Mary Elizabeth Braddon

The Doctor's Wife . / NOVEL / Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Born in London, Mary Elizabeth Braddon was privately educated. Her mother Fanny separated from her father Henry in 1840, when Mary was five. When Mary was ten years old, her brother Edward Braddon left for India and later Australia, where he became Premier of Tasmania. Mary worked as an actress for three years when she was befriended by Clara and Adelaide Biddle. They were only playing minor roles but Braddon was able to support herself and her mother. Adelaide noted that Braddon's interest in acting waned as she took an interest in writing novels. In 1860, Mary met John Maxwell (1824-1895), a publisher of periodicals. She started living with him in 1861. However, Maxwell was already married with five children, and his wife was living in an asylum in Ireland. Mary acted as stepmother to his children until 1874, when Maxwell's wife died and they were able to get married. She had six children by him. The eldest daughter was Fanny Margaret Maxwell (1863-1955). Fanny married to the naturalist Edmund Selous on 13 January 1886. In the 1920s they lived in Wyke Castle. In 1923 Fanny founded the local branch of the Woman's Institute. She became the first president. The second eldest son was the novelist William Babington Maxwell (1866-1939). Mary Elizabeth Brandon died on 4 February 1915 in Richmond (at the time a borough in Surrey, but now part of Greater London), and is interred in Richmond Cemetery. Her home had been Lichfield House in the centre of the town, which was replaced by a block of flats in 1936, Lichfield Court, now listed. She has a plaque in Richmond parish church which calls her simply 'Miss Braddon'. A number of streets in the area are named after characters in her novels - her husband was a property developer in the area.