Editing Mary Elizabeth Braddon (section)

==Biography==
Born in [[Soho]], London, Mary Elizabeth Braddon was privately educated. Her mother Fanny separated from her father Henry because of his infidelities in 1840, when Braddon was five. When Braddon was ten years old, her brother [[Edward Braddon]] left for [[Company rule in India|India]] and later [[Australia]], where he became [[Premier of Tasmania]]. Mary worked as an actress for three years, when she was befriended by Clara and [[Adelaide Calvert|Adelaide Biddle]]. They were only playing minor roles, but Braddon was able to support herself and her mother. Adelaide noted that Braddon's interest in acting waned as she began writing novels.<ref name="BoardmanJones2004">{{Cite book |author1=Kay Boardman |author2=Shirley Jones |title=Popular Victorian Women Writers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rt2YCL0HABAC&pg=PA189 |year=2004 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6450-0 |pages=189–190}}</ref>

Braddon met [[John Maxwell (1824–1895)]], a publisher of periodicals, in April 1861 and moved in with him in 1861.<ref name="ven">Victor E. Neuburg, ''The Popular Press Companion to Popular Literature'', Popular Press, 1983. {{ISBN|0879722339}}, pp. 36–37.</ref> However, Maxwell was already married to Mary Ann Crowley, with whom he had five children. While Maxwell and Braddon were living as husband and wife, Crowley was living with her family. In 1864, Maxwell tried to legitimize their relationship by telling the newspapers that they were legally married; "however, [[Richard Brinsley Knowles]] wrote to these papers, informing them that his sister-in-law and true wife of Maxwell was still living, thereby exposing Braddon's 'wife' status as a façade".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-07-02 |title=Biography |url=https://maryelizabethbraddon.com/biography/ |access-date=2022-08-05 |website=Mary Elizabeth Braddon |language=en-GB}}</ref> Braddon acted as stepmother to his children until 1874, when Maxwell's wife died and they were able to get married at [[St Bride's Church|St. Bride's Church]] in [[Fleet Street]]. Braddon had six children by him: Gerald, Fanny, Francis, William, Winifred Rosalie, and Edward Herry Harrington.[[File:Richmond Cemetery, tomb of Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (Braddon).jpg|thumb|Tomb of Mary Elizabeth Maxwell in Richmond Cemetery]]Her eldest daughter, Fanny Margaret Maxwell (1863–1955), married the naturalist [[Edmund Selous]] on 13 January 1886. In the 1920s, they were living in [[Wyke Castle]], where Fanny founded a local branch of the [[Women's Institute|Woman's Institute]] in 1923, of which she became the first president.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sensationpress.com/fannymargaretmaxwell.htm |title=Fanny Margaret Maxwell |publisher=Sensationpress.com |access-date=2013-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512041438/http://www.sensationpress.com/fannymargaretmaxwell.htm |archive-date=12 May 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Their second eldest son was the novelist [[William Babington Maxwell]] (1866–1939).

Braddon died on 4 February 1915 in [[Richmond, London|Richmond]] (then in Surrey) and is interred in [[Richmond Cemetery]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Meller |first1=Hugh |last2=Parsons |first2=Brian |title=London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer |edition=fifth |year=2011 |publisher=[[The History Press]] |location=[[Stroud]], Gloucestershire |isbn=9780752461830 |pages=290–294}}</ref> Her home had been Lichfield House in the centre of the town, which was replaced by a block of flats in 1936, [[Lichfield Court]]. There is a plaque commemorating Braddon in [[St Mary Magdalene, Richmond|Richmond parish church]], which calls her simply "Miss Braddon". A number of nearby streets are named after characters in her novels – her husband was a property developer in the area.<ref>
''The Streets of Richmond and Kew'', [[Richmond, London#Societies|Richmond Local History Society]], fourth edition, 2022. {{ISBN|978 1912 314034}}</ref>