Caroline Lane Jebb, Lady Jebb (1840 – 11 July 1930), née Reynolds, then Slemmer, was an American

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

and

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

Biographical notes

Born Caroline Lane Reynolds in 1840 in Evansburg,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, she was the daughter of the Rev. John Reynolds, an English clergyman who had immigrated to the United States in about 1825. In 1856 she married Lt. Adam J. Slemmer, a Brigadier-General in the Union Army during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, and they lived on military bases in

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, and

Wyoming Territory The Territory of Wyoming was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 25, 1868, until July 10, 1890, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Wyoming. Cheyenne was the territorial capital. The ...

. Their only child, a son, died young. After Slemmer's death in 1868, she moved to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

to visit relatives. In 1874 she married the classicist

Richard Claverhouse Jebb Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb (27 August 1841 – 9 December 1905) was a British classical scholar and Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP for Cambridge. Life Jebb was born in Dundee, Scotland, to Robert, a well-known Irish barrister, an ...

.Hugh Lloyd-Jones, 'Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse (1841–1905)', first published 2004; online edn, May 2006, 2277 words, with portrait illustration They initially lived in Glasgow, where her husband was a professor, but spent summers in

until the death of

Benjamin Hall Kennedy Benjamin Hall Kennedy (6 November 1804 – 6 April 1889) was an English scholar and schoolmaster, known for his work in the teaching of the Latin language. He was an active supporter of Newnham College and Girton College as Cambridge Universit ...

vacated the Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge. Her social circle included

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

Charles Hale Charles Hale (1831–1882) of Boston was an American legislator and diplomat. Intermittently from 1855 to 1877, he served in the Massachusetts state House and Senate. He was Speaker of the House in 1859. In the 1860s he lived in Cairo, Egypt, as ...

, Oliver Wendell Holmes,

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets to r ...

Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry (27 February 184721 July 1928) was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and toured ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

, and

William Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...

. Her niece, Maud du Puy, daughter of her sister Ellen, followed her to England and she took the role of proxy mother, helping to arrange her 1884 marriage to

George Darwin Sir George Howard Darwin (9 July 1845 – 7 December 1912) was an English barrister and astronomer, the second son and fifth child of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin. He is known for the harmonic analysis of the theory of tides. The Darwin s ...

, the astronomer son of the naturalist

. In Cambridge, she was elected to the

Ladies Dining Society The Ladies Dining Society was a private women's dining and discussion club, based at University of Cambridge, Cambridge University. It was founded in 1890 by the author Louise Creighton and the women's activist Kathleen Lyttelton. Its members, ...

that had been founded by

Louise Creighton Louise Hume Creighton (née von Glehn; 7 July 1850 – 15 April 1936) was a British author of books on historical and sociopolitical topics, and an activist for a greater representation of women in society, including women's suffrage, and in th ...

and Kathleen Lyttleton in 1890. Other members included the economist

Mary Paley Marshall Mary Marshall (née Paley; 24 October 1850 – 19 March 1944) was a British economist who in 1874 was one of the first women to take the Tripos examination at Cambridge University – although, as a woman, she was excluded from receiving a ...

, the classicist

Margaret Verrall Margaret de Gaudrion Verrall (née Merrifield; 21 December 1857 – 2 July 1916) was a classical scholar and lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge. Much of her life and research was concerned with the study of parapsychology, mainly in order to e ...

, the Irish suffragist Mary Ward, former Newnham lecturer

Ellen Wordsworth Darwin Ellen Wordsworth Darwin (née Crofts; 13 January 1856 – 28 August 1903) was a British academic, a fellow and a lecturer in English Literature at Newnham College in Cambridge (1879–1883). She was also a member of the private and schola ...

, the mental health campaigner

Ida Darwin Ida, Lady Darwin (née Farrer; 7 November 1854 – 5 July 1946) was the wife of Sir Horace Darwin, member of the Ladies Dining Society, and a co-founder in 1913 of the Central Association for the Care of the Mentally Defective (in 1921 re ...

, Baroness Eliza von Hügel, and her niece Maud (née du Puy, then Lady Darwin). She became Lady Jebb after her husband was knighted in 1900; she was widowed for a second time in 1905. In 1907 she published a biography of her second husband, "Life and letters of Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, O. M., LITT. D." with a chapter by

Arthur Woollgar Verrall Arthur Woollgar Verrall (5 February 1851 – 18 June 1912) was an English writer and scholar. He was associated with Trinity College, Cambridge, and the first occupant of the King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, King Edward VII Chair ...

. In 1918, with difficulties in England due to the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, she returned to the United States. She died in

Erie Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...

in 1930. Her ashes were subsequently interred in the grave of her late husband in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. She is mentioned extensively, well illustrated and characterised as a matriarch in her grand-niece (Maud's daughter)

Gwen Raverat Gwendolen Mary "Gwen" Raverat (née Darwin; 26 August 1885 – 11 February 1957), was an English wood engraver who was a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers. Her memoir ''Period Piece'' was published in 1952. Biography Gwendolen Ma ...

's 1952 book ''

Period Piece Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or r ...

'' as "(Great) Aunt Cara", with her husband "(Great) Uncle Dick".

A biography and selected correspondence were published in 1960 by Mary Reed Bobbitt.Mary Reed Bobbitt (1960) With Dearest Love to All The Life and Letters of Lady Jebb Her papers are held by the

Five College Consortium The Five College Consortium (often referred to as simply the Five Colleges) comprises four Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts colleges and one university in the Connecticut River Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts: Am ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jebb, Caroline 1840 births 1930 deaths American socialites People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania American emigrants to the United Kingdom