Honoria Lawrence

Honoria Marshall Lawrence, Lady Lawrence (25 December 1808 – ) was an Irish-born writer whose works, according to scholar Mary Ellis Gibson, "provide an intimate look at the domestic life of an Anglo-Indian woman during the first half of the nineteenth century". She was the first European woman known to live in several parts of the Indian subcontinent, including Kashmir and Nepal. Life Honoria Marshal was born on 25 December 1808 in Carndonagh, County Donegal, Ireland, the twelfth of fifteen children of Rev. George Marshall and Elizabeth Marshall. She was raised nearby by her uncle, the husband of George Marshall's sister, Rear Admiral William Heath (1748–1815). She first met her future husband Henry Montgomery Lawrence in 1827. He was her second cousin and at the time only a junior officer serving in India. The next spring they spent a whirlwind two weeks seeing the sights of London, a first visit for both of them. He was deterred from proposing marriage at the time due to his low income. They kept up a correspondence for nearly a decade until Henry Lawrence, now a captain, proposed by letter. In April 1837, she set sail for Calcutta.