Parkes, Elizabeth "Bessie" Rayner (1829-1924)

After George Eliot moved to London to start her career in publishing in 1851, Bessie Parkes formed a close friendship with her that would last until Eliot's death. Parkes was a feminist author, editor, and campaigner who lobbied for better education and employment opportunities for women and with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (another close friend of Eliot's), Parkes successfully petitioned for the passing of the Married Women's Property Act of 1870. Parkes claimed she was one of the few friends Eliot informed prior to her momentous trip to Germany with Lewes in 1854, and the two traded letters during the months Eliot was away. Parkes saw little of Eliot in the mid-1850s and on, but they still wrote to each other and spoke of their close friendship; an invitation to Parkes to come for lunch was among Eliot's last letters. At the age of 38, Parkes married a Frenchman named Louis Belloc and moved to Algiers, France with him. The couple had two children before Louis died suddenly in 1872, after only 5 years of marriage. Their children, Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868-1947) and Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), went on to become renowned writers.

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