Norton, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (Sheridan)

Norton, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (Sheridan), 1808–77, English author; granddaughter of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She gained more renown for her eventful life than for her writings. Her husband George Norton's divorce suit, with Lord Melbourne as correspondent, caused a sensation in its time. Although Norton lost the suit, he was given custody of their children and allowed to collect his wife's literary earnings. Her writings included poems and novels; however, she is best-remembered for English Laws for Women in the Nineteenth Century (1854) and A Letter to the Queen (1855), both of which helped bring about improvement of the status of married women in England.