Life
Frederick James Furnivall was born at Egham, Surrey, the son of a surgeon who had made his fortune from running the Great Fosters lunatic asylum. He was educated at University College London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took an undistinguished mathematics degree. He was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn in 1849 and practiced desultorily until 1870.
In 1862 Furnivall married Eleanor Nickel Dalziel (born ca. 1838 —died 1937). Some authors describe her as a lady's maid, which would have been a socially unusual match at the time, although her social status is disputed. Some time before 1866, Furnivall lost a child, Eena, whom he described as "my sweet, bright, only child". He lost his inheritance in a financial crash in 1867. When he was 58, he separated from Eleanor and their one surviving son to continue a relationship with a 21-year-old female editor named Teena Rochfort-Smith . Two months after his formal separation from Eleanor, Rochfort-Smith suffered serious burns while burning correspondence in Goole and died in 1883.
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