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Legends of North Wales and Reminiscenes of a Short Visit to the Vale of Llangollen
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. While they lived a life of rural retreat, the Ladies’ celebrity and social status meant that their home Plas Newydd became a salon. They built an extensive library, and there they hosted many of the intelligensia of the day, including poets such as Wordsworth, Byron, and Anna Seward; physician Erasmus Darwin; potter Josiah Wedgwood; and the reigning Queen Charlotte. In the nineteenth century there was a thriving industry producing and selling objects commemorating the Ladies of Llangollen. -
Plas Newydd: Near Llangollen
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. While they lived a life of rural retreat, the Ladies’ celebrity and social status meant that their home Plas Newydd became a salon. They built an extensive library, and there they hosted many of the intelligentsia of the day, including writers such as Wordsworth, Byron, Lady Caroline Lamb, and Anna Seward; physician Erasmus Darwin; potter Josiah Wedgwood; and the reigning Queen Charlotte. -
The Rt. Honble. Lady Eleanor Butler & Miss Ponsonby
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. Their friend Lady Mary Parker Leighton painted a series of watercolors of their home Plas Newydd in the 1820s and 1830s. She drew the Ladies in their library, their favored place, both seated at a table, with bookshelves lining the walls. This engraving by Richard James Lane is based on one of Lady Leighton's drawings. Several of Lady Leighton's works are in the National Library of Wales. -
The Rt. Honble. Lady Eleanor Butler & Miss Ponsonby
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. Their friend Lady Mary Parker Leighton painted a series of watercolors of their home Plas Newydd in the 1820s and 1830s. She drew the Ladies in their library. This engraving by James Henry Lynch is based on one of Lady Leighton's drawings. -
Letter to Mrs. Sarah Tighe
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. When the women eloped, Butler’s annuity was cut off by her disapproving sister-in-law. The women now depended on income supplements from the Butlers and from Ponsonby’s cousin Sarah Tighe, as well as gifts from friends. Ponsonby and Tighe corresponded regularly. In this letter Ponsonby approves Tighe’s decision not to sell the house on Dominick Street in Dublin, where Ponsonby once lived with her sexually predatory guardian Sir William Fownes. In it she refers to Butler as “my Betterhalf.” The Lisa Unger Baskin Collection includes over 350 letters to and from the Ladies. -
[Creamer with an image of the Ladies of Llangollen]; [Ladies of Llangollen figurine]
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. In the nineteenth century there was a thriving industry producing and selling objects commemorating the Ladies of Llangollen. Their images graced Staffordshire transfer-ware pottery, popular prints, and multitudes of ephemera. -
Verses: Affixed to the Bills of Mortality for the Town of Northampton, 21 December 1787
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. The collection includes over 350 letters to and from the Ladies as well as additional manuscripts, ephemera, artifacts, and printed materials related to them and to their home (Plas Newydd). -
Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier: fille de Gaston d'Orléans, frere de Louis XIII, roi de France
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. This book from the Ladies' library was purchased by Edward Lloyd of Rhagatt “at the sale of the effects of the Ladies of Llangollen, on the third day’s sale.”
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