Frances Parthenope Verney

Frances Parthenope Verney, Lady Verney (née Nightingale; 19 April 1819 – 12 May 1890), was an English writer and journalist.

Early life and education A portrait created of Mrs. Frances Nightingale and her daughter Frances Parthenope and Florence Nightingale. Frances Parthenope Nightingale was born on April 19, 1819 in Naples, Italy, during her parents' honeymoon. Parthenope's birth was a rather traumatic one for both Frances and Parthenope. At the time of her birth Frances was far from home and alone having her first child who was born small and weak. Within a week after her birth Parthenope had not gained sufficient weight to survive and she even had begun to throw up blood. After witnessing their daughters rapid decline in health, Frances and William believed their daughter would likely die.

Home at Lea Hurst and Embley Park

William Edward Shore (Parthenope's father's original surname) inherited the "Lea" property of his Great-uncle Peter Nightingale II, more often called "Eccentric Peter" or even "Mad Peter" At "Mad Peter's" death, he left his "Lea property in Derbyshire to Parthenope's father, but W.E.N. did not officially come into control of the property until around the age of twenty-one. perhaps because of embarrassment, but also maybe because of her deep attachment to her younger sister. One author claims that it isn't until "we realize how close the two sisters were before 1849, how much they relied upon each other, can we understand Parthenope's extravagant grief and bitter resentment when her sister later tried to leave home." She preserved and cataloged the family papers and began scholarly research into the Verney family. Parthenope wasn't able to completely finish this project however because of "paralyz[ing] arthritis," and eventually her death. She also published five novels; Avenhoe (1867), Stone Edge (1868), Lettice Lisle (1870), Fernyhurst Court (1871), and Llanaly Reefs (1873), and a two-volume book, Peasant Properties and Other Selected Essays. Parthenope published her early works anonymously until she became more confident to "write first 'Lady Verney' and finally 'Frances Parthenope Verney' on the title pages of her works."

Parthenope came from two families with similar but different outlooks on life that resulted in a rather progressive nature of both Parthenope and her sister Florence. The Smith's, through her mother, who had "liberal and humanitarian outlooks," and the Shores, W.E.N.'s family, as well as the Smith's who believed in "Unitarianism." Much of her writing concerned social questions of the day, and ranged from essays on "class morality" to reporting on "the Miseries of War", social differences between the poor of other nations, and religion. One of Parthenope's earlier works, Stone Edge, was "remarkably unsentimental and feminist," the books subject and the way in which "she presents" her setting of "preindustrial Derbyshire," shows that "Verney use her novel to argue that industrialization tended to free women from domestic tyranny, [which was] a radical [and feminist] idea for her time."