Lifespan: 1775-1861
Nationality: English
Types of Work: Novels
Bio:
(from Wikipedia)
Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Campbell was born on January 28, 1775, at Argyll House, Oxford Street, London. She was the youngest child of Field Marshal John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll and Elizabeth Campbell, 1st Baroness Hamilton. Her mother was the second daughter of John Gunning, of Castle Coote, County Roscommon, and widow of James Hamilton, 6th Duke of Hamilton. In her youth she was remarkable for her personal beauty, and the charm of her manners rendered her one of the most popular persons in society, while the sweetness and excellence of her character endeared her more especially to those who knew her in the intimacy of private life. She was always distinguished by her passion for the belles-lettres, and was accustomed to do the honours of Scotland to the literary celebrities of the day. It was at one of her parties that Sir Walter Scott became personally acquainted with Monk Lewis. When aged twenty-two she produced a volume of poems, to which, however, she did not affix her name.
She married on 14 June 1796 Colonel John Campbell (eldest son of Walter Campbell of Schawfield, by his first wife Eleanora Kerr), who, at the time of his decease in Edinburgh on 15 March 1809, was Member of Parliament for the Ayr Burghs. By this marriage she had nine children, of whom, however, only two survived her, Lady A. Lennox and Mrs. William Russell. Lady Charlotte Campbell married secondly, on 17 March 1818, the Reverend Edward John Bury (only son of Edward Bury of Taunton); they had two daughters. Bury received from University College, Oxford, his B.A. in 1811 and M.A. 1817. He assumed the position of rector in Litchfield, Hampshire, in 1814 and died at Ardenample Castle, Dumbartonshire, in May 1832, aged 42.
After Lady Charlotte had been widowed in 1809 she had been appointed Lady-in-Waiting in the household of the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, when it is believed that she kept a diary, in which she recorded the foibles and failings of the unfortunate princess and other members of the court.
After her marriage with Bury she was the author of various contributions to light literature; some of her novels were very popular, although now almost forgotten. When the Diary illustrative of the Times of George IV appeared in two volumes in 1838, it was thought to bear evidence of a familiarity with the scenes depicted which could only be attributed to Lady Charlotte. It was reviewed with much severity, and attributed to her ladyship by both the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. The volumes, however, sold rapidly, and several editions were disposed of in a few weeks. The charge of the authorship was not at the time denied, and as no one has since arisen claiming to have written the diary the public libraries now catalogue the work under Lady Charlotte's name. Volume 3 of the Diary was discovered by William Michael Rossetti to contain an encounter with William Blake; a rare description of the poet and artist from a contemporary.
Lady Charlotte died at 91 Sloane Street, Chelsea, on 31 March 1861. The once celebrated beauty, the delight of the highest circles of London society, was curiously described in her death certificate at Somerset House as "daughter of a duke and wife of the Rev. E. J. Bury, holding no benefice.
Her aunt, Susannah Gunning, and cousin, Elizabeth Gunning, were also novelists.
Novels:
Self-Indulgence, a Tale of the Nineteenth Century (1812)
Conduct is Fate (1822)
Alla Giornata, or To the Day (1826)
Flirtation (1828)
The Exclusives (1830)
Separation (1830)
The Disinherited and the Ensnared (1834)
The Devoted (1836)
Love (1837)
Ellen Glanville (1838)
The Divorced (1837)
The History of a Flirt (1840)
Family Records, or the Two Sisters (1841)
The Manoeuvring Mother (1842)
The Lady of Fashion (1856)
The Two Baronets, a novel of fashionable life (1864)