Lady Wilde

Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde, Lady Wilde (née Elgee. 27 December 1821 – 3 February 1896) was an Irish poet who wrote under the pen name Speranza and supporter of the nationalist movement. Lady Wilde had a special interest in Irish folktales, which she helped to gather and was the mother of Oscar Wilde and Willie Wilde.

Early life

Jane Francesca Agnes Elgee was the last of the four children of Charles Elgee (1783–1824), the son of Archdeacon John Elgee, a Wexford solicitor, and his wife Sarah (née Kingsbury, d. 1851). Her mother came from a prosperous Protestant family in Dublin and was considered a great beauty. Jane was the youngest of four children of the couple, her older siblings being Emily, John, and Frances (who died as an infant)

She claimed that her great-grandfather was an Italian surnamed Algiati which was said to be a derived from Alighieri thus implying a relationship with the famous poet. This ancestor was said to have come to Wexford in the 18th century; in fact, the Elgees descended from Durham labourers who had gained prosperity as builders and bricklayers and then in succeeding generations, became part of the gentry.

Her maternal aunt Emily was married to the author Charles Maturin, though his death two years before her own birth precluded her ever meeting him, but whose bust Jane would display in her home as an adult. Another aunt, Elizabeth, was married to the politician Sir Charles Montagu Ormsby while her paternal aunt and namesake Jane Elgee was the mother of the arctic explorer Robert McClure who discovered the Northwestern passage.