The Death of Charlotte Bloomfield in 1828: Family Roles in an Evangelical Household
A small collection of family papers provides intimate and illuminating material on the illness and death of a much-loved teenager. Charlotte Bloomfield was the daughter of Lord Benjamin Bloomfield, confidant of the Prince Regent and from 1823 British ambassador at Stockholm. In 1825 Bloomfield had Charlotte painted with pretty golden curls by the fashionable miniaturist Anne Mee (Fig. 1). She holds her pet rabbit. Her story has rich resonances for the study of the evangelical household. This essay explores how a lingering death of this kind could produce a family crisis, which was in effect a test of faith. The case is also interesting in terms of the history of the medical treatment of children at home. Moreover, it shows how memorialization of such a death sustained the evangelical piety of the family in the decades that followed. This account gives particular attention to the particular roles and responsibilities of family and household members.