Editing Jane Wilde (section)

==Life==

=== Early life === 
Jane was the last of the four children of Charles Elgee (1783–1824), the son of Archdeacon [[John Elgee]], a [[Wexford]] solicitor, and his wife Sarah (née Kingsbury, d. 1851). Her mother came from a prosperous Protestant family in Dublin and was considered a great beauty. Jane was the youngest of four children of the couple, her older siblings being Emily, John, and Frances (who died as an infant)

She claimed that her great-grandfather was an Italian surnamed Algiati <ref>{{Cite book |last=Sturgis |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbWfEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22william+wilde%22+%22black+oak+shop%22&pg=PP25 |title=Oscar: A Life |date=2018-10-04 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-78854-596-9 |language=en}}</ref> which was said to be a derived from [[Dante Alighieri|Alighieri]] thus inferring a relationship with the famous poet. This ancestor was said to have had come to Wexford in the 18th century; in fact, the Elgees descended from Durham labourers who had gained prosperity as builders and bricklayers and then in succeeding generations, became part of the [[gentry]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Sturgis |first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Sturgis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2FNNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP26 |title=Oscar: A Life |publisher=Head of Zeus |year=2019 |isbn=9781788545983 |location=London |page=9 |quote=Jane had also convinced herself that the Elgee name derived from the Italian 'Algiati' – and from this (imaginary) connection she was happy to make the short leap to claiming kinship with [[Dante]] Alighieri (in fact the Elgees descended from a long line of Durham labourers). |access-date=28 June 2022 |orig-year=2018}}</ref>

Her maternal aunt Emily was married to the author [[Charles Maturin]], though his death two years before her own birth precluded her ever meeting him, but whose bust Jane would display in her home as an adult.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hanberry |first=Gerard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1QiWDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22sarah+elgee+maturin&pg=PT21 |title=More Lives Than One |date=2011-09-29 |publisher=Gill & Macmillan Ltd |isbn=978-1-84889-943-8 |language=en}}</ref> Another aunt, Elizabeth, was married to the politician [[Sir Charles Ormsby, 1st Baronet|Sir Charles Montagu Ormsby]] while her paternal aunt and namesake Jane Elgee was the mother of the arctic explorer [[Robert McClure]] who discovered the Northwestern passage.

Jane's father died at [[Bangalore|Bangalore, India]] when she was just three years old, leaving her mother to raise her and her siblings. The family moved to Wexford, where they lived in modest circumstances.

==== Youth ====

As a young woman, Jane was considered a beauty with dark eyes, jet-black hair and tall in stature. Her education was undertaken by a succession of governesses and tutors. She is said to have mastered ten languages by the age of 18 under the instruction of Richard Waddy Elgee, her paternal uncle.

Jane's brother John emigrated to the [[United States]] when she was just nine years old. He became a lawyer and a judge in [[Louisiana]]. Jane, her mother, and older sister Emily, moved back to Dublin to live at Lower Leeson Street No. 34.

Her older sister, Emily, would go on to marry an officer and, after his appointment as Deputy Quartermaster General of [[Jamaica]], would live most of her married life abroad in the [[West Indies]]. Jane's brother-in-law, being an English officer, caused a strain between the sisters on account of Jane's nationalism. The sisters remained distant even after Emily's return to Britain.

Jane and her mother continued to live on Leeson Street. In 1849, Elgee translated the Gothic tale ''[[Sidonia von Borcke|Sidonia the Sorceress]]'' (1847) by [[Wilhelm Meinhold|Willhelm Meinhold]] from German into English.

Jane met William Wilde, either as a patient or through literary circles, near the end of the 1840s. Jane reviewed Wilde's book, The Beauties of the Boyne, and Its Tributary, the Blackwater (1849)