Julia Mary Seton Abel Smith[1]DL is a British historian and historical preservationist. She has authored the books Pavilions in Peril (1988) and Forbidden Wife (2020), the latter of which is about the relationship and eventual marriage of
Lady Augusta Murray and
Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex. She also served as
High Sheriff of Essex (2013–2014).
Biography
Julia Wolton was born in 1959 or 1960.[2] She was educated at
Selwyn College, Cambridge, obtaining a degree in Art History.[3][4] She married Charles Abel Smith, a descendant of the Smith family.[5][a]
She worked for
Save Britain's Heritage and as a historical researcher for the
Landmark Trust.[4][8] In 1987, she wrote a report on the deteriorating state of British garden buildings for Save Britain's Heritage, titled Pavilion in Peril;[9] the same and next year, she and the report were cited in several news articles on the condition of
follies, including in the New York Times.[10][11][12][13][14][15] She also has a career of creating catalogues of art, including a cataloguing project of sculptures in public ownership within Bedfordshire, Essex, and Hertfordshire and
Art UK's catalogues of paintings located at the
University of Cambridge or in public ownership within Essex.[8][4]
In February 2020, Abel Smith published Forbidden Wife, a historical book about the relationship and eventual marriage of
Lady Augusta Murray and
Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex.[16] She had come up with the idea after learning about Murray during her research on the
Dunmore Pineapple and being inspired by the obscure nature of Murray's history.[17][18] In her review of The Forbidden Wife for Tatler, Francesca Carington described Abel Smith as "a wonderful storyteller", noting that "her descriptions of late-eighteenth-century Virginia, Rome and London are almost novel-like in colour and detail".[19] She also wrote Augusta's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article.[17]
^"[cover]". Country Life. 12 June 1986. Miss Julia Wolton, only daughter of Mr and Mrs John Wolton, of The Old Rectory, Little Saxham, Suffolk, is to be married to Mr Charles Abel Smith, only son of Mr and Mrs Wilfrid Abel Smith