Hamwood Manuscripts

Papers, 1774-1947, of Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, popularly known as the 'Ladies of Llangollen', comprising diaries and correspondence, together with related papers.

Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, better-known as the 'Ladies of Llangollen', were both members of Irish aristocratic families. Having quickly established a relationship following their meeting in 1768, the women escaped the scandalised animosity of their home circle by setting up home at Plasnewydd, a Gothic-style house situated near Llangollen, Denbighshire. For the next fifty years, they lived a secluded and often penurious existence, while nevertheless receiving such notable visitors as the landowner, traveller and writer Anne Lister and the poets Robert Southey, William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley. Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby are both buried in the grounds of St Collen's Church, Llangollen, while Plasnewydd is now a museum dedicated to their lives.

Arranged according to NLW MSS reference numbers: NLW MSS 22967-22996.

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Hamilton family (per A. R. Heath, Bristol); Hamwood, Dunboyne, co. Meath; Purchase; 1990.

Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, better-known as the 'Ladies of Llangollen', were both members of Irish aristocratic families. Having quickly established a relationship following their meeting in 1768, the women escaped the scandalised animosity of their home circle by setting up home at Plasnewydd, a Gothic-style house situated near Llangollen, Denbighshire. For the next fifty years, they lived a secluded and often penurious existence, while nevertheless receiving such notable visitors as the landowner, traveller and writer Anne Lister and the poets Robert Southey, William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley. Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby are both buried in the grounds of St Collen's Church, Llangollen, while Plasnewydd is now a museum dedicated to their lives.

The following source was used in the compilation of this description: Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, Vol. 9 (Aberystwyth, 2003)

Title based on name of residence of former owners.

Published in microform (see Ladies of Llangollen ... A Listing and Guide to the Microfilm Collection (Adam Matthew Publications, 1997)): copies are available at NLW (see NLW Films 999-1003).

September 2017

Description compiled by Bethan Ifan.

Usual copyright laws apply.

For press cuttings and pamphlets acquired with the papers see NLW ex 1364.

Eva Mary Bell, The Hamwood Papers (London, 1930)

Published