Lifespan: 1799-1859
Nationality: English
Types of Work: novels, religious works
Contemporaries:
Bio:
Lydia Gisborne was born on 25 September 1799 to Rev. Thomas Gisborne of Yoxhall Lodge. Her mother was the only daughter of Thomas Babington.
Her first husband was Rev. Edmund Robinson, married on 1 March, 1824. The couple lived at Thorp Green in Yorkshire, and had several children, and at one point, the novelist, Anne Bronte was engaged as a governess to their daughters. Anne also convinced the couple to hire her brother, Branwell, as tutor to the couple's son. This appointment would cause years of speculative controversy about the relationship between Branwell and Lydia. Rumors abounded that the young tutor and his master's wife were, if not having an outright affair, at least amorously involved. After his dismissal from the family in 1845, Branwell spread the idea that Lydia was in love with him, and eagerly awaiting the death of her ailing husband. Elizabeth Gaskell, in her biography of Charlotte Bronte, related many of these anecdotes of Branwell and Lydia's relationship, going so far as to state that he was not "the first or, nor the last". Whether or not the affair were true, it seems clear the the young man was, at least, infatuated with his much older mistress, and it is believed that the incident contributed to Branwell's early death.
After his death, Lydia married, Sir Edward Dolman Scott in 1848. He died two years later, and Lydia died 19 June, 1859.
She is frequently confused with the other two "Lady Scotts"- Caroline Lucy Scott and Harriet Anne Scott. Their works are often ascribed to one another, and it is not perfectly clear which "Lady Scott" authored which work. The list of novels here are those that are often ascribed to her, though sometimes also to one of the other two,
Novels:
Flirtation
Henpecked Husband (1848)
Pride of Life (1854)
The Only Child (1858)
The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1860)
Trevelyan (1860)
Dream of a Life (1862)