Grace Jane Wallace Explained

Grace Jane Wallace, Lady Wallace (née Stein formerly Lady Don; 1804 – 13 March 1878) was a Scottish author.^[1]

Early life

Grace Jane Stein was born in 1804 as the eldest daughter of John Stein, an Edinburgh banker and distiller who served as MP for Bletchingley.

Career

Lady Wallace "built a career and reputation for herself through her work as a translator, in particular with her translations of the lives and letters of contemporary musicians for Longman's, which remained the standard English versions for generations."^[2]

Personal life

On 19 August 1824, she married, as his second wife, Sir Alexander Don, 6th Baronet of Newton Don, who was a close friend of Sir Walter Scott. Before his death on11 March 1826, they were the parents of two children:^[3]

• Sir William Henry Don, 7th Baronet (1825–1862), the actor who married twice.
• Alexina Harriet Don (–1919), who married Sir Frederick Acclom Milbank, 1st Baronet, a grandson of the 1st Duke of Cleveland.^[4]

In his Familiar Letters (ii.348) Sir Walter Scott writes to his son in 1825: "Mama and Anne are quite well; they are with me on a visit to Sir Alex. Don and his new lady, who is a very pleasant woman, and plays on the harp delightfully".

After Sir Alexander died in 1826; Grace married Lt.-Gen. Sir James Maxwell Wallace (1785–1867) in 1836. Lady Wallace died on 12 March 1878 without children from her second marriage.

Works

Lady Wallace long and actively pursued a career as a translator of German and Spanish works, among others:

• The Princess Ilse (by Marie Petersen), 1855
• Clara; or Slave-life in Europe (by Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer), 1856
• Voices from the Greenwood, 1856
• The Old Monastery (by Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer), 1857
• Frederick the Great and his Merchant (by Luise Mühlbach), 1859
• Schiller's Life and Works (by Emil Palleske), 1859
• The Castle and the Cottage in Spain (from the Spanish of Fernán Caballero), 1861
• Joseph in the Snow (by Berthold Auerbach), 1861
• Mendelssohn's Letters from Italy and Switzerland, 1862
• Will-o'-the-Wisp (by Marie Petersen), 1862
• Letters of Mendelssohn from 1833 to 1847, 1863
• Letters of Mozart, 1865
• Beethoven's Letters, 1790–1826, 1866
• Letters of Distinguished Musicians, 1867
• Reminiscences of Mendelssohn (by Elise Polko), 1868
• Alexandra Feodorowna (by August Theodor von Grimm), 1870
• A German Peasant Romance: Elsa and the Vulture (by Wilhelmine von Hillern), 1876
• Life of Mozart (by Ludwig Nohl), 1877.

References

Attribution

• . Endnotes
  • Grove's Dict. of Music, vol. iv.; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; "Record of the 5th Dragoon Guards"; The Times, 7 Feb. 1867; Rogers's Book of Wallace (Grampian Club), i. 110–12; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1860.

Notes and References

1. Antonella Braida, Wallace, Grace Jane, Lady Wallace (1804–1878), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 March 2017.
2. Book: O'Cinneide . M. . Aristocratic Women and the Literary Nation, 1832-1867 . 17 December 2015 . Springer . 978-0-230-58332-0 . 81 . 15 April 2024 . en.
3. Book: Anderson . William . The Scottish Nation: Or, The Surnames, Families, Literature, Honours, and Biographical History of the People of Scotland . 1867 . A. Fullarton & Company . 40 . 15 April 2024 . en.
4. Book: Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, Including All the Titled Classes . 1904 . 647 . 15 April 2024 . en.