page_title: Ladies of Llangollen
section_title: Early lives
hierarchical_section_title: Ladies of Llangollen / Early lives
caption_attribution_description: Topic-LCSH: Recluses. Lesbians. Private libraries. Books. Cats. Genre/Technique: Portrait prints. Lithographs. Subject name: Butler, Eleanor, Lady, 1738 or 1739-1829
context_page_description: The "Ladies of Llangollen", Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, were two upper-class Irish women whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries during the late 18th and early 19th century. The pair moved to a Gothic mansion in Llangollen, North Wales, in 1780 after leaving Ireland to escape the social pressures of conventional marriages. Over the years, numerous distinguished visitors called upon them. Guests included Shelley, Byron, Wellington and Wordsworth, who wrote a sonnet about them.
  Throughout their lives, the two ladies dressed in men’s clothes leading to the assumption they were lesbians. However, research of their diaries and correspondents hint at no sexual relations, prompting some historians to conclude it was a Boston marriage, or platonic romance.
context_section_description: Eleanor Charlotte Butler (11 May 1739 – 2 June 1829) was a member of the Butler family, the Earls (and later Dukes) of Ormond Butler was considered an over-educated bookworm by her family, whose family seat was Kilkenny Castle. She was educated in a convent in France and so spoke French. 
  Sarah Ponsonby (1755 – 9 December 1831) lived with relatives in Woodstock, County Kilkenny. She was a second cousin of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, and thus a second cousin once removed of his daughter Lady Caroline Lamb. She was the daughter of Chambré Brabazon Ponsonby and Louisa Lyons.
  Their families lived 15 miles (25 km) from each other. The two women met in 1768, and quickly became close. Over the years they formulated a plan for a private rural retreat. It was their dream to live an unconventional life together.
caption: Sarah Ponsonby and Lady Eleanor Butler in their library
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