Florence Trevelyan

Florence Trevelyan (1852–1907) of Taormina, Sicily, was an English gardener, builder of follies and pioneering wildlife conservationist. Origins She was born on 7 February 1852 in Newcastle upon Tyne and was baptised (as "Florence Trevelyan Trevelyan", her second name intended for retention after marriage) at St. Andrew's Church, Hartburn, Northumberland. She was the only surviving child of Edward Spencer Trevelyan (1805 – 23 August 1854) (4th son of Sir John Trevelyan, 5th Baronet (1761–1846) "of Nettlecombe in the County of Somerset" of Nettlecombe and of Wallington Hall in Northumberland) of Hallington Hall, Northumberland (about 6 miles south-west of Wallington), by his wife Catherine Ann Forster (d.1877). Her father's childless eldest brother Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, 6th Baronet (1797–1879) bequeathed Wallington to his junior first cousin Charles Edward Trevelyan, whilst Nettlecombe and the baronetcy descended to his nephew Sir Alfred Wilson Trevelyan, 7th Baronet (1831–1891). Florence, although senior to her first cousin the 7th Baronet, as a female was passed over in the succession to these family estates. Career Her father committed suicide in 1854 when Florence was aged two. Florence and her mother remained at Hallington Hall, where they appear to have taken a keen interest in establishing the pleasure gardens. After her mother's death in November 1877, and having inherited Hallington Hall, Florence and her first cousin, Harriet Perceval (a granddaughter of the Prime Minister Spencer Perceval) toured Europe for about two years, and Florence eventually settled at Taormina in Sicily in 1884, which she made her permanent home.