Catherine Maria Bury
Catherine Maria Bury | |
|---|---|
| Born | Catherine Maria Dawson 22 December 1762 |
| Died | 24 February 1851 (aged 88) |
| Spouses | James Tisdall
(m. 1787; died 1797) |
| Children | 3 |
Catherine Maria Bury, countess of Charleville (née Dawson; 22 December 1762 – 24 February 1851) was an Irish socialite. She is credited with quietly playing a role in the architecture of Charleville Castle. A letter writer, she is also known for her association with literary circles.
Biography
Catherine Maria Dawson was the only daughter of Thomas Townley Dawson of Armagh and Joanna Saunders of County Wicklow. She was raised in Dublin by her grandmother and studied at the College Royal, Toulouse.[1][2][3]
In 1787, she married her first husband James Tisdall of Bawn, County Louth, with whom she had a son and a daughter. Tisdall died of epilepsy ten years later. In 1798, she married her second husband Charles Bury, Baron Tullamore, with whom she had one son. Charles became Viscount Charleville in 1800 and the 1st Earl of Charleville in 1806.[1]
Catherine was a social woman active in gothic literary circles,[4] befriending writers including Joanna Baillie, Byron and Caroline Lamb. She wrote one poem "Thelema and Macarius", which was published in the collection The Casket, a Miscellany, Consisting of Unpublished Poems (1829).[5] She was reportedly "an invalid for many years".[6]
Architecture
The first sign of Catherine's interest in architecture is a drawing titled Elevation of proposed Royal infirmary, Dublin signed Catherine M. Dawson and dated 1796.[1][3] Correspondence with her friend Lady Louisa Conolly suggests Catherine downplayed or omitted her own involvement in the design of Charleville Castle near Tullamore, even crediting her husband with having "planned it all himself". However, the diary of Robert Day reported that it was Lady Charleville who was working with Francis Johnston on the design in 1812, while several surviving papers of the castle's architectural sketches are signed by and attributed to Catherine.[4]
Legacy
Her papers are housed in the University of Nottingham.[7][8]
References
- ^ a b c "Dawson, Catherine Maria (Countess of Charleville)". Dictionary of Irish Architects. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ "Illustrative memoir of the Right Honourable Catherine Maria, countess of Charleville". La Belle Assemblée. 1 December 1825. Retrieved 4 October 2021.(subscription required)
- ^ a b "Dawson, Catherine M." Friends of the National Collections of Ireland. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
- ^ a b Hill, Judith (18 September 2021). "Catherine Maria Bury and the design of Charleville Castle". Offaly History. Archived from the original on 24 April 2025. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ "Author: Bury, Catherine Maria". Jackson Bibliography of Romantic Poetry. University of Toronto. Archived from the original on 9 September 2025. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
- ^ "Catherine Maria Bury, countess of Charleville [née Dawson]". Lord Byron and his Times. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
- ^ "Bury, Catherine Maria,1st countess of Charleville". Offaly Archives. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- ^ "Papers of Catherine Maria Bury, 1st Countess of Charleville (1762-1851), née Dawson [married firstly James Tisdall], and her husband Charles William Bury, 1st Earl of Charleville (d. 1835); 1778 - 19th Century". University of Nottingham. Retrieved 9 January 2018.