Browning Family

The eldest of twelve children, Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born in 1806 to Edward Moulton-Barrett and his wife in Durham, England. The family's considerable wealth came largely from a Jamaican sugar plantation and in 1809 the family acquired a 500-acre estate near the Malvern Hills. Elizabeth received an excellent education at home, studying Greek and Latin as well as modern languages, read widely, and participated in family theatrical productions. Though she lead a generally healthy childhood, the family doctor began prescribing opium for a nervous complaint around 1821; the death of her mother in 1828 seemed to aggravate that condition.

Forced to sell the estate due to severe financial losses in the early 1830s, Barrett's father resettled his family in London and in 1838 Elizabeth's first volume of poetry, The Seraphim and Other Poems appeared, published under her real name. The same year, Barrett's declining health led her to move to Torquay, along with her younger brother Edward. The coastal town, rather than providing relief for her nerves, left her devastated when Edward drowned there later the same year. She returned home to her family and remained in near seclusion for the next five years.

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