Throughout history, lesbian and bisexual women have been marginalised, silenced, and had their stories erased. When you think of Welsh history, you probably do not think of lesbians. However, nineteenth-century Wales hosted an array of women-loving-women who persisted in living authentic to their sexual orientation, despite it significantly conflicting with society’s expectations. Join me in exploring letters, diaries, and novels that honour the lives of the Ladies of Llangollen, Amy Dillwyn, Sarah Jane Rees and Mary Lloyd.
Ladies of Llangollen
One of the most recognised lesbian relationships in Welsh History is that between the Ladies of Llangollen. Eleanor Butler (1739–1828) and Sarah Ponsonby’s (1755–1831) story begins in Ireland, when they met in 1768. Eleanor was appointed to be Sarah’s tutor but the pair developed such a close bond with each other that it caused malicious gossip in Kilkenny. Whispers about the nature of their relationship created a crisis for both ladies in 1778.
Butler’s aristocratic, Irish Catholic family planned to enrol her in a convent if she was still single at the age of forty. Ponsonby’s Anglican and Anglo-Irish guardians attempted to marry her off, too. The pair rebelled, risking their lives by trying to flee together across the Irish Sea, while costumed as men and carrying weapons. They were discovered and split up during the first time they attempted an escape. They soon tried again. They were found once more. The third time lucky, they crossed into Northern Wales.
The Ladies of Llangollen set up home together at the Plas Newydd in Llangollen and began renovations. They installed bespoke stained glass in place of the windows and filled the house with elaborate wood carvings. They maintained a vast rose garden and started a farm so they could support themselves, complete with a dairy, orchard, vegetable gardens, brewery, and barn animals.
Their story captured the interest of many, both during their lifetime and after their deaths. They welcomed many high-profile visitors, including The Duke of Wellington, Wordsworth, Shelley, Sir Walter Scott and Anne Lister. On her visit, Anne Lister wrote: ‘I cannot help thinking that surely it was not platonic. Heaven forgive me, but I look within myself & doubt. I feel the infirmity of our nature & hesitate to pronounce such attachments uncemented by something more tender still than friendship.’
Amy Dillwyn
Welsh author Elizabeth Amy Dillwyn (1845 – 1935) wrote six novels in her lifetime. Three have been republished by Honno Classics: The Rebecca Rioter (2001), A Burglary (2009), and Jill (2013). Dillwyn also kept a diary, which can be found in the Richard Burton Archives at Swansea University.
Dillwyn subverted feminine expectations. She demonstrated, through her work, dress and personality, that women could be resourceful, daring, and intelligent. As the final beneficiary of her father’s will, Dillwyn inherited a spelter work. She hired a manager to manage the work on a daily basis, but she spent every day in her offices managing the funds and dealing with communications in French and German. She sold it in October 1905 for a tidy sum to a German metallurgical business.
In addition to her business drive, Dillwyn’s clothes and presentation meant she was the talk of the town. She was most comfortable suited in her Trilby hat, thick boots, practical skirt, and “men’s cigar.”
Dillwyn fell in love with Olive Talbot (1842-1894) when she was 15 and Olive was 17. Amy and Olive were close ‘friends’ who shared lodgings, gave and received gifts, and travelled together. In Dillwyn’s diaries, she discusses that her “romantic… passionate… foolish love” for Olive was met only with “ordinary” affection. Nevertheless, Dillwyn refers to Olive as her ‘wife’ in an 1872 diary entry.
There is no doubt that Amy Dillwyn was in love with Olive Talbot, but was it reciprocated? Ah, lesbian drama is as old as our history.
Sarah Jane Rees (Cranogwen)
Sarah Jane Rees (1839 – 1916) was an activist, evangelist, and editor of the first Welsh journal for and by Welsh women. She was also a successful poet: Rees was the first woman to receive a significant poetry prize at the National Eisteddfod, beating Islwyn and Ceiriog, who were the top male Welsh poets of the day.
The winning poem by Rees, who wrote under the pen name Cranogwen, was titled “Y Fodrwy Briodasal” (The Wedding Ring). In the poem, the wedding ring symbolises the repression of married heterosexual women. Rees employs the perspectives of four brides, one of whom is a victim of domestic abuse, to criticise the obligation.
Rees never married. Instead, she had two relationships with women that would have been considered “romantic friendships” at the time. One of these relationships was with Jane Thomas, with whom she cohabited for many years – a fact that was widely known at the time. The other relationship was with Fanny Rees of Troedyraur, who contracted tuberculosis and passed away in her arms at Sarah Jane Rees’ home in Llangranog.
Rees (or Cranogwen)’s intimate, vulnerable poetry style offers a glimpse into her love for, and heartbreak over, fellow women. In the poem “Fy Ffrynd” (“My Friend”), Cranogwen expresses her agony over the tragic end of her first same-sex relationship with Fanny. A collection of Rees’ writing, titled Caniadau Cranogwen, was released in 1870, following the success of her previous work.
Mary Lloyd
Mary Charlotte Lloyd (1819-1896) was a sculptor born in Corwen, Denbighshire, on January 23, 1819. When Mary went to Rome to study under French artist Rosa Bonheur, she encountered feminist groups for the first time. She got to know Irish anti-vivisection activist Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904) and, in 1860, the women established a relationship that lasted the rest of Mary’s lifetime.
Frances referred to Mary as her “friend,” “life-friend,” “wife,” and “spouse” in her letters. Frances refers to their relationship as “a friendship as nearly perfect as any earthly love may be.” Cobbe lived very openly in the public eye as an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, and leading women’s suffrage campaigner. Sally Mitchell captures much of Frances Cobbe’s life relationships and works in the biography: Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer (2004).
While there is plenty of information on Frances Cobbe, there is less so on Mary Charlotte Lloyd, as she preferred her privacy. “The reticence which belonged to the greatness of her nature made her always refuse to allow me to lead her into the more public life where to my work necessarily brought me, and in her last sacred directions she forbids me to commemorate her by any written record,” Frances Cobbe wrote. Frances passed away in 1904, while residing in Hengwrt. She is buried alongside Mary, in the Saint Illtud Church Cemetery in Llanelltyd, which is a touching expression of the seriousness of their relationship.
By exploring Sapphic Wales in the Nineteenth Century, we have discovered the diversity, complexity and individuality of the same-sex relationships among the Ladies of Llangollen, Amy Dillwyn, Sarah Jane Rees and Mary Lloyd.
We have amplified the unheard voices of marginalised women and advanced our understanding of Welsh LGBT history. I sincerely hope the names and deeds of these courageous Welsh women are no longer forgotten and we continue to share their stories.
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