File:Sophie Dawes, Queen of Chantilly (1912) (14779256842).jpg

Identifier: sophiedawesqueen00mont (find matches)
Title: Sophie Dawes, Queen of Chantilly
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Montagu, Violette M
Subjects: Feucháeres, Sophie Dawes, baronne de, 1790?-1840 France -- Court and courtiers
Publisher: London, New York, John Lane
Contributing Library: Northeastern University, Snell Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Northeastern University, Snell Library

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ordinarily strongwill to which, in after life, everything and every-body had to bow. Born in a fishermans hut, brought up in aworkhouse, educated by a royal duke andmarried to a baron was already a sufficientlyextraordinary fate ; but Sophie Dawes (or Daw ^)was evidently Fortunes favourite, for she livedto inhabit a royal palace and died envied, if notesteemed, by her neighbours and less fortunatecompatriots. Sophie was born at St. Helens, in the Isle ofWight; but the exact year of her birth is uncertain—some say she was born 1790; other historians puther birth five years later, in 1795. A friend of thefamily, a certain William Stallar, declared thatshe was born in 1785—she herself said 1792, whichseems to be the correct date and is generallyaccepted. 1 The name was originally Daw, but afterwards the familyseemed to have adopt the lengthier name of Dawes. The nameseems to have given Sophies biographers considerable trouble.I find her frequently called Miss Sophie Dawes or Daves. 4
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., N Her Childhood Sophie was the daughter of Richard Daw, acelebrated Isle of Wight fisherman and smuggler,and many stories are still told of the encountersof Dickey Daw and the Preventive men; closeto Bembridge are the Dickey Daw Banks, andbetween them is a narrow passage still called Dickey Daws Gut. Her mothers name was Jane Callaway; ^ asthis worthy woman was described as a spinsterwhen she died in Hammersmith somewhere aboutthe year 1834, we may conjecture that RichardDaw possessed the same contempt for whatpeople said or thought of his behaviour which hisdaughter displayed as Mme. de Feucheres andcaused the virtuous bourgeoises of Chantilly tosay that she had brought immorality to that town. Sophie was one of ten children, only four ofwhom lived to grow up. As a child she wasemployed in picking winkles on the beach atSt. Helens; but about this time Richard Dawshabits of intemperance forced his family to seekshelter in the Newport House of Industry, whichwas the name attached to

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