Isabella Frances Romer (1798–1852)

Isabella Frances Romer was born in the Marylebone district of London to a military family. She was the youngest daughter of Major-General John Augustus Romer and his wife Marianne Cuthbert. In 1818, she married a Major Hamerton, but separated from him in 1827 and resumed her maiden name. A firm believer in mesmerism or hypnosis, in 1841 she published the collection of stories Sturmer, a Tale of Mesmerism, with other Sketches from Life. She also contributed stories to periodicals such as Bentley’s Miscellany and New Monthly Magazine. However, she was best known as a travel writer for works that included The Rhone, the Darro, and the Guadalquivir, a Summer Ramble in 1842 (1843), A Pilgrimage to the Temples and Tombs of Egypt, Nubia and Palestine in 1845–6 (1846), and The Bird of Passage, or, Flying Glimpses of Many Lands (1849). Her last book was Filia Dolorosa, Memoirs of Marie Thérèse Charlotte, Duchess d'Angoulême, which was published in two volumes after her death in 1852.