Charlotte Anne Eaton

Charlotte Anne Eaton (1788–1859), née Waldie, was an English banker, travel writer, memoirist and novelist.

Life[]

Born on 28 September 1788, she was second daughter of George Waldie of Hendersyde Park, Roxburghshire, by his wife Ann, eldest daughter of Jonathan Ormston of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; her youngest sister, Jane Watts (1793–1826), was known as a writer and artist.^[1]

On 22 August 1822, she married Stephen Eaton (1780–1834) of Ketton Hall, Rutland. Her husband was a partner in the Eaton, Cayley & Co. Bank in Stamford (later The Stamford, Spalding and Boston Banking Co.). She carried on the business as senior partner after the death of her husband until her own death.^[2] The Stamford, Spalding and Boston bank was amalgamated into Barclays in 1911.

Eaton died at 17, Hanover Square, Westminster, on 28 April 1859.^[1]

Works[]

In June 1815 Waldie was on a family visit to Brussels, coinciding with the Waterloo campaign. She and her sister, Jane Waldie, wrote an account of her experiences, published in 1817 under the title of Narrative of a Residence in Belgium, during the Campaign of 1815, and of a Visit to the Field of Waterloo.^[3] A second edition was published in 1853 as The Days of Battle, or Quatre Bras and Waterloo; by an Englishwoman resident in Brussels in June 1815. The edition of 1888 was entitled Waterloo Days. The book was heavily quoted by Augustus Hare.^[1]

In 1820 she published anonymously, in three volumes, Rome in the Nineteenth Century: containing a complete account of the ruins of the ancient city, the remains of the Middle Ages and the monuments of modern times : with remarks on the fine arts, on the state of society, and on the religious ceremonies, manners and customs of the modern Romans : in a series of letters written during a residence at Rome in the years 1817 and 1818;^[4] second and third editions appeared respectively in 1822 and 1823. A fifth edition, in two volumes, was published in 1852, and a sixth in 1860.

As Mrs Eaton, she wrote:^[1]

• Continental Adventures, a story, London, 1826, 3 vols.
• At Home and Abroad, a novel, London, 1831, 3 vols.

Family[]

In 1822, Charlotte Waldie married Stephen Eaton, a banker of Ketton Hall, Rutland; he died on 25 September 1834.^[1] They had two sons and two daughters. Charles Ormston Eaton (1827–1907) was a son.

Notes[]

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Waldie, Charlotte Ann". Dictionary of National Biography. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Taylor, Clare L. "Eaton [née Waldie], Charlotte Anne". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28447. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)