Hannah Whitall Smith Correspondence: Lady Georgina Mount-Temple

Georgina Cowper-Temple (Tollemache) (1822-Oct. 17, 1901) was one of nine daughters of Admiral John Richard Delap Tollemache, who along with their three brothers were raised in Surrey.  She married William Cowper-Temple on November 21, 1848 and was his second wife, later to become Lord and Lady Mount-Temple. William would serve as private secretary to Lord Melbourne when he was Prime Minister and serve as a minister in the government of Lord Palmerston. Georgina became a major supporter of social reforms and formed friendships covering a wide spectrum of people. William inherited the Broadlands estate in Romsey in 1868.

The Mount Temples were very interested in religious matters and were friends with a number of Evangelical leaders, but they also formed friendships with unorthodox Christians, and had a particularly strong interest in spiritualism. All of this they saw as their way of searching for truth. But their main contribution was an annual ecumenical conference, which they would hold at their Broadlands estate from 1874 to 1888. It was here that William Boardman, Robert Pearsall Smith, and Hannah Whitall Smith would introduce and spread the holiness message, leading to the formation of the Deeper Life Movement in Britain. The Broadlands Conferences were not just for orthodox Christians or the Holiness Movement, and one might also encounter Hindus and mediums as well, however the Keswick Conventions emerged out of the Broadlands Conference to become a more representative holiness movement.

Georgina Mount-Temple would remain a close friend of Hannah Whitall Smith, and as such became involved in the Temperance Movement. However, she was also a leader in the Torquay Anti-Vivisection Society and in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It is likely that Hannah was able to meet such a wide range of Victorian society through her close relationship to Lady Mount-Temple.