Catherine Stepney (23 December 1778 – 14 April 1845) was a British novelist.

Life

Catherine Pollok was born in

Grittleton Grittleton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Wiltshire, England, northwest of Chippenham. The parish includes the hamlets of Foscote, Leigh Delamere, Littleton Drew and Sevington, and part of the hamlet of The Gibb ...

, Wiltshire in 1778. Her first husband was Russell Manners, whom she divorced. In 1813 she married Sir Thomas Stepney who was the ninth and as it turned out the last Stepney baronet, of Prendergast. He was a groom of the bed-chamber to the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs ...

and he died without issue in 1825. Stepney is credited with writing six novels, but

Mary Mitford Mary Russell Mitford (16 December 1787 – 10 January 1855) was an English essayist, novelist, poet and dramatist. She was born at Alresford in Hampshire, England. She is best known for '' Our Village'', a series of sketches of village scenes ...

claimed that Stepney's drafts were honed and polished by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...

. She wrote two novels during her first marriage, and four known as the ''silver fork'' novels after her second marriage were about the high society she frequented. Stepney was known as a hostess because her house was a meeting place for London's artistic and literary society. In 1836 she modelled for a bust by

Richard Cockle Lucas Richard Cockle Lucas (24 October 1800 – 18 May 1883) was a British sculptor and photographer. Career Lucas was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, the son of Richard Lucas and his wife, Martha Sutton (who died shortly after childbirth). At the ag ...

who portrayed her as

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

. This bust is now in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

. The National Portrait Gallery has a painting of her made by

John Hayter John Hayter (21 October 1800 – 3 June 1895) was an English portrait painter who was Painter-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria, whom he first painted when she was 12 years old. Biography He was the second son of the miniaturist Charles Hayter a ...

. Stepney died in London on 14 April 1845.Catherine Stepney
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, retrieved 5 December 2014 After her death there were accounts of how she was unaware that her novels were not always well regarded.

Bibliography

Catherine Manners

* ''Castle Nuovier; or, Henrii and Adelina'', Catherine Manners, 1806 (alternatively titled ''Castle Nuovier, or, Henry and Adelina'') * ''The Lords of Erith'', Catherine Manners, 1809

Catherine Stepney

* ''The New Road to Ruin'', Catherine Stepney, 1833 * ''The Heir Presumptive'', Catherine Stepney, 1835 * ''The Courtier's Daughter'', Catherine Stepney, 1838, 1841 * ''The Three Peers'', Catherine Stepney, 1841

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stepney, Catherine 1778 births 1845 deaths Writers from Wiltshire English women novelists Wives of baronets