Who was Beatrix Potter?
Writer of Children's Books and Farmer.
Date and Place of Birth:
28th July 1866, 2 Bolton Gardens, South Kensington,
London, England.
Family Background:
Born into a wealthy family and christened Helen
Beatrix. Her father Rupert William Potter was a trained Barrister
but rarely practised.
Education:
Given tuition by a series of Governesses.
Chronology/Biography of Beatrix Potter:
1871: Beatrix has
her first summer holiday at Dalguise House, Dunkeld, in Scotland,
which she will revisit many times.
1872: Birth of her
brother Walter Bertram.
1882: First visit
to the English Lake District. The family stay at Wray Castle.
1885: Beatrix is
given a pet rabbit which she names Benjamin Bouncer.
1887: Paints her
first known watercolour of a fungus.
1890: Beatrix Potter
rejects her final suitor brought suggested by her mother. Sells
some of her illustrations which are turned into greetings cards.
1891: Death of her
Grandmother Jessy. Illustrations rejected by Frederick Warne and
Company.
1893: Writes the
Peter Rabbit story as an illustrated letter to Noel Moore the five-year-old
son of one of her governesses.
1894: Beatrix visits
Caroline Hutton, her cousin, in Gloucestershire
1895: Foundation
of the National Trust by Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, a friend of the
Potter family.
1896: Beatrix goes
visits the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew with her uncle
Sir Henry Roscoe to show him her fungus drawings. The family spend
a summer holiday at Near Sawrey.
1901: Potter made
detailed up to this time numbering over 270. Encouraged by former
governess Annie Moore to publish the story of Peter Rabbit she had
given her son. She borrowed the letter back and made it into the
book entitled The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor's Garden
which she published herself as she could find no publisher. The
publishers commented on the lack of colour illustration.
1903: Warne's took
out a patent on Peter Rabbit and created a soft toy to the design
making him the earliest character from fiction to be mass produced.
1905: Becomes secretly
engaged to her publisher Norman Warne. Her family dissapproved of
her marrying someone from a lower social class. He tragically dies
on the 25th August of leukaemia before the wedding. Purchased Hill
Top Farm in the village of Sawrey which was run by her farm manager
John Cannon. Peter Rabbit wallpaper goes on sale for the first time.
1909: Buys Castle
Farm in Near Sawrey.
1912: William Heelis
proposes marriage to Beatrix.
1913: Moves to Castle
Cottage permanently after her marriage to Heelis. She keeps Hill
top Farm as a place to work.
1917: Harold Warne
arrested for embezzlement in London. Beatrix's work helps save the
company.
1918: Death of her
artist brother Bertram from an unknown disease.
1920: Death of Hardwicke
Rawnsley.
1923: Buys Troutbeck
Park Farm.
1930: Buys the Monk
Coniston Estate. Becomes the First Woman President of the Herdwick
Sheep Breeders Association.
1936: Beatrix refuses
an offer from Walt Disney to produce a film of Peter Rabbit.
Written Works:
- 1897: Paper "On
the Germination of Spores of Agaricineae" presented to the
Linnean Society by her uncle Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, as women
were barred.
- 1901:
“Peter Rabbit first published by Potter
herself.”
- 1902: "Peter
Rabbit" first published by a commercial publisher; Frederick
Warne and Company.
- 1903: "Squirrel
Nutkin". "The Tailor of Gloucester".
- 1904: "Benjamin
Bunny". "Two Bad Mice".
- 1905: "Mrs
Tiggy-Winkle".
- 1906: "Jeremy
Fisher". "Miss Moppet".
- 1907: "Tom
Kitten"
- 1908: "Jemima
Puddleduck". "Samuel Whiskers".
- 1910: "Mrs
Tittlemouse".
- 1911: "Timmy
Tiptoes."
- 1913: "Piggling
Bland."
- 1917: "Appley
Dapply's Nursery Rhymes".
- 1918: "Johnny
Townmouse".
- 1922: "Cecily
Parsley's Nursery Rhymes."
- 1929: "The
Fairy Caravan."
- 1932: "Sister
Anne".
Marriage:
1913: To William
Heelis, a Lake District Solicitor on 14th October in London.
Places of Interest:
CUMBRIA:
Far Sawrey farmhouse (given to the National Trust).
Armitt Library, Ambleside, holds her watercolours
of lichens.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE:
A museum to her book the Tailor of Gloucester
is run by volunteers in the town.
Date and Place of Death:
22nd December 1943, Castle Cottage, Sawrey, Cumbria,
England.
Age at Death:
77.
Site of Grave:
Cremated at Carleton Crematorium, Blackpool.
Her ashes were scattered in the countryside surrounding Sawrey.
She left almost all her property to the National Trust.
Additional Information:
www.tailorofgloucester.org.uk/
www.beatrixpottersociety.org.uk/
www.peterrabbit.com/home.asp
