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Griselda Steevens (also known as Grizel Steevens or Grizell Steevens) (1653 – 18 March 1746) was a philanthropist and a benefactor of
Steevens was born in 1653 in Wiltshire, in England. She was the twin sister of
Dr Steevens' Hospital
Dr Steevens' Hospital (also called Dr Steevens's Hospital) (), one of Ireland's most distinguished eighteenth-century medical establishments, was located at Kilmainham in Dublin Ireland. It was founded under the terms of the will of Richard Stee ...
in Dublin. For a time it was commonly known as "Madame Steevens' Hospital".
Life
Steevens was born in 1653 in Wiltshire, in England. She was the twin sister of Richard Steevens
Richard Steevens (1653 – 15 December 1710) was an Irish physician.
Biography
Steevens and Grizell his sister (1653–1746), were the twin children of John Steevens, an English royalist clergyman who settled in Ireland in the middle of the sev ...
(1653–1710), a Dublin physician. They were the children of John, a Royalist cleric, and his wife Constance. The family moved to Athlone, Co Westmeath when John was made a rector there in 1664.
Richard Steevens died in 1710, leaving a considerable fortune which produced an income of £606 (about £ as of ) per year to Griselda. Richard directed that upon his sister's death the funds should be used in building, and subsequently maintaining, a hospital in Dublin 'for maintaining and curing from time to time such sick and wounded persons whose distempers and wounds are curable'.
Griselda Steevens decided that she would begin work on the hospital in 1717. Reserving only £120 per year for her own use, she surrendered the remainder to trustees to build the new hospital.
By 1723 a sufficient portion of the new Dr Steevens' Hospital was completed to accommodate 40 patients, in addition to Griselda's apartments. The remainder of the hospital, with space for 200 patients, opened in 1733. The new hospital was known as "Madame Steeven's Hospital".
It was the first public hospital established in Dublin, where it became one of the foremost institutions of its kind. Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...
was one of its earliest governors, and his friend Stella (Esther Johnson
Esther Johnson (13 March 1681 – 28 January 1728) was an Englishwoman known to have been a close friend of Jonathan Swift, known as "Stella". Whether or not she and Swift were secretly married, and if so why the marriage was never made public ...
) in her will bequeathed £1,000 towards the maintenance of a chaplain.
Steevens died in Dublin on 18 March 1746. By her will she bequeathed the residue of her property to the governors of the hospital. She was buried in the hospital chapel.
The archives of the hospital are in the Library of Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
.
See also
*Pig-faced women
Legends featuring pig-faced women originated roughly simultaneously in Dutch Republic, the Netherlands, Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France in the late 1630s. The stories tell of a wealthy woman whose body is of normal hum ...
References and sources
Notes
Sources
* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Steevens, Grizel 1653 births 1746 deaths English twins Irish philanthropists Irish women philanthropists Irish folklore 18th-century Irish women 18th-century women philanthropists