Kate's ancestor was the first 'royal influencer' long before Meghan

By Victoria Ward

The Duchess of Sussex may consider herself a royal trailblazer when it comes to promoting the joy of hosting.

But research reveals that she is following in the footsteps of one of the Princess of Wales's ancestors, who was among the world's first home lifestyle women "influencers".

Harriet Martineau was a feminist, a social reformer and one of the leading thinkers of the 19th century.

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Not only did she campaign women's rights, she also promoted a wholesome domestic idyll, offering advice to parents of young children about how to eat healthily, grow vegetables and keep bees.

Her father, Thomas, was the Princess's great, great, great, great, great grandfather, drawing inevitable comparisons with the former Kate Middleton.

But it is Meghan, whose Netflix lifestyle and cookery series was released this month, who appears to be more closely emulating her career path.

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Born in 1802, Martineau had a notable following as well as an impressive social circle comprising many, like her, who harboured hopes of changing the world.

She counted Charles Darwin, Charlotte Brontë, Florence Nightingale and George Eliot among her high-profile friends.

While they could not be paraded on television, their interactions were recorded in writing.

After one visit, Brontë described Martineau as "warm and welcoming", adding after another: "Of my kind hostess, I cannot speak in terms too highly."

Australian historian Michael Reed said Martineau was, in many ways, the original influencer.

"She was an intellectual and a leading abolitionist but she also had strong ideas about how to raise a family," he said.

"She wasn't sprinkling flowers everywhere but spoke of the 'joy' of home life to her audience.

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"She built up a huge following and admirable reputation from her books, lectures and many newspaper articles – success I imagine Meghan would love to replicate."

Gaby Weiner, an academic and writer who is a member of the Martineau Society, said Martineau very much wanted to have an impact on society.

"I'd say she was much more influential and radical than Meghan," she said.

"She had a really good eye and ear for what was current. She was very progressive.

"When she went to the US she was feted by all, she was very influential in government and courted by politicians."

Ms Weiner said Martineau's appeal was her engaging writing style, with one of her earliest books on the political economy outselling Charles Dickens at that time.

Her views on "life at home" were explored in her 1848 book, Household Education, in which she extolled the virtues of "warm domestic affections" and "family happiness", adding that "fresh butter and the array of fowls and the heaps of eggs and the piles of vegetables and fruit should be admired".

The book achieved huge success on both sides of the Atlantic. It can still be found listed in top 100 women's non-fiction texts.

New York's Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review said in 1849: "The book should be in the hands, and its contents carefully 'learned, marked and digested' by every mother who speaks the English language."

Some 175 years later, the Duchess's Netflix offering, With Love, Meghan, did not garner quite such favourable reviews, described by Hollywood trade bible Variety as "a Montecito ego trip not worth taking".

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Similarly however, the Duchess repeatedly hailed the joy of a vegetable crudité board or a fruit platter, expressing gushing appreciation for eggs.

The Duchess, although admitting she was an amateur beekeeper, also collected honey from her hives, stating: "It's beautiful to be this connected."

While Meghan did not pretend to know much about bees, Martineau had an avenue of lime trees planted for them.

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In her 1850 book, A Year at Ambleside, she recorded in detail about how she planted the gardens at her new home, The Knoll, in Ambleside, Cumbria, describing the evergreens that would "cheer the eye in winter", lime trees for bees, and "thorns and hollies" for the garden birds.

She described the "joy of her glee when she first knew the sunshine, and the flowers, and the opening spring", telling readers that at home, their children "should see that the peace and joy of the household depends on ease of conscience".

Both Brontë and William Wordsworth, the poet, enjoyed planting trees in Martineau's vast garden.

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The Duchess boasted about her own abundance of citrus and fruit trees, which she said provided so much fruit she gave much of it away.

Her own love of gardening saw her dole out advice on the merits of flower arranging and creating children's garden-themed party bags.

While Meghan is currently focused on promoting a domestic idyll, she has also made no secret of her political leanings, describing herself as "a feminist and champion of human rights and gender equity".

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Martineau travelled to the US at a time when such trips for single women were unheard of and brought back a bestselling book of her observations, Society In America.

She also commanded the respect of the Royal family but retained a healthy scepticism about the monarchy.

Invited to the 1838 coronation of Queen Victoria – who enjoyed her books – she later described the ceremony as "worthy only of the old Pharaonic times in Egypt".

Her allegorical novel The Peasant and the Prince, about two characters from wildly different social backgrounds whose paths collide, delves into themes of social justice and class.

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One notable likeness between the two women is their natural propensity for self-promotion.

In many of her guides to the Lake District, Martineau informed readers about how to locate her own house: "The house on the rising ground behind the chapel is The Knoll, the residence of Miss H Martineau."

In a 2014 blog post about Victorian women, writer Alexis Easley said that "Harriet Martineau, perhaps more than any other Victorian woman writer, understood the importance of capitalising on celebrity culture" as a means of ensuring her own enduring fame.

Meghan has insisted that despite the imminent launch of her lifestyle business, As Ever, which has been widely plugged on social media, she was not an influencer.

"I see myself as an entrepreneur and a female founder and if the brand ends up influential, then that's great," she has said.

However, the Duchess would surely be delighted to one day be considered in such high regard as her sister-in-law's ancestor.

Maria Weston Chapman, the author who published Memorials of Harriet Martineau shortly after her death in 1876, wrote of her subject: "There are persons whose gift is to influence; persons of so loving a nature that, without a thought of popularity, they make themselves generally and passionately beloved; and of these she (Martineau) was the chiefest."

© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2023

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