When people hear the name Liddell, they often think of Alice Liddell, the child who inspired Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But the Liddell family tree stretches beyond Oxford and Lewis Carroll’s imagination. One of its more interesting branches for Welton History Group leads us to Alice’s second cousin, Rev. Canon Edward Thomas Liddell (their fathers were cousins)- who, for a while, at the turn of the 20th century, was vicar of Welton — and through him, to a remarkable woman whose talent and influence seem to have been almost lost to history: Christina Catherine Fraser Tytler.
Christina : A forgotten writer
Born near Bombay (Mumbai), Christina Catherine Fraser Tytler (1847 – 1927) grew up between India and the Scottish Highlands. After her mother died giving birth to her sister, the renowned artist Mary Seton Fraser Tytler, Christina and her two siblings were raised at Aldourie Castle on Loch Ness. Her father, who worked for the civil service in India, remained there.
The Fraser Tytler sisters — Christina, Etheldred, and Mary — formed a tight, affectionate trio. The girls spent ten years growing up in the Highlands before their father retired and returned to Scotland with his second wife Harriet, in 1861. He also brought with him the girls’ half siblings, sons Charles, Edward and William and a daughter Eleanor, known as Nelly. Another half sister Eva had died in India. Shortly afterwards, Charles moved the whole family to a new home in Forres.
Christina was determined to write. In an era when women’s literary careers were often dismissed, she persisted — and succeeded. Her debut, Sweet Violet and Other Stories (1868), was well reviewed, praised for its characterisation and emotional insight. She went on to publish:
- A Rose and a Pearl (1870)
- Jasmine Leigh (1871)
- Margaret (1872)
- Mistress Judith: A Cambridgeshire Story (1875)
- Jonathan (1876)
- Making or Marring (1879)
- The Other Half of the World (1881)
She published under several names — C. C. Fraser‑Tytler, Mrs Edward Liddell, and Fraser Tytler — probably to avoid the stigma attached to women novelists. Her poetry often explored Christian themes, reflecting her deep faith and her fascination with life, death, and spiritual longing.
Christina in the Victorian artistic world
Christina’s life was threaded through the artistic circles of the 1860s. She and her sister Etheldred visited Freshwater on the Isle of Wight for the first time in 1867, where they fell under the lens of the groundbreaking photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
In an interesting twist, Cameron’s granddaughter lived briefly in Craven Cottage in Welton during the early 2020s.
Cameron was captivated by the sisters, photographing them repeatedly — often calling Christina “Christiana,” a poetic flourish that suited her ethereal presence. These photographs — The Rosebud Garden of Girls, The Three Sisters, and others — captured the sisters’ beauty, closeness, and artistic sensibility.
Through Cameron’s circle, Christina met renowned painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts, known as “England’s Michelangelo”. It was she who introduced her younger sister Mary to him, setting in motion a celebrated artistic marriage of the Victorian era, despite a thirty year age gap between the couple. Watts greatly admired Christina’s writing, once remarking that her poems carried “a waft of sweet air” and that he envied her gift with words.
Christina, Mary and George: A creative triangle
Christina’s relationship with Mary and George was unusually close. Mary’s private diaries reveal that Christina was not just an occasional visitor to their house, Limnerslease, but a central figure in their daily life. She read with them, debated ideas, shared books by progressive thinkers, and collaborated on artistic projects.
One diary entry describes the three sitting together in the intimate reading alcove at Limnerslease, “his arm round us each,” a scene that suggests a complex emotional dynamic. Christina’s presence shaped their conversations, their creative decisions, and even their philanthropic ideas.
Mary’s diaries reveal that Christina conceived the idea for Watts’ famous Memorial to Heroic Self‑Sacrifice in Postman’s Park, London — although the work has always been attributed solely to George. The slideshow below shows some of the moving memorials displayed there.
Christina was in many ways a bridge between Mary, a celebrated artist in her own right, and George, one of the most successful British artists of the 19th century. She was the person who first connected them, and the person who continued to influence them with her insight, affection, and artistic sensibility.
Enter Edward Thomas Liddell
Christina’s marriage to Rev. Edward Thomas Liddell (1845 – 1914) brought her into another distinguished family. Edward was the son of Hon. George Augustus Frederick Liddell (an English cricketer for Hampshire, Marylebone Cricket Club and England) and Lady Cecil Elizabeth Jane Wellesley (who incidentally was the niece of the Duke of Wellington!)
They married on 26 September 1871 at St John’s Church, Forres, honeymooning in the Lake District.
Educated at Christchurch, Oxford, Edward began his ministry as Rector of Wimpole (1872 – 1876), a wealthy parish on his cousin’s estate. But he felt uneasy living “in so easy a cure” and resigned, choosing instead to serve in Jarrow, one of the harshest industrial towns in England.
Edward moved from rural comfort to Jarrow in 1876, becoming Rector of St Paul’s. The contrast could not have been greater. Jarrow was dominated by shipbuilding, poverty, and harsh working conditions. Edward threw himself into social and missionary work among labourers and their families.
The strain was immense; the physical and emotional demands of Jarrow “broke him down with premature paralysis,” leaving him with chronic illness for the rest of his life.
His efforts in Jarrow did not go unnoticed; he was later made Honorary Canon of Durham Cathedral. He resigned from his position at St Paul’s due to ill health in 1882. His mental health was not helped by his father dying around 1888, after which Edward was reported to have had a nervous breakdown.
Christina and Edward may have spent some time in Italy* to allow Edward to recover, although ill health dogged him for the remainder of his life. (*Note: only brief reference is made to this in one source, but we do know George Watts spent a lot of time in Italy and so this is plausible). They returned and settled in Hertfordshire for a while, before Edward resumed his ministry in the rather less stressful position as vicar of Welton.
The move to Welton
On the retirement in 1894 of the long standing vicar of Welton, Rev Daniel Darnell, Edward took up the role, moving into the vicarage behind The Stone House where Darnell continued to live. He purchased The Stone House (at the time called Hillside) on Darnell’s death in 1897, and let it out.
During his time in Welton he continued to convalesce, yet he remained committed to social welfare. He organised woodwork and carving lessons for unemployed young men, whose handiwork still survives in our church today, in the elaborate carvings of the pulpit and an alms box.
Despite Edward’s declining health, the marriage was warm and intellectually rich. Christina continued her writing, and Edward his studying, preaching, and academic works — including his illustrated history St Alban’s Abbey (1897) – a book still available on Amazon today!
A move to be near her sister
Edward retired in 1902 and the couple moved to Puttenham, near Mary and George Watts’s home Limnerslease. Their house, Birdshanger, still stands. They retained ownership of The Stone House, continuing to let it out, even after Edward died in 1914.
Christina remained deeply connected to Mary and George. Their relationship — part family, part friendship, part creative partnership — was one of the most important of her life. In 1904, it is even said that George called for Christina on his death bed.
She continued writing into her later years, completing a biography of her husband in 1916 called A Shepherd of the Sheep; The Life-Story of an English Parish-Priest. When she died in 1927, she left nearly £6,000 to Mary (around £300,000 in today’s money).
Edward and Christina are buried together at Compton Cemetery, near George and Mary Watts. Their gravestone reads “Edward Liddell – Priest 20/4/1845 – 22/5/1914
and his wife Christina Catherine 14/2/1847 – 29/6/1927″. It seems in death she became once again simply a vicar’s wife.
A legacy worth remembering
During research into Welton’s history we have come across many a cutting that describes Mrs Liddell baking a cake, opening a fete or providing tea on the lawn. But she was so much more than that. Christina Catherine Fraser Tytler was a talented novelist, poet, and a central figure in Victorian artistic networks.
And it’s tempting to view Edward Thomas Liddell as a short footnote to the massively influential and long serving Daniel Darnell. But he was a man of deep conviction who sacrificed comfort for service. And surely, to have had a successful marriage with Christina, an unusually liberal man for the time. Together, they represent a couple defined by creativity and compassion.
We felt their story — from India to Scotland, Freshwater to London, Jarrow to Welton — deserved to be told.
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