Baroness de Calabrella

The "Baroness de Calabrella" (c. 1788 – 6 October 1856, Paris) was an English socialite, journalist, and writer. Family Catherine Ball was born in December 1787, the daughter of David and Sarah Ball of Bishop's Hall, Lambourne, Essex. Her grandmother Ruth had, for her second marriage, married Admiral Edward Hughes, who had obtained a large fortune. However, with the deaths of Catherine's uncle Henry Ball (1792), Admiral Hughes (1794), her father (1798) and her grandmother (1800), the money was left to David Ball's children – mostly to the only son, Edward (1798–1863), but substantial sums to Catherine and her sisters Ruth and Sydney. The family may have moved to Admiral Hughes' former residence on Portland Place in London after her father's death. Sometime later her mother remarried, to a man named Thomas Johnson. Her brother Edward, youngest of the family (ten years her junior), became the famously wealthy dandy and gambler known as "The Golden Ball". Her 1843 book Prism of Imagination is dedicated to "E. H. Ball Hughes, Esq., by his much-attached and affectionate sister, (the Baroness) E. C. De Calabrella". Scandals On 9 July 1804, she married Rev. Francis Lee (c. 1768 – 1826), a chaplain to the Prince of Wales. Her mother had previously rejected the marriage, but the couple published banns in a local church and were married, with a servant of Rev. Lee pretending to be her father. Rev. Lee lived nearby in Duke Street, Portland Place, and the couple lived happily at first; a son, Edward Hughes Lee (d. 1834), was born in April 1806. However, Catherine and her husband became estranged, and he spent time in Spain without her. A second child, a son, was born in 1810, which Lee disclaimed. Catherine moved in with her lover, Captain George de Blaquiere (a son of soldier and politician John Blaquiere, 1st Baron de Blaquiere). Blaquiere was successfully sued for criminal conversation by Lee. The son, George William Dixon de Blaquiere was the child of Captain de Blaquiere; Catherine was pregnant by her lover when the trial commenced.