Frances ‘Fanny’ Burney

Summary

Name:	Frances “Fanny” Burney
Born:	1752
Place:	King’s Lynn, Norfolk
Died:	1840
Profession:	Novelist and Diarist; Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte.
Educated:	Largely educated at home by her father, Dr Charles Burney, who was a musician and writer. Her education included reading, writing, music, and languages, and she also received guidance from family friends in London after the family moved there in 1760.
Sponsor:	Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
Unveiled:	6 Jul 2007
Location:	Windsor Castle Wall, St Albans Street, Windsor, SL4 1PF
Famous for:	Frances “Fanny” Burney, later known as Madame D’Arblay, was a pioneering English novelist, diarist, and courtier. Celebrated for works like Evelina (1778), Cecilia (1782), and Camilla (1796), she won admiration from literary greats including Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and David Garrick. Her diaries vividly record life within 18th-century literary circles and her years as Second Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte (1786–91). Born in King’s Lynn and the daughter of Dr Charles Burney, she became a literary sensation with Evelina, which was so compelling that Burke reportedly read it through the night. Her influence on later writers was profound: Jane Austen admired her work and even subscribed to Camilla, while Virginia Woolf later described Burney as “the mother of English fiction”.
Windlesora:	“Memorial to Hester Davenport“ “Jane, Henry and the Crutchleys“, by Chris Viveash in Windlesora 28 (2012)

Images

Curator's Notes

See “Curtain up on famous women” from the Windsor and Slough Express of 20 Jul 2007.

There is another plaque erected in 1885 by (Royal) Society of Arts at 11 Bolton Street, Mayfair, London, W1J 8BB.

Curator's References

Commemorative plaques on the RBWM website.

Frances Burney, NPG 2634 © National Portrait Gallery, London; CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

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