Biography of Jane Morris nee Burden 1839-1914

On 06 May 1833 [her father] Robert Burden Stableman (age 23) and [her mother] Ann Maizey Domestic Servant (age 27) were married at St Mary Magdalen's Church.

On 19 Oct 1839 Jane Morris nee Burden was born to Robert Burden Stableman (age 29) and Ann Maizey Domestic Servant (age 33) at St Helen's Passage.

On 28 Dec 1840 Jane Morris nee Burden (age 1) was baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church.

In 1851 the Census records [her father] Robert Burden Stableman (age 41), Groom, [her mother] Ann Maizey Domestic Servant (age 45), [her brother] William Burden (age 14), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 11) and [her sister] Elizabeth Burden (age 9) living at 1 King's Head Gardens.

1858. [her future husband] William Morris (age 23). "La belle Iseult", sometimes referred to as "Queen Guinevere", is Morris' only surviving easel painting, now in the Tate Gallery. The model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 18), his future wife.

On 26 Apr 1859 William Morris (age 25) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 19) were married at St Michael at the Northgate Church.

After 26 Apr 1859 [her husband] William Morris (age 25) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 19) moved to the Red House.

Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones 1860. It will be taken for granted that the two men visitors had endless jokes together at the expense of their beloved host. The dinner hour, at middle day, was a great time for them because Mrs. Morris (age 20) and I were there, either as eager onlookers at the fun or to take sides for and against The dining-room was not yet finished, and the drawing-room upstairs, whose beautiful ceiling had been painted by Mr. and Mrs. Morris, was being decorated in different ways, so Morris' studio, which was on the same floor, was used for living in, and a most cheerful place it was, with windows looking three ways and a little horizontal slip of a window over the door, giving upon the red-tiled roof of the house where we could see birds hopping about all unconscious of our gaze.

Perhaps the joke which made two out of the three men happiest at dinner-time was that of sending Morris to Coventry for some slight cause and refusing to exchange a word with him at his own table: it was carried on with an unflinching audacity that I cannot hope to describe, and occasionally reached the height of their asking Mrs. Morris (age 20) if she would be good enough to communicate with her husband for them and tell him anything they wished to say - but a stranger coming in upon our merriment would never have guessed from the faces of the company who were the teasers and who the teased.

Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones 1860. Oh, how happy we were, Janey (age 20) and I, busy in the morning with needlework or wood-engraving, and in the afternoon driving to explore the country round by the help of a map of Kent; we went to the Crays one day and to Chislehurst Common another, finding some fresh pleasure everywhere and bringing back tales of our adventures to amuse the men we had left working at home. Sometimes, but not often, they would go with us, for Edward always hated "expeditions," and was only supported in them by good fellowship; nor did he at any time seek the country for its own sake. At this I have often wondered, for the backgrounds of his pictures shew how deeply it touched his imagination and feeling: and I came to the conclusion that one reason why he found so little peace and rest in it might be that he did not, and perhaps could not, submit himself passively to its influence, but was for ever dealing with it as an instrument. In a note written to his father during this very visit to Red House he says, "I hate the country - apples only keep me in good spirits - Topsy's garden is perfectly laden with them." I remember his dread of anything that appealed to the sadness which he shared with all imaginative natures, who "don't need to be made to feel," he said, and I believe that this "hatred" was partly an instinct of self-preservation from the melancholy of autumn in the country.

The Niebelungen Lied design of which Edward speaks was never finished, and if it was begun upon the back of either of the beautiful "Salutations of Beatrice" which Rossetti (age 32) painted on the outside of the doors of the big settle, it may perhaps still remain there.

Around 25 Dec 1860. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 32). Portrait of Mrs William Morris aka Jane Morris nee Burden (age 21). Signed top-left Upton (ie the Red House) Xmas 1860.

1861. The Census records [her husband] William Morris (age 26), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 21), Algernon Charles Swinburne (age 23), Visitor, four servants and [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris at Red House.

Around 1861 [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris was born to [her husband] William Morris (age 26) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 21).

On 25 Mar 1862 [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris was born to [her husband] William Morris (age 28) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 22) at the Red House. She was baptised 30 May 1862 at Christ Church, Bexleyheath.

1864. Edward Coley Burne-Jones 1st Baronet (age 30). Portrait of Jane Morris nee Burden (age 24), and his sisters-in-law Alice Macdonald (age 26), Agnes Macdonald Lady Poynter (age 21) and Louisa Macdonald (age 19) listening to his wife Georgiana (age 23) reading aloud.

Alice Macdonald: On 04 Apr 1837 she was born to Reverend George Browne Macdonald and Hannah Jones at Birmingham. On 18 Mar 1865 John Lockwood Kipling and she were married at St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington. On 22 Nov 1910 she died. She was buried at St John's Church, Tisbury.

Louisa Macdonald: In 1845 she was born to Reverend George Browne Macdonald and Hannah Jones at Birmingham. In 1925 she died.

On or before 10 Feb 1864 [her father] Robert Burden Stableman (age 54) died. He was buried on 10 Feb 1864 at Holywell St Cross Church.

1868. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 39). Blue Silk Dress. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 28).

1869. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 40). Mrs William Morris aks Jane Morris nee Burden (age 29).

1870. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 41). La Donna della Fiamina aka The Woman of Flames. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 30).

1870. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 41). Mariana. The bottom of the frame has these words from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure "Take, O Take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn, And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislean the morn. But my kisses bring again, bring again, Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain." Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 30).

1871. The census records [her husband] William Morris (age 36), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 31), Elizabeth Burden, sister-in-law, [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris (age 10), [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris (age 8) and three servants living at 21 Queen Square, Bloomsbury.

1871. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 42). Pandora. Holding the box - see Hesiod's Works and Days Lines 83 to 108 lines 90-94. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 31).

1871. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 42). Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice. Models: Beatrice: Jane Morris nee Burden (age 31), far left Alice aka Alexa Wilding (age 24), far right Annie Miller (age 36).

1874. Frederick Hollyer (age 35). Photograph of the Burne-Jones and Morris families including [her husband] William Morris (age 39), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 34), Edward Coley Burne-Jones 1st Baronet (age 40) and Georgiana Macdonald Lady Burne-Jones (age 33).

1875. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 46). Study of Mrs William Morris aka Jane Morris nee Burden (age 35).

1877. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 48). Astarte Syriaca. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 37).

1877. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 48). "Proserpine". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 37).

1880 to 1882. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 51). "The Salutation of Beatrice". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 40).

1880. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 51). "The Daydream". Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 40).

1881. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 52). Joan of Arc. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 41).

1881. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 52). La Donna della Finestra aka The Woman at the Window. Model Jane Morris nee Burden (age 41).

On 14 Jun 1890 [her son-in-law] Henry Halliday Sparling (age 30) and [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris (age 28) were married. She the daughter of William Morris (age 56) and Jane Morris nee Burden (age 50).

On 03 Oct 1896 [her husband] William Morris (age 62) died.

In 1898 [her son-in-law] Henry Halliday Sparling (age 38) and [her daughter] Mary "May" Morris (age 35) were divorced.

1901. The Census records Jane Morris nee Burden (age 61), [her daughter] Jane Alicia Morris (age 40), Louisa C Strong, companion, and three servants living at Kelmscott Manor House, Oxfordshire.

02 Apr 1911. The Census records Jane Morris nee Burden (age 71), [her sister] Elizabeth Burden (age 69) and a Lady's Maid living at 33 St George's Place.

On 26 Jan 1914 Jane Morris nee Burden (age 74) died at 5 Brock Street, Bath. She was buried at St George's Church, Kelmscott [Map].