GUEST BIOGRAPHY
Charlotte Bertie was born to an English aristocratic family where she received an excellent education but had an unhappy relationship with her stepfather. She taught herself French and Italian, and with her brothers’ tutor studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Persian.
With seven languages expertise at 21 she married her first husband in 1833: John Josiah Guest, a very rich Welsh ironmaster, much older than she was, whose business spanned the world. It was a radical choice for a girl of her elite background with standing at Court, in fact a major scandal for which she suffered social exclusion which took years of effort to repair. She went to live at his Dowlais Iron Company in Merthyr Tydfil very shortly after she married and immediately began to learn Welsh.
Over the next ten years Charlotte bore ten children. She worked as a company secretary and manager of the Dowlais ironworks; translated technical documents from other European languages; campaigned politically for her husband as an MP; founded and ran philanthropic schools for local children which were at the cutting edge of liberal education at the time; worked with Augusta Hall to reclaim Welsh culture and supported the regional Eisteddfodau. She entertained some of the leading thinkers and artists of her day in her salons. Within three years she was beginning to translate mediaeval Welsh prose literature.
Charlotte Guest increasingly shouldered the management of the Dowlais international ironworks as her much older husband’s health declined. On his death in 1852 she led the company through an especially challenging period of slump and strikes. Once it was stabilised she handed it on to her eldest son, and remarried in 1855. Her second husband was Charles Schreiber, shockingly, her sons’ tutor, and much younger than herself. Charles Schreiber was a classical scholar, who with her experienced political support, became an MP in England. The Schreibers traveled extensively, and together created a famous china collection, now in the V&A, as well as other art collections. Charlotte continued her philanthropic works into her advanced old age.[1]For this second stage of her life see the biographies by her son, the earl of Bessenden, 1952; and the later chapters of Guest and Johns biography 2008.
Charlotte Schreiber, formerly Charlotte Guest, born Charlotte Bertie, lived long, was again widowed. In her final years she became blind, so unable to maintain the regular journal she had kept since she was 10 years old. She died at 82, in 1895, attended by her many children and grandchildren in England. Her family has retained strong links to both Wales and England.
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
1921 Excerpts from Guest’s journal relating to her work on The Mabinogion were published by David Phillips 1921, provided to him by her daughter Blanche.[2]Phillips, David Rhys. 1921. Lady Charlotte Guest and the Mabinogion; Some Notes on the Work and Its Translator, with Extracts from Her Journals. Carmarthen: W. Spurrell & Son.
1952 A second selection was published in two volumes by her son, of which the first volume in 1952 covers her period of work on The Mabinogion. [3]Guest, Charlotte. 1950. Lady Charlotte Guest: Extracts from Her Journal 1833-1852. Edited by Ponsonby, V. B. aka Bessborough. London: John Murray.
1987 An article by Rachel Bromwich drew largely on Phillips, 1921.[4]Bromwich, Rachel. 1987. “Lady Charlotte Guest and the Mabinogion.” Trans. of the Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion, 127–41.
2004 A concise but extensively informative article on Charlotte Guest as translator, was written by Sioned Davies in 2004. [5]Davies, Sioned. “A Charming Guest: Translating the Mabinogion’.” Studia Celtica. (2004): 157–278.
2007 Guest’s grand-daughter Revel collaborated with Angela John to publish a complete biography of her grandmother’s life, which includes many journal extracts.[6]Guest, Revel; and John, Angela V. Lady Charlotte Guest: An Extraordinary Life. The History Press., 2007.
SYNONYMS
ALSO
« Library IndexNOTES
| 1. | ⇑ | For this second stage of her life see the biographies by her son, the earl of Bessenden, 1952; and the later chapters of Guest and Johns biography 2008. |
| 2. | ⇑ | Phillips, David Rhys. 1921. Lady Charlotte Guest and the Mabinogion; Some Notes on the Work and Its Translator, with Extracts from Her Journals. Carmarthen: W. Spurrell & Son. |
| 3. | ⇑ | Guest, Charlotte. 1950. Lady Charlotte Guest: Extracts from Her Journal 1833-1852. Edited by Ponsonby, V. B. aka Bessborough. London: John Murray. |
| 4. | ⇑ | Bromwich, Rachel. 1987. “Lady Charlotte Guest and the Mabinogion.” Trans. of the Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion, 127–41. |
| 5. | ⇑ | Davies, Sioned. “A Charming Guest: Translating the Mabinogion’.” Studia Celtica. (2004): 157–278. |
| 6. | ⇑ | Guest, Revel; and John, Angela V. Lady Charlotte Guest: An Extraordinary Life. The History Press., 2007. |