Julia Abel Smith
DL FRSL
High Sheriff of Essex
In office
2013–2014
Preceded byChristopher Palmer-Tomkinson
Succeeded byNicholas Charrington
Personal details
SpouseCharles Abel Smith
Alma materSelwyn College, Cambridge
Occupation
  • Historian
  • historical preservationist

Julia Mary Seton Abel Smith[1] DL FRSL is a British historian and historical preservationist. She has authored the books Pavilions in Peril (1988) and Forbidden Wife (2020), the latter of which is about the relationship and eventual marriage of Lady Augusta Murray and Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex. She also served as High Sheriff of Essex (2013–2014).

Biography

Julia Wolton was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge, obtaining a degree in Art History.[2][3] She married Charles Abel Smith, a descendant of the Smith family.[4][lower-alpha 1]

She worked for Save Britain's Heritage and as a historical researcher for the Landmark Trust,[3][7] and she was the author of Pavilions in Peril, a 1988 book from the organisation about "the decay of 50 of Britain's most architecturally important garden buildings".[8] She also has a career of creating catalogues of art, including a cataloguing project of sculptures in public ownership within Bedfordshire, Essex, and Hertfordshire and Art UK's catalogues of paintings located at the University of Cambridge or in public ownership within Essex.[7][3]

In February 2020, Abel Smith published Forbidden Wife, a historical book about the relationship and eventual marriage of Lady Augusta Murray and Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex.[9] She had come up with the idea after learning about Murray during her research on the Dunmore Pineapple and being inspired by the obscure nature of Murray's history.[10][11] She also wrote Augusta's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article.[10]

She was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Essex on 17 September 2007.[12] She was appointed High Sheriff of Essex in 2013, serving until 2014.[1][3] She also serves as a governor of Felsted School.[13]

In 2008, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Wilfrid Abel Smith's father Ralph Richard Abel Smith was a male-line great-grandson of Abel Smith MP.[5][6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Appointment of Sheriffs". The London Gazette. No. 60447. 14 March 2013. p. 5101.
  2. ↑ The Selwyn College Calendar 2019–2020. Cambridge: Selwyn College, Cambridge. p. 118.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "New Patron of Felsted Art". Felsted School. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  4. ↑ "[cover]". Country Life. 12 June 1986. Miss Julia Wolton, only daughter of Mr and Mrs John Wolton, of The Old Rectory, Little Saxham, Suffolk, is to be married to Mr Charles Abel Smith, only son of Mr and Mrs Wilfrid Abel Smith
  5. ↑ "W.I.A. SMITH WEDS BASILIA L. WELGH". New York Times. 25 July 1956. p. 23. ProQuest 113801872. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  6. ↑ Burke, Bernard (1925). "Smith of Goldings". A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry. p. 1619. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  7. 1 2 "Governors of the School". Felsted School. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  8. ↑ TRUCCO, TERRY (28 January 1988). "Restoring Fanciful British Pavilions". New York Times. pp. C11. ProQuest 426712004. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  9. ↑ "Forbidden Wife". The History Press. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  10. 1 2 "Julia Abel Smith". Isle of Wight Literary Festival. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  11. ↑ Abel Smith, Julia. "Ask the author: Julia Abel Smith on Lady Augusta Murray". The History Press (Interview). Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  12. ↑ "Deputy Lieutenant Commissions". www.thegazette.co.uk. 17 September 2007. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  13. ↑ "Deputy Lieutenants of Essex". Essex Lieutenancy. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  14. ↑ "Abel Smith, Julia". Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
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