Frances Talbot, Countess of Morley

Frances Talbot, Countess of Morley (married name Frances Parker; 1782–1857) was an English author and illustrator, best known as a correspondent of Jane Austen. By her marriage to John Parker, 1st Earl of Morley, she became the Countess of Morley.

Family Frances Talbot was the daughter of a surgeon, Thomas Talbot of Wymondham. Her brother, Thomas Sugden Talbot, was a clergyman. This branch of the Talbot family was a junior branch of the Talbots of Salesbury and Bashall, and had acquired their estate of Gonville Hall during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Marriage Talbot married John Parker, then Baron Boringdon, in August 1809. It was his second marriage, the first one having ended in scandal. His first wife, a daughter of the Earl of Westmorland, divorced him and married Arthur Paget as a result of her husband's many infidelities.

Literary interests

Talbot was an early admirer of the work of Jane Austen, though it is not clear how they came to be acquainted; it is possible that they were introduced through Austen's brother, Henry Thomas Austen. and she received a personal copy of Emma from Austen. Talbot was mistakenly identified as a possible author of both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility; strangely enough, her husband's first wife was also sometimes put forth as a possible author of the latter novel. She lithographed the plates for Portraits of the Spruggins Family, another work to which she was mistakenly attributed authorship.

Death Talbot died at Saltram on 6 December 1857 and was buried in the family vault at Plympton St Mary.