11 Jun 2024
On This Day
11 June 2024 Susannah

11 June 1844: Anthony Trollope marries

Anthony Trollope marries Rose Heseltine

“Frederick Trollope (grandson of the novelist Anthony Trollope) has been located in Sydney as a result of a newspaper cablegram stating that he was to assume the baronetcy of Casewick in succession to Sir Arthur Grant Trollope, who died recently. The title and Lincolnshire estates have passed to Sir Frederick Trollope, who, it is stated, is not likely to use the title while he remains in Sydney. The heir is employed as a clerk in a Sydney bank.” (Port Pirie ‘Recorder’, 19 Feb 1937) [1]

On 11 June 1844, in the quiet town of Rotherham, Yorkshire, Anthony Trollope wed Rose Heseltine, a woman who would become not only his wife but a steadfast companion throughout his life. Rose, the youngest daughter of Edward Heseltine, the manager of the Rotherham office of the Sheffield and Rotherham Joint Stock Company, was a woman of quiet strength and practicality. For Trollope, she provided the stability he craved, a grounding force in the whirlwind of his ambitious pursuits.

The marriage was arranged in a somewhat conventional manner, with Trollope not particularly romantically inclined at the outset. His feelings for Rose grew over time, shaped by her unwavering support and the shared intellectual companionship that defined their relationship.

Rose was a stabilising influence on Trollope, allowing him the time and space he so dearly needed to pursue his work. Known for his intense focus and disciplined approach to writing, Trollope found in Rose not only a partner but an essential collaborator, helping to organise the routines that enabled him to produce his novels with such relentless regularity.

Their marriage brought three children into the world, and though Trollope’s work often took him away from the daily life of the family, he remained a devoted father, committed to providing for their futures. His own views on marriage, as illustrated in his novels, were deeply shaped by his experience. In works like The Way We Live Now and He Knew He Was Right, the complexities of domestic life, love, and duty are explored with remarkable sensitivity. Trollope’s writing reflects an acute awareness of the compromises marriage demands, a theme undoubtedly drawn from his own life’s experience.

Despite their differences—his more solitary nature contrasting with Rose’s social and family-oriented temperament—their marriage endured for nearly 30 years until Trollope’s death in 1882. Rose lived on for another 12 years, ensuring her husband’s legacy was preserved and supporting their children’s futures.