Lady Morgan and her circle.

Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) was born in Dublin on Christmas Day in the year - some say 1783, others 1785, or 1787, and she herself refused to say. "What has a woman to do with dates?" she wrote in her Autobiography. "I mean to have none of them"(l). Her father, Robert MacOwen, "Anglice Owenson", an actor and director, well-known in Dublin theatrical circles of his time, was one of the MacOwens of Connaught. Her mother was Miss Jane Hill, "pious and prudent", daughter of a respectable burgess of the ancient city of Shrewsbury(2). Sydney seems to have been a precocious child, blessed with many talents. In 1788, under the name of the "Infant Prodigy" she appeared with her actor father in Castlebar, Sligo, and Athlone theatres and, according to all accounts, she played her small part very well. The death of her mother while they were still quite young left the two little girls, Sydney and Olivia, to their father's care, and, gay, careless and improvident, though he was, Robert Owenson proved an excellent father. He placed his two daughters in a good school and went without some of the necessities of life in order that they might have the best music teachers obtainable. Sydney made excellent use of her opportunities. She practised diligently at her music, piano, vocal, and harp; she studied to make herself perfect in French and read widely in every subject, even the science of the day. [...