Elizabeth Parish

Parish was born as Elizabeth Planta in 1740 or 1741,[1] to Andreas Planta, a Swiss Reformed pastor who was at the time working in the Swiss town of Castasegna,[2][3] one of only a few parishes with an Italian-speaking Protestant population.[4] Her mother was Margarete Scartazzini de Bolgiani from Bondo.[5][3] She had several sisters including Frederica Planta, who became governess and English teacher of the daughters of George III and Queen Charlotte,[6] and one brother, Joseph Planta, later principal librarian of the British Museum.[7][8][9] After spending time in Erlangen and Ansbach from 1745,[10] her father moved to London with his family in 1752 to become pastor of the German Reformed congregation at the Savoy Chapel in London where he took up the position of assistant librarian at the British Museum in 1758.[3][11] The family continued to speak Romansh at home during their time in London.[12][13]

Mary Eleanor Bowes

From 1757, Planta worked for the Bowes-Lyon family as governess to eight-year-old Mary Eleanor Bowes;[14] in the same year her father was engaged as the child's French teacher.[15] In addition to serving as Mary Eleanor's teacher, Planta was also her chaperone and accompanied her to cultural outings.[14] After the death of her father, George Bowes in 1760, Mary Eleanor became heiress of a vast fortune.[16] In the absence of her mother Mary (née Gilbert) Bowes, who left London and returned to her home in St Paul's Walden Bury, Mary Eleanor was brought up by her aunt Jane Bowes, together with Planta and several teachers.[17] During this time, the influence of the Planta family (both Elizabeth and her father Andrew) may have started Mary Eleanor's lifelong interest in botany.[18][19]

Planta worked as governess until 1767, when Mary Eleanor married John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, who took her last name.[20] Planta, who had advised against the marriage,[21][22] was kept in the family's employ as lady's companion to Mary Eleanor's mother Mary Bowes, often accompanying her to the opera.[15] Planta and the younger Mary kept in contact, writing letters in French and Italian. When she was offered the post as the English teacher to the daughters of George III and Queen Charlotte in 1771, she declined the offer, expecting better rewards from staying with the Bowes family. Her sister Frederica was then appointed at court, receiving a salary of £100 that Planta described as "mediocre".[23][24] In 1774, she returned to Bowes's employ as governess of her children.[15]

St Paul's Walden Bury

After the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne's 1776 death, Planta and the children lived in St Paul's Walden Bury, while Bowes stayed in London to be with her lover George Gray.[25] Afraid that Planta, who had become suspicious of her affair with Gray and possibly her pregnancy and abortion of a child conceived with her lover before her husband had died, could mention this to her mother or the Strathmore family, Bowes dismissed her from service with a generous payoff of £2000 in July 1776.[26][22] As reason for the dismissal she cited bad behaviour and deceit as well as poor treatment of her children by Planta, but there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of the governess.[27] In his biography The Unhappy Countess, author Ralph Arnold stated the relationship between Planta and her mistress was "puzzling".[22] In her Confessions, Bowes later described the situation, referring to Planta by her married name, Parish: "Mrs Parish had displeased me so much, and, apt as I am to be disposed on, had shewn such proofs of a dirty interestedness, that I determined to part with her; but, as she had lived with, and partly educated me so many years, was resolved it should be on good terms; therefore, I resolved to raise 2000 pounds by any means, the first money I expended."[28] As the new governess for the children, Planta's 19-year-old sister Eliza Planta was hired.[29] In the second half of 1776, Andrew Robinson Stoney started his schemes to become Bowes's husband.[30][31] Eliza Planta was increasingly involved in these schemes.[32] In November, reverend Henry Stephens was hired as tutor to Bowes's younger children, and ten days after eloped with Eliza, who was pregnant at the time. This elopement was encouraged by Bowes, in part as retribution against Elizabeth Planta.[33]

In 1785, when Bowes was trying to flee the control of her abusive husband, her first husband's family including her brother-in-law Thomas Lyon was not supportive.[34] Lyon placed Bowes's daughter Anna Maria in Parish's care, nine years after her previous dismissal, with the intention to keep her independent spirit under control.[35] Anna lived with Parish in Fludyer Street (then a narrow street parallel to Downing Street), Westminster.[36] Parish, who was described as pious and sanctimonious,[37] kept a close watch on sixteen-year-old Anna's activities and reading matter, for example once confiscating a book "not fit for the reading of a young Person".[38] However, she failed to notice her charge's exchange of love letters with Henry Jessop, a young lawyer living opposite of her who was in debt.[39] According to a letter by Anthony Morris Storer to William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, Anna had "never seen this man but at his window".[40][41] In January 1788, Anna crawled over a plank from her window to Jessop's, crossing the narrow street, and the two eloped and married on 28 January.[39] The Newcastle Journal, when describing the events leading up to the marriage, wrote that "not the least suspicion was ever entertained by Mrs. P".[39]

On 30 March 1777, Planta married John Parish, who was Superintendent of Ordnance at the Tower of London.[15] Their marriage was childless.[42] John Parish became a member of the Society of Antiquaries on 28 May 1778.[43] His nephew Woodbine Parish visited him in 1780 and struck up a friendship with Joseph Planta, and their sons, the diplomat Woodbine Parish and Foreign Office civil servant and politician Joseph Planta also were close friends later.[44] John became Ordnance Storekeeper in Gibraltar in 1791, and the couple moved there.[15] After her husband's 1798 death, Parish returned to England and died in Petersham[15] on 24 April 1823, aged 82.[45]

Some evidence of Parish's interest in music can be found in archived manuscripts: Two volumes of music and annotations in Parish's hand are held at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia as part of the "Fondo Mario", the music collection of Giovanni Matteo Mario that was donated in 1926. The first volume, clearly marked with both Parish's birth and married name, contains 34 items of vocal music including 18 compositions by Maurice Greene.[1] Other works include four duets by Agostino Steffani, a canzonetta by Mattia Vento, the six canzonette op. 6 of Johann Christian Bach and three arias from Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's L'Olimpiade as well as some works where the composer is unknown.[46] The majority of the compositions are in Italian and scored as chamber music.[1] According to musicologist Michael Talbot, it is likely that Parish's access to and inside knowledge about Greene's music came from Mary (née Gilbert) Bowes, who had performed the title role in one of his operas before her marriage and who had later received visits and musical manuscripts from Greene.[47] The second volume, titled Italian Songs, contains opera music, extracted from operas that were performed in London between 1765 and 1777.[15]