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Maria Fetherstonhaugh

English novelist

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ58304936
Source-derived summary

Hon. Maria Georgiana Fetherstonhaugh (née Carleton) (1847–3 August 1918) was an English novelist, known also as Minna Carleton. A modern critic concludes that her novels, "when not marred by over-wrought sentiment... have vitality.... Her women characters are often more resolute, noble and practical than the men."

Personal life

Maria was born at Greywell, Hampshire, the younger daughter of Guy Carleton, 3rd Baron Dorchester (1811–1875), and his wife Anna (née Wauchope). She made an early marriage on 4 July 1863 to Timothy Fetherstonhaugh (1840–1908) of Kirkoswald, Cumberland, a former captain of the 13th Hussars, son of Timothy Fetherstonhaugh (1811–1856) and Eliza Were, née Clarke (1816–1895). Their daughter Mabel was born in 1871.

Some years after, she and her sister Henrietta Anne Pigott, later Baroness Dorchester, are known to have been working as readers for the London publishing firm of Bentley, which also issued Maria's novels.

Baden-Powell

Little is known of her private life, but the Fetherstonhaughs were admirers of Robert Baden-Powell (1857–41), founder of the Boy Scout movement, whom they had met on holiday in Malta. According to a newspaper article about Powell's Scouting for Boys, "In 1905 [Maria] had bought the Mill House, behind Wimbledon Windmill...

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Maria Fetherstonhaugh” is english novelist. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Maria, Fetherstonhaugh and English, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1847, 1918, 1811, 1875—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1847-01-01, 1848-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Maria, Fetherstonhaugh and English is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “english novelist” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q58304936. VIAF identifies the subject as 9781051. The Library of Congress control number is nr2002020946. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1847, 1918, 1811 and 1875.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Maria Fetherstonhaugh primary sources, Maria Fetherstonhaugh archive and Maria research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Maria Fetherstonhaugh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.