Emily Patmore

Emily Augusta Patmore ( Andrews; 29 February 1824 – 5 July 1862) was a British author, a model for members of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and the inspiration for Coventry Patmore's 1854–1862 narrative poem The Angel in the House.

Early life and education

Emily Augusta Andrews was born on 29 February 1824, the daughter of Elizabeth Honor (née Symons) (1792–1831) and Edward Andrews (1787–1841), a Congregational minister at Beresford Chapel, Walworth, London. She was one of 12 siblings, an elder brother Edward William Andrews (1812–1877), later emigrated to Australia and became a newspaper proprietor and editor, and four elder sisters included Eliza, later Orme (1816-1892), whose daughters grew up to be women's rights activists, Emily Rosaline Orme, a leading Edinburgh suffragist, and Eliza Orme, the first woman to earn a law degree in England. Her younger brother Augustus Charles Andrews became a bank clerk and his daughter Mabel Barltrop became a religious leader and prophet.

Their mother died in April 1831 when Emily was still young and she took over the household duties for her father. It is thought that she learned Greek, Latin, and French under his tutelage. who Emily and Eliza were later credited with introducing to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Marriage and The Angel in the House Emily Augusta Andrews met the poet and critic Coventry Patmore while living at her sister Eliza Orme's house following the 1841 death of their father, which had left the family destitute. Eliza had married Charles Orme, heir to a brewing fortune, and the couple's home in Regent's Park in London was a noted gathering place for the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Patmore worked at the British Museum as a librarian and mixed in literary and artistic circles including the Pre Raphaelites. Emily Augusta Andrews and Coventry Patmore married on 11 September 1847.

Emily was staunchly Protestant, following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, who had been Congregationlist Ministers. Patmore was far more high church in his religious leanings and it is thought that he remained a practising Anglican during Emily's lifetime out of respect for her wishes. and was the subject of a painting by John Everett Millais entitled Mrs. Coventry Patmore in 1851, now in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. John Brett's portrait of Mrs Patmore was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856 and is now held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. She was also the inspiration for "A Face", a poem by Robert Browning.

Death Emily Patmore died of tuberculosis on 5 July 1862 at home at Elm Cottage, North End, Hampstead, London. She was thirty-eight years old, and left a young family of six children. and their daughter Emily Honoria became a nun.

Publications

The Servant's Behaviour Book, or, Hints on Manners and Dress for Maid Servants in Small Households. (1859) Nursery Poetry (1859) Nursery Tales (1860)