Emily Sarah Tennyson, Lady Tennyson (9 July 1813 – 10 August 1896) was the wife of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....

, and a creative talent in her own right.

She was born Emily Sarah Sellwood at Horncastle in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

. Her father was a solicitor who acted for the Tennyson family many times over the years. Her mother, who died when Emily was three, was a member of the Franklin family, sister of Sir John Franklin

John Franklin

Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic...

, an explorer, and Sir Willingham Franklin. Emily first met Alfred Tennyson during childhood, but they did not become close until much later (when Tennyson's brother, Charles

Charles Tennyson Turner

Charles Tennyson Turner was an English poet.Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, he was an elder brother of Alfred Tennyson; his friendship and "heart union" with his greater brother is revealed in Poems by Two Brothers. He married Louisa Sellwood, the younger sister of Alfred's future wife; another...

, married Emily's younger sister, Louisa), and did not marry until 1850. For much of the intervening time, they did not see one another at all.

They had two sons, Hallam

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, GCMG, PC , the second Governor-General of Australia, was born at Chapel House, Twickenham, in Surrey, England. Named after his father's late friend Arthur Hallam, he was the elder son of Alfred Tennyson, the most popular and prominent poet of late Victorian...

 and Lionel. During Tennyson's lifetime, Emily was his strong supporter and employed her own talents in setting some of his lyrics to music. After his death in 1892, Lady Tennyson devoted herself to helping her son write the authorised biography.

She is buried in All Saints' Church, Freshwater

All Saints' Church, Freshwater

All Saints' Church, Freshwater is a parish church in the Church of England located in Freshwater, Isle of Wight.-History:The church is medieval. is one of the oldest churches on the Isle of Wight, and was listed in the Domesday survey of 1086. Mark Whatson is the pastor of All Saints, which is an...

, Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

.