Arabella Fermor (1689?–1738)

Timeline

• ca. 1689

  Birth of Arabella Fermor

  Arabella Fermor is born to Helen Fermor, daughter of Sir George Browne KB of Great Shefford Manor in Berkshire, and Henry Fermor Esq of Tusmore in Oxfordshire.

• 25 March 1693

  English Convent in Paris

  Arabella is sent to the English Convent in Paris, where she will stay for nine years.

• 1704

  Return to England

  Four years after her return in 1704, she is celebrated by the poets as a "beauty."

• 1711

  Rift between the Fermors and the Petres

  Robert, Lord Petre, a relative of Alexander Pope's friend John Caryll, causes a serious quarrel by cutting off a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair. Caryll asks Pope to write a poem to laugh the estranged families together again. Lord Petre becomes the Baron of Pope's Rape of the Lock, while Arabella becomes Pope's Belinda.

• 1714/1715

  Marriage to Francis Perkins

  Arabella marries Francis Perkins of Ufton Court, Berkshire. The couple will have six children: one daughter, Arabella, who dies as a child, and five sons.

• 1736

  Death of Francis Perkins

  Husband Francis Perkins dies.

• 1738

  Death of Arabella Fermor