Caroline Gardiner

Caroline Gardiner

Portrayed by Carey Mulligan
Full Name	Caroline Amelia Gardiner
Associated Noble House(s)	Barony of Ackland, Barony of Parkhurst
Date of Birth	March 17, 1790
Father	Frederick Gardiner
Father's Rank	Baron Ackland
Mother	Cecily Seabrook
Mother's Rank	Baroness Ackland
Town Residence	{{{residence}}}
Year of Debut	1808 (Bath), 1811 (London)
Dowry	£10,000

Miss Caroline Gardiner is the daughter of the late Frederick Gardiner, the 16th Baron Ackland and his wife. She is the sister to the current baron. She was created by Liz and is currently a Former Character.

Early Life (1790-1808)

Born March 17, 1790, Caroline is the youngest child of Baron Ackland and his wife. She has five older siblings, two sisters and three brothers. None of the Gardiner children were particularly aware of their family's dwindling finances when they were younger, though the boys figured it out when they went to school and the girls picked it up from there. Her older sisters married respectably, particularly her sister Lucie, who married Baron Parkhurst. These marriages infused some much needed capital into the family, but the real lifesaver was her brother Samuel's marriage to Poppy Tichbourne, whose father agreed to settle the family's debts in exchange for his daughter becoming a baroness.

Caroline's mother died in 1796, when Caroline was only six years old. Her father's widowed sister, Lady Sutton, moved in with the family and stayed until 1799, when Caroline's father died. At this point, Caroline moved in with her sister Melody (Mrs. Turner) and lived there for the next nine years, until 1808 when she went to live in Bath with her brother Samuel and his wife Poppy in order to debut and make a match.

Bath (1808-1810)

The family had high hopes for Caroline's attachment to a young naval officer in town with his sister and her husband, and everyone (including Caroline) expected them to marry. By the end of the season of 1808, however, he had not proposed and in fact left town without a word to any of the Gardiners. Just when Caroline had resolved to forget him, he wrote to her to assure her of his affections and once again, her hopes were encouraged by her family. The two exchanged letters for six months, though his correspondence grew increasingly infrequent.

Then, in April of 1809, a friend from London happened to mention in a letter to Lady Ackland that the very rich daughter of a mutual acquaintance was being escorted by naval officer who had spent the previous season in Bath. The Acklands did their best to assess the situation and handle things delicately, but a marriage announcement in the papers served as a rude awakening to Caroline's dreams of marital bliss with her officer. Everyone in Bath learned of Caroline's bad news and while most agreed that she was not to blame, two unsuccessful seasons followed.

London (1811)

Now, at age twenty-one, Caroline has come to London in an attempt to leave her past behind. She knows she is getting long in the tooth, though she is not desperate yet. She has £10,000 and a pretty face to acquit herself, as well as connections to two barons (her sister Lucie's husband and her own brother).