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Princess Françoise of Orléans

1816–1818

Born
28 Mar 1816, Orleans House Gallery
Country of birth
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, today United Kingdom
Died
21 May 1818, Château de Neuilly
facts
8
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Orleans House Gallery

    Birth, Orleans House Gallery

  2. Died · Château de Neuilly

    Death, Château de Neuilly

What was it like?

The world around Orleans House Gallery, 1816: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Princess was born around the same time as Victoria, George Eliot, and Richard Wagner.

Born around the same time

  • Victoria

    1819 · Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901 (1819-1901)

  • George Eliot

    1819 · English novelist, essayist, poet and journalist (1819–1880)

  • Richard Wagner

    1813 · German composer (1813–1883)

  • Giuseppe Verdi

    1813 · Italian opera composer (1813–1901)

  • Jacques Offenbach

    1819 · German-born French composer (1819–1880)

  • Søren Kierkegaard

    1813 · Danish theologian, philosopher, poet and social critic (1813–1855)

Fashion

Essential wardrobe of working women

Working-class women commonly wore a shift, a petticoat, and a versatile bedgown, often accessorized with a neck handkerchief, an apron, and a cap for indoor wear.

Everyday attire of working men

Working men typically wore a shirt, waistcoat, heavy wool coat, handkerchief, stockings, and a hat, with breeches being common until trousers gained popularity after 1800.

Music

Festival rewards

Festival participants like pace-eggers often went from house to house singing and dancing, hoping to be rewarded with items such as eggs and strong beer.

Popular dance instrument

The tabor and pipe, featuring a small drum and a single-handed three-holed pipe, remained a popular and enduring instrument for dance bands well into the 1820s.

Getting around

Comparing stage-wagon and stagecoach speeds

Stage-wagons, which were the slow trucks of the era, charged about one penny per mile and could take nearly three days to cover 101 miles. In contrast, by 1800, a fast stagecoach could cover 168 miles in 32 hours.

Walking was the primary travel method

For most ordinary people, walking was the primary mode of transport, as stagecoaches and hired horses were often too expensive. Pedestrians typically traveled at an average speed of 3 mph, rarely exceeding 20 miles in a single day.

Daily life

Cooking and Baking Habits

In some households, families without a private oven sent their bread and cake mixes to a local bakery, marking them with their initials to identify them. Cooking ranges heated by coal were used, with water heated in kettles hung over the fire or in boilers behind the coal fire.

School Discipline and Enrollment Statistics

Discipline in early schools included harsh punishments such as putting a sluggard in a basket and hoisting it up to the ceiling by a rope. In 1818, about 605,704 children out of two million were enrolled in schools across the country.

Food

Cheap Gin Available for the Poor

During the Gin Craze, poor Londoners could get drunk for a penny or become dead drunk for twopence, leading to high levels of gin consumption among the lower classes.

Tea Becomes a Staple Drink

By the early 19th century, tea had moved down the social scale and became a staple drink, often served with bread, which was frequently the only meal for the poor.

Prices and wages

Cost of a loaf of bread

A four-pound loaf of wheaten bread typically cost between six and ten pence during this period.

Shoemaking and prices of boots

A pair of boots could be made in a single day, with Blucher boots costing one shilling and threepence.

Work

Memorable work facts

Squatters could claim land rights if they built a cottage overnight and had smoke coming from the chimney by morning. Night-soil men disposed of human waste from pits and buckets under the cover of darkness.

Primary occupations of the era

Agriculture and domestic service were the largest employers, while many children worked as messengers, errand boys, or in cottage industries like lace-making.

News and letters
Around 1812–1812

Expensive recipient-paid postage

Postal charges were expensive and paid by the recipient, with a letter from London to Brighton costing 8d in 1812.

Around 1820–1820

Slow mail delivery to remote areas

In remote areas like the island of Arran, letters could take a full week to arrive from Glasgow due to difficult weather and transport conditions.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.