 19th century.[2][16] She edited a collection of letters and had them printed by the Ladies' Printing Press for private publication in 1878, under the name Original Letters from Russia 1825–1828. Some of these letters were later adapted into another book, Old Days in Diplomacy: Recollections of a Closed Century, published in 1903 by Jarrold & Sons.[17][18][19]

References

1. Lodge 1845, p. 10.
2. "Lady Anne Disbrowe, née Kennedy, from the Middleton Watercolor Album". Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
3. Dod 1855, p. 213.
4. Jones 2004.
5. Disbrowe 1903, p. 30.
6. Burke 1898, p. 24.
7. Hickman 1999, p. 55.
8. Disbrowe 1903, p. 71.
9. Disbrowe & Disbrowe 1878, p. 10.
10. Hickman 1999, pp. 229–32.
11. Disbrowe 1903, pp. 220–22.
12. "DISBROWE, Edward Cromwell (1790-1851), of Walton-upon-Trent, Derbys". Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
13. Disbrowe 1903, pp. 323–25.
14. Bulmer 1895, p. 833.
15. Disbrowe 1903, p. 326.
16. Cross 2014, p. 10.
17. Cross 2014, p. 146.
18. McVicker 2008, p. 62.
19. Hickman 1999, p. 229.

Works cited

• Bulmer, T. (1895). History, Topography, and Directory of Derbyshire. T. Snape & Co.
• Burke, Bernard (1898). Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage. 60. Harrison and Sons.
• Cross, Anthony (2014). In the Land of the Romanovs: An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613–1917). Open Book Publishers. ISBN 978-1783740581.
• Disbrowe, Anne; Disbrowe, Charlotte (1878). Original Letters from Russia 1825–1828. Ladies' Printing Press.
• Disbrowe, Charlotte (1903). Old Days in Diplomacy: Recollections of a Closed Century. Jarrold & Sons.
• Dod, Charles R. (1855). The Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, Of Great Britain and Ireland. 15. Whittaker and Co.
• Hickman, Katie (1999). Daughters of Britannia: the Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-018862-6.
• Jones, R. A. (2004). "Disbrowe, Sir Edward Cromwell (1790–1851), diplomatist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50522.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Lodge, Edmund (1845). The Peerage of the British Empire as at Present Existing. Saunders and Otley.
• McVicker, Mary F. (2008). Women Adventurers, 1750-1900: A Biographical Dictionary, with Excerpts from Selected Travel Writings. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-7509-4.