Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert (1834 – 1906) was the daughter of Henry Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon and his wife Henrietta. On 15 Feb 1855 she married Isaac Fellowes (Wallop) who became the 5th Earl of Portsmouth. The family had estates around Lymington in Hampshire but in 1794 had also inherited the Fellowes Estate in Eggesford, Devon. She and Isaac had twelve children including Newton, who succeeded to the title of Earl of Portsmouth on his father’s death in 1891.
Eveline signed one of the early petitions presented by members of the suffrage movement to the Houses of Parliament. To accompany her signature of the petition she sent a letter to Mrs Fawcett dated 7 May 1892, saying that she ‘gladly signs the enclosed.' In 1889, the Countess was President of the Bristol and West of England Society [for Women's Suffrage]. (Rendel 2008, p130)
For more information see also:
Margherita Rendel, ‘The campaign in Devon for Women’s Suffrage, 1866-1908’, Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 2008, vol. 140, p.111-151.
https://www.devonhistorysociety.org.uk/portsmouth-countess-of/
The 1892 petition may have been similar to this 1887 petition:
‘National Society for Women’s Suffrage’ address to Queen Victoria on her Diamond Jubilee, 1887. It bears the signature of suffragist, Millicent Fawcett. (Catalogue ref: PP 1/349/2)
Transcript
To the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty
Madam
May it please Your Majesty to accept the loyal congratulations which we dutifully offer in the name of all our Committees on the joyful event of the attainment of the Longest Reign in British History.
An event specially memorable for the Women of Your Majesty’s dominions in that throughout that long period of peaceful and prosperous development Your Majesty has caused your subjects not only to honour their Sovereign but to reverence in her the Mother of her People.
It is thus an event which calls forth in peculiar degree the congratulations of women who have sought and in considerable measure attained to a fuller recognition of their responsibilities in the service of the Community encouraged by the exalted example of Your Majesty in harmonizing the claims of the public weal with the claims of home affections.
That the Blessing of the Most High may surround Your Majesty on every side is the prayer of Your Majesty’s loyal & obedient servants.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett { on behalf of the Combined Committees of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/suffragettes-on-file/suffragist-petition/
Millicett Fawcett became leader of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), Britain's main suffragist organisation. Politically she took a moderate position, distancing herself from the militancy and direct actions of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), which she believed would harm women's chances of winning the vote by souring public opinion and alienating members of Parliament. Despite the publicity for the WSPU, the NUWSS with its slogan "Law-Abiding suffragists" retained more support. By 1905, Fawcett's NUWSS had 305 constituent societies and almost 50,000 members, compared with the WSPU's 2,000 members in 1913. Fawcett mainly fought for women's suffrage, and found home rule "a blow to the greatness and prosperity of England as well as disaster and... misery and pain and shame".
She explains her disaffiliation from the more militant movement in her book What I remember:
"I could not support a revolutionary movement, especially as it was ruled autocratically, at first, by a small group of four persons, and latterly by one person only.... In 1908, this despotism decreed that the policy of suffering violence, but using none, was to be abandoned. After that, I had no doubt whatever that what was right for me and the NUWSS was to keep strictly to our principle of supporting our movement only by argument, based on common sense and experience and not by personal violence or lawbreaking of any kind."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millicent_Fawcett
Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert Wallop, Countess of Portsmouth (1834–1906), born December 21, 1834, was the eldest daughter and second child of Henrietta Anna Howard and Henry Herbert, Third Earl of Carnarvon. In 1855, Portsmouth married Isaac Newton Wallop, Fifth Earl of Portsmouth; over the course of their marriage, she gave birth to 12 children (Burghclere 1907). As a married woman, Portsmouth used her social connections to advance a multitude of social causes, including women’s education, suffrage, and anti-vivisection (Burghclere 1907). Portsmouth served as editor of The Poetical Birthday Book; or Characters from the Poets, published in 1877 by Hatchards, offering readers entertainment through both poetry and art. Portsmouth contributed twice to the Woman’s World periodical during Oscar Wilde’s tenure as editor, lending aristocratic respectability to Wilde’s venture and the women’s movement. While her writings may be sparse, Portsmouth was an active participant in the...
Sferra E. (2021) Portsmouth, Eveline. In: Scholl L. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_325-1
Eveline, Countess of Portsmouth: A Recollection
BURGHCLERE, Winfred, her niece
John Murray, 1907. Printed for private circulation. Pp 32. Greenish-brown buckram, leather title label, gilt. With an inscription from the author on black mourning paper laid in. Back cover unevenly faded ow VG.***Lady Portsmouth was the daughter of Lord Carnarvon and brought up at the family seat of Highclere, Buckinghamshire.
Family
Husband Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth - Wikipedia
On 15 February 1855, Lord Portsmouth married Lady Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert (21 December 1834 – 1 October 1906), daughter of Henry John George Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon, by his wife, Henrietta Anna Howard, daughter of Lord Henry Thomas Howard-Molyneux-Howard (yr. brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk). They had twelve children:
- Lady Rosamond Alicia Wallop (d. 19 November 1935); married Augustus Langham Christie in 1882 and had issue.
- Lady Eveline Camilla Wallop (d. 13 September 1894); married William Brampton Gurdon MP in 1887; died without issue
- Lady Catherine Henrietta Wallop (d. 21 August 1935); married Charles Milnes Gaskell in 1876 and had issue.
- Lady Dorothea Hester Bluett Wallop (d. 29 December 1906); married Sir Richard Rycroft, 5th Bt., in 1886 and had issue.
- Lady Gwendolen Margaret Wallop (d. 14 February 1943); married Vernon James Watney in 1891; had issue, grandmother of Charles Lyell, 2nd Baron Lyell.
- Lady Henrietta Anna Wallop (d. 8 February 1932); married John Carbery Evans in 1890; died without issue.
- Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth (19 January 1856 – 4 December 1917); married Beatrice Mary Pease on 17 February 1885; died without issue
- John Fellowes Wallop, 7th Earl of Portsmouth (27 December 1859 – 7 September 1925); died unmarried.
- Oliver Henry Wallop, 8th Earl of Portsmouth (13 January 1861 – 10 February 1943); married Marguerite Walker in 1897 and had issue:
- Gerard Vernon Wallop, 9th Earl of Portsmouth
- Hon. Oliver Malcolm Wallop; father of Malcolm Wallop
- Hon. Robert Gerard Valoynes Wallop JP (6 July 1864 – 22 August 1940)
- Rev. Hon. Arthur George Edward Wallop BA (12 October 1867 – 22 December 1898)
- Hon. Frederick Henry Arthur Wallop BA (16 February 1870 – 9 August 1953)
