Salomé de Gélieu (17 April 1742,

Les Bayards Les Bayards was a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier Fleurier was a municipality in the district o ...

- 29 March 1820, Colombier) was a Swiss educator and governess to several members of princely courts in Europe.

Life

Salomé was the daughter of the preacher Jacques de Gélieu and his wife Elizabeth, née Willy. She grew up with five siblings in

Les Verrières Les Verrières () is a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. History Les Verrières is first mentioned in 1344 as ''villa de Verreriis''. Jt was here that General Charles-Denis Bourbaki crossed the Swiss border with the rem ...

. After the death of her father in 1763, she and her sisters Rose and Marie-Elisabeth opened a boarding school for young girls in Neuchâtel in 1765. Between 1768 and 1777 she worked as a teacher in England, where her pupils included the daughter of

George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, (26 January 1739 – 29 January 1817), styled Marquess of Blandford until 1758, was a British courtier, nobleman, and politician from the Spencer family. He served as Lord Chamberlain between 1762 a ...

. Following her return to Neuchâtel 1777 she and her sister Esther de Gélieu founded a boarding school in Neuchâtel until in 1785 she was summoned to Darmstadt to be governess to princesses

Therese Therese or Thérèse is a variant of the feminine given name Teresa. It may refer to: Persons Therese *Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1773–1839), member of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and a Duchess of Mecklenburg * Therese of B ...

, Frederica and Louise of

Mecklenburg-Strelitz The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a duchy in northern Germany consisting of the eastern fifth of the historic Mecklenburg region, roughly corresponding with the present-day Mecklenburg-Strelitz district (the former Lordship of Stargard), ...

. At the same time she acted as tutor to the brothers

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

and Charles of

. She served in this role until 1793 at the court of Princess George and returned to Neuchâtel to serve princesses Frederica and Louise and prince Louis Charles, staying in her brother Jonas de Gélieu's vicarage in Colombier until her death in 1820. During her time as governess to Louise and Friederike, in 1787 she attended the

Textilfabrik Cromford The Textilfabrik Cromford in Ratingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany was built in 1783 by Johann Gottfried Brügelmann. It was the first cotton spinning mill on the European mainland. Today it is an industrial museum specialising in textile ...

Ratingen Ratingen ( li, Rotinge) is a town in the district of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the northwestern part of Berg about 12 km northeast of Düsseldorf. Administration With a communal reform of 1975 the independent mu ...

founded by

Johann Gottfried Brügelmann Johann Gottfried Brügelmann (baptized 6 July 1750 in Elberfeld, now a district of Wuppertal - 27 December 1802, Ratingen) was a German industrialist, most notable as founder of the first factory on mainland Europe, one of the forerunners of the ...

- her report of the visit was an important source for reconstructing the Textilfabrik Cromford's machines at the

LVR Industrial Museum The Rheinisches Industriemuseum (lit. Rhineland Museum of the Industry) is a decentralized museum with six locations in Rhineland, western Germany. The locations are: *Oberhausen: the main site at the old Zinkfabrik Altenberg (zinc factory), near ...

.Martin Schmidt: Technologietransfer. In: LVR-Industriemuseum (Hg.): Cromford Ratingen – Lebenswelten zwischen erster Fabrik und Herrenhaus um 1800. Ratingen 2010, , S. 139. She corresponded with her pupils until her death. She was visited by Frederick William III of Prussia and his son

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

in 1814 and also by crown prince Frederick William. In biographical literature on Queen Louise of Prussia, de Gélieu is often confused with her sister Susanne Salomé (1737-1808) - the latter only ever left the region of Neuchâtel to buy a house at Lignières belonging to the former prince-bishopric of Basel and frequent visits to neighbouring La Neuveville.

Bibliography

*Claudia von Gélieu, ''Christian von Gélieu: Die Erzieherin von Königin Luise. Salomé de Gélieu.'' Pustet, Regensburg 2007, . *Carsten Peter Thiede, Eckhard G. Franz: ''Jahre mit Luise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Aus Aufzeichnungen und Briefen der Salomé von Gélieu (1742–1822).'' In: ''Archiv für hessische Geschichte und Altertumskunde'' NF 43, 1985, ISSN 0066-636X, S. 79–160.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelieu 1742 births 1820 deaths 18th-century Swiss educators People from Val-de-Travers District 18th-century Swiss women