Mary Robinson (Maid of Buttermere)

Mary Robinson, known as The Maid of Buttermere or Beauty of Buttermere (* 1778 in Buttermere, Cumbria, † 1837), was the daughter of the innkeeper of the inn Fish Inn in Buttermere. She became famous when she married in 1802 John Hatfield. Hatfield pretended to be the brother of the Earl of Hopetoun, and called himself Colonel Hope. This marriage of a commoner with a nobleman caused a great stir. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote about them even in the London Morning Post. Hatfield but was debunked shortly after the marriage as a fraud and a bigamist and placed in Carlisle and sentenced to death. This process attracted again the attention of the public, collected donations for Mary Robinson. Robinson married in 1807 finally the farmer Richard Harrison, with whom she had four children. Mary Robinson's death was reported by the Annual Register; she was buried in the cemetery of St Kentigern 's Church, Caldbeck.

Mary Robinson in the literature

By the description in the guide A Fortnight 's Ramble to the Lakes by Joseph Budworth from 1792 it is known as the Beauty of Buttermere. The poet William Wordsworth wrote about the history of Mary Robinson in his poem The Prelude, where he called the Maid of Buttermere. The author Melvyn Bragg has written a book about Mary Robinson as The Maid of Buttermere.

Swell

• Melvyn Bragg, The Maid of Buttermere, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1987, ISBN 978-0-340-40173-6