Amelia Harcourt
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| Portrayed by Lily Collins | |
| Full Name | Amelia Jane Harcourt |
|---|---|
| Associated Noble House(s) | |
| Date of Birth | May 1st 1788 |
| Father | Richard Harcourt |
| Father's Rank | Gentry |
| Mother | Elizabeth Harcourt |
| Mother's Rank | Gentry |
| Town Residence | |
| Year of Debut | 1806 |
| Dowry | £15,000 |
Amelia Harcourt is the oldest child of Richard and Elizabeth Harcourt. She is twenty-three years old, with a dowry of £15,000 and deaf in her right ear. She made her debut in 1806, but after the tragic deaths of her parents returned to her family estate in Hertfordshire to look after her younger brother James Harcourt. Now that he has started school at Eton, Amelia has returned to London to reconnect with some of her peers during the Season.
Amelia is played by Sarah.
Family
- Richard Harcourt – father, deceased (1756 - 1806)
- Elizabeth Harcourt – mother, deceased (1764 - 1806)
- Grace Harcourt – sister, stillborn (1791)
- James Harcourt – brother (1799 -)
- Iris Whitworth – first cousin once removed (1762 -)
Background
As a debutante, Elizabeth Sutton was generally acknowledged to be both a beauty and charming young woman – but also one of a somewhat frail constitution. When she married Richard Harcourt, a gentleman of upstanding reputation and respectable wealth, albeit not a member of the peerage, there were doubts about whether she would be able to bear children at all. Indeed, they were childless for the first five years of their marriage.
Amelia’s birth was thus a joyous occasion and much celebrated by her parents, especially since it seemed for a long time that she would be the Harcourts’ only child. Both pregnancy and childbirth had been very difficult on Elizabeth, and in the years that followed she went to suffer a series of miscarriages and a stillbirth.
Whether because of Elizabeth’s constitution or the difficult birth, Amelia herself somewhat sickly as a child, prone to bad colds and fevers. One such complaint left her almost at death’s door when she was four, and though she recovered the hearing in her right ear was permanently damaged. She can only hear very faintly from it, though it only poses significant difficulties in crowded or noisy rooms and she has learned to compensate by focusing on people’s lips as they talk.
Despite her childhood illnesses, Amelia grew up a sunny, happy child at her family’s estate in Hertfordshire, Avonleigh Hall, never doubting that she was loved and cared for. She had governesses who taught her to speak French fluently enough for conversation, to dance acceptably well, and to embroider with small, neat stitches – but, surprisingly enough, given her disability, where Amelia most excelled was in music. A determined girl, she spent hours labouring over the pianoforte, mastering every score she could get her hands on, until no one would hearing her perform would ever think she was partially deaf. As she got older she began turning her hand to composition, and soon was rarely seen without parchment and quill so she could scribble melodies down whenever they came into her head. Her singing, while not as good as her playing, is still reasonably accomplished, a light, sweet mezzo-soprano, but she vastly prefers not to sing in company if at all possible.
When she was eleven, Elizabeth fell pregnant once more, and to her parents’ utter delight this time the baby was carried to full term and born completely healthy. Amelia, up until now an indulged and darling only child, was very uncertain how she felt about the new addition to her family until she saw her baby brother cradled in her mother’s arms – when she promptly fell utterly in love. The feeling was mutual: James was devoted to his sister and when he began learning to walk followed her everywhere she went.
Both her parents were uncertain about bringing her out when she turned eighteen, favouring waiting a year or two, but Amelia longed to have a proper Season with girls her own age. They came to a compromise: she made her debut at home in Hertfordshire in 1806, and the family travelled afterwards to London for the Season. A little shy and uncertain at first, Amelia soon found herself relaxing and enjoying her time in society. She made the acquaintance of several eligible gentlemen and had hopes she might manage a match by the end of the Season, but then tragedy struck: her mother contracted a severe fever and then, after nursing her himself, her father also fell ill. They died within days of each other.
Devastated, Amelia returned home to Hertfordshire in mourning. There was much discussion about what was to become of her and her seven year old brother, now the owner of Avonleigh Hall, but Amelia was adamant that they would not leave their home. She would take care of her brother and, with the help of her father’s land agent, take care of the estate, forgoing any future Seasons in London. She could not be a young woman without any sort of companion, however, so it was decided that her mother’s widowed cousin, Iris Whitworth, a slightly gruff but generally good-hearted woman, would come to live with them.
And so, Amelia has been mistress of Avonleigh Hall for the last five years, and both mother and sister to young James. Now that he has gone off to Eton, she intended to remain at home – although her inheritance of some £15,000 would help her secure a respectable husband, Amelia does not want to have leave James when he is still so young, as she fears marriage would mean – but Iris considered this plan to be stuff and nonsense. She has not given up hope that her cousin might yet make a good match, and has cajoled her into returning to London with the reasoning that Amelia may at least enjoy the society of her peers rather than remaining a recluse in the country.