# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chatterton, Henrietta Georgiana Marcia Lascelles

​CHATTERTON, HENRIETTA GEORGIANA MARCIA LASCELLES, Lady (1806–1876), miscellaneous writer, was the only child of the Rev. Lascelles Iremonger, prebendary of Winchester, who died on 6 Jan. 1830, by his second marriage, on 26 Oct. 1799, with Harriett, youngest sister of Admiral Lord Gambier. She was born at 24 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, on 11 Nov. 1806. On 3 Aug. 1824 she married Sir William Abraham Chatterton of Castle Mahon, co. Cork, bart., who was born on 5 Aug. 1794. In 1837 appeared anonymously her first book, ‘Aunt Dorothy's Tales,’ in two volumes, followed two years afterwards by ‘Rambles in the South of Ireland,’ which was so successful that the first edition was exhausted in a few weeks. After this she wrote many tales, novels, poems, and accounts of travels. Cardinal Newman praised the refinement of thought in her later works of fiction. The Irish famine, 1845–51, deprived her husband of his rents. They retired to a small residence at Bloxworth in Dorsetshire, where they lived until 1852. They then removed to Rolls Park, Essex, and Sir William Chatterton died there on 5 Aug. 1855. On 1 June 1859 the widow married Mr. Edward Heneage Dering (b. 1827), youngest son of John Dering, rector of Pluckley, Kent, and prebendary of St. Paul's, who had retired from the army in 1851. Within six years after their marriage Mr. Dering entered the church of Rome. She herself long wavered, but after a correspondence with Dr. Ullathorne, bishop of Birmingham, respecting doctrinal points, she was received into the Roman church in August 1875. She died at Malvern Wells on 6 Feb. 1876. She was the author or editor of the following works: 1. ‘Aunt Dorothy's Tales,’ anonymous, 1837. 2. ‘Rambles in the South of Ireland,’ 1839, 2nd edit. 1839. 3. ‘A Good Match, The Heiress of Drosberg, and The Cathedral Chorister,’ 1840; another edition, 1868. 4. ‘Home Sketches and Foreign Recollections,’ 1841. 5. ‘The Pyrenees, with Excursions into Spain,’ 1843. 6. ‘Allanston, or the Infidel,’ 1843. 7. ‘Lost Happiness, or the Effects of a Lie,’ a tale, 1845. 8. ‘Reflections on the History of the Kings of Judah,’ 1848. 9. ‘Extracts from Jean Paul F. Richter,’ 1851. 10. ‘Compensation,’ anonymous, 1856. 11. ‘Life and its Realities,’ 1857. 12. ‘The Reigning Beauty,’ 1858. 13. ‘Memorials of Admiral Lord Gambier,’ 1861. 14. ‘Selections from the Works of Plato,’ 1862. 15. ‘The Heiress and her Lovers,’ 1863. 16. ‘Leonore, a Tale, and other Poems,’ 1864. 17. ‘Quagmire ahead,’ privately printed, 1864. 18. ‘Grey's Court,’ edited by Lady Chatterton, 1865. 19. ‘Oswald of Deira,’ a drama, 1867. 20. ‘A Plea for Happiness and Hope,’ privately printed, 1867. 21. ‘Country Coteries,’ 1868. 22. ‘The Oak,’ original tales and sketches by Sir J. Bowring, Lady Chatterton, and others, 1869. 23. ‘Lady May,’ a pastoral poem, 1869. 24. ‘The Lost Bride,’ 1872. 25. ‘Won at last,’ 1874. 26. ‘Extracts from Aristotle's Work,’ privately printed, 1875. 27. ‘Misgiving,’ privately printed, 1875. 28. ‘Convictions,’ privately printed, 1875. 29. ‘The Consolation of the Devout Soul,’ by J. Frassinetti, translated by Lady Chatterton, 1876.
[Dering's Memoirs of Lady Chatterton, 1878; Gillow's Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics (1885), i. 478–80; information from E. H. Dering, esq.]
G. C. B.