Maria Barlow: she's in Italy

As a matter of fact, Anne Lister and the Barlows had thought about returning to Italy together, especially having Anne often expressed her wish to explore the rest of the country. However, Anne herself ended up pursuing other schemes, let alone the different concept she had of a proper travel companion:

Maria Barlow clearly didn’t match Anne Lister’s ambitions, given that in the Summer of 1829 Anne preferred traveling with the soon-to-be Lady Vere Cameron in Belgium, and later in the Rhine Valley and the Netherlands with Lady Caroline Duff Gordon.

Florence

Maria Barlow sold all the furniture of the apartment at Champs Elysées nr.6 for 1.500 Francs and on the 6th of October 1829 she and her daughter Jane left Paris, without leaving any forwarding address, nor any messages for Anne.

A few months later – on February 11, 1830 – Anne Lister wrote in her journal a conversation she had with Dr. Tupper – who had been the GP of both her aunt Anne Lister and Maria Barlow – mentioning the lack of news about Maria: “I had not heard from Mrs. Barlow – it seems she wrote to Mr. Delisle [her banker] from Nice” – Thursday February 11, 1830 (SH:7/ML/E/12/0162).

The first Italian town where Maria and Jane arrived was Nice. We must remember that we’re still talking about pre-unitarian Italy, and Nice was still a part of the Sardinian Kingdom which, beyond the Sardinia island itself, included most of the North-Western area of the peninsula (including the regions of Liguria, Piemonte, and Valle d’Aosta, as well as the territories of Lomellina and Oltrepò Pavese and other territories near Piacenza), as well as a part of what today is France (the Nice County and the Savoia Duchy).

The Gazzetta di Genova reported on November 21, 1829, Maria Barlow’s passage in Nice:

After leaving Genova – almost certainly via Leghorn (Livorno) – Maria and Jane arrived in Florence. On the 2nd of January 1830 a notice was published on the Gazzetta di Firenze in the name of an M. Barlow living in Via della Pergola – the same road near the Cathedral where the old Teatro della Pergola is – inviting all the shopkeepers not to accept "any debt which may be incurred by her servants on her behalf".

A deep search through the pages of many numbers of this gazette shows that in those days it was common practice in Florence for the newly arrived to publish such notes.

A couple of years later – in the Summer of 1833 – Maria Barlow and Anne Lister met again in Paris, before Anne’s departure for Copenhagen and, on different occasions, Maria told her about her recent stay in Italy, the cost of living there and the friendships she had made:

Presentation at Court

The ball here mentioned was held on Wednesday the 17th of February 1830 – Carnival day – in the white hall also known as Sala degli Stucchi in Palazzo Pitti, where the Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II lived with his wife Maria Anna Carolina of Saxony.

This is what the Great Chamberlain at Court wrote on his record, about that day:

The "dark suit" he was referring to was the mourning dress code due to the recent death of Arci Dukess Enrichetta Alessandria – wife of Arci Duke Carlo Luigi of Austria – from which the attendees were spared only for this event. It is known that since January 15 the Tuscan Court had ordered that gentlemen should wear "for the first two weeks in black cloth with dark buttons, silk lining, swords, and buckles. As for the ladies: for the first two weeks in black silk, with black head ribbons and necklaces, black fan and shoes, and also dark jewelry. While for the following four weeks [ladies will be required to wear] black silk, with white head ribbons and necklaces, white fan and shoes, and light jewelry." (From the State Archives of Florence, Imperiale e Real corte, ref. 2244).

The ball guest list was long and prestigious: among the two hundred and sixty–six attendees there were many foreign ministries, travelers, chargées d’affairs, chamberlain, dames, and many others who usually attended the Court waiting room.

Among the foreigners who were presented at Court by the British ministry in Florence – that Westmorland Count for whom Maria Barlow had a particular letter – we have also found Madame and Mademoiselle Barlou.

Barlou is to be considered a common mispronunciation due to the language differences (still today the “W” is not included in the Italian alphabet, and familiarity with its pronunciation is quite recent), and we have found that Maria’s name had already equally been misspelled as Barlou in the Foglio di Verona in 1827, when she came to Italy with Anne Lister.

As further evidence, we have found a record in the Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths from British Consulates, 1810-1968 (available on the Ancestry.com portal) the full “list of people who are to be presented at Court. On the day February 17, 1830”, in which Maria’s name has been noted properly.

On Maria Barlow’s passport we have found in the State Archives in Naples , Jane’s name was also mistaken. The name recorded is Margherita (clearly an Italian name) which, given the match between the other documents, is clearly the result of a misunderstanding at the time.

Maria and Jane Barlow were on the road again two years later. They were heading to Lucca, about 80 Km West from Florence and at the time was the capital of the Duchy of Lucca, under the sovereignty of Duke Carlo Lodovico. There they very probably spent the whole Summer.

An analysis of the many records we had the opportunity to see showed us that the N. placed next to several (but not all) names stands just for the word Nome (name).

In January 1833 Maria and Jane Barlow were still living in Florence. More precisely, they resided in Casa Cattani, in Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini. This palace still stands today, and it faces the main entrance of the Cappelle Medicee. It originally belonged to the Cattani Cavalcanti family until 1891, when the family line ended and it passed to the Marquises Mannelli Galilei Riccardi. Nowadays it is known as Palazzo Benci, with its elegant paintings still visible on the façade.

Today Casa Cattani is known as Palazzo Benci.

Another evidence of their presence in town now is again provided by another notice, about the possible debts incurred by her servants, that was published in the Gazzetta di Firenze on February 9, 1833.

However, their stay in Florence ended that same year. They very likely had to wait and recover from the scarlet fever (scarlattina) that had caught them: a severe and infectious disease widespread in the area at the time, caused by streptococcus. Once again, Anne Lister’s journal comes to our aid to fill some important time gaps.

A couple of days later Anne writes in her journal that "Jane very well considering she was only just recovering from Scarlatina [scarlattina]" – Sunday July 28, 1833 (SH:7/ML/E/16/0087).

But the Barlows were on their way to Genova by the end of May (the 30th) 1833.

We are currently still researching evidence related to this passage in Genova on their way back to France. However, given that by July 1833 they were already in Paris, it is plausible to think that they retraced the same route of their 1829 arrival journey.

After a short stay in Paris though, Maria and Jane Barlow left again, this time heading Guernsey, where according to Jane’s diary they arrived on October 11, 1833 – via Saint Malo in Bretagne and Jersey – and where they finally settled.