Sir Richard and Lady Isabel Burton: marriage
This is part of a local history note on Sir Richard and Lady Isabel Burton. See the start of this local history note.
Before his departure in April 1860 for Salt Lake City, Richard wrote to Isabel that he would be away for 9 months and on his return she must choose between him and her family. She chose him and they married on 22 January 1861 at the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Warwick Street, London. Richard’s own description of the wedding was “These two people, without any joyful meeting of friends or relatives, without any bride’s trousseau, or presents, or cards, or cake, or congratulations, with no appointment, nor prospects, nor fortune, but with true, strong hearts and the consolation of her father’s blessing and her four brothers’ approval, were launched in to the world hand-in-hand, to work, to win their way and to live their lives…”
In March Richard attended an interview at the Foreign Office with the possibility of a position in the Consular Service. He had hoped for a posting to Damascus, but, instead, was offered the post as Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul for the island of Fernando Po off the west coast of Africa and sailed in August. The place was considered too dangerous for white women, so Isabel was unable to go. Richard was away for 18 months during which time she prepared his book on the Mormons, The City of the Saints, for publication and dealt with his correspondence. In October 1862 she complained to the Foreign Office about their separation and Richard was given 4 months leave.
On 24 January 1863, Richard and Isabel left Liverpool for a belated honeymoon in Madeira. They spent 6 weeks on the island and then moved on to Tenerife for another 4 weeks. During this time an outbreak of yellow fever in the capital claimed 3,000 lives. Then Isabel came back to England and Richard returned to Fernando Po where he was sent on a special mission to the King of Dahomey who was so taken with him that he made him Brigadier-General of his Amazons. Richard’s task was to impress King Gelele with the British abhorrence of the slave trade, human sacrifice and other obnoxious practices. Richard found that the claims made by missionaries had been exaggerated. and, on his return to Fernando Po, was seriously ill with fever. Isabel was determined that Richard should be sent to a better climate, so, in October 1863, she wrote to Lord John Russell, the Foreign Secretary who replied “I know the climate in which your husband is working so zealously and so well is an unhealthy one, but it is not true to say that he is the smallest of the consuls in the worst part of the world. Many have inferior salaries, and some are in more unhealthy places. However, if I find a vacancy of a post with an equal salary and a better position, I will not forget his services. I do not imagine he would wish for a less active post…”
Isabel’s aunt, Monica, Lady Gerard (the widow of Sir John Gerard who was her mother’s uncle), had moved to Portobello House in Mortlake after the death of her husband in 1854. The house, in South Worple Way, had been in the ownership of prominent Catholics since 1775. The Religious Census of 1851 shows that there was a coach house or stables used as a chapel which had free seating for 140 and standing room for 50/60 people. This had continued until 1852 when the Catholic Church of St. Mary Magdalene was built. The house was demolished in 1893. In the summer of 1864, after Richard had returned from Brazil, the Burtons visited the cemetery at Mortlake and picked out plots for their graves. Richard had pointed with his stick “We will have it here, it is like a nice little family hotel.” When Monica, Lady Gerard died in May 1865 she was buried at Mortlake as was Isabel’s mother in June 1872 and her father in March 1886.