Caroline Norton
Novelist
A nineteenth-century British author, social and legal reformer, and feminist, she is known for such novels as The Dandies Rout, Stuart of Dunleath, and Old Sir Douglas. Her poetry collections include The Dream, The Child of the Islands, and The Sorrows of Rosalie.
She was born in London to an actor/soldier of Irish descent and a Scottish noblewoman.
Her son, William, died tragically in 1842 as the result of a horse riding injury.
She married George Chapple Norton in 1827. She left him in 1836, an act that led to a trial and the subsequent establishment of several divorce-related laws championed by Caroline Norton herself.
She was a friend of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.