Florence Marryat

British author and actress, daughter of author Capt. Frederick Marryat (Children of the The New Forest), particularly known for her sensational novels and her involvement with several celebrated spiritual mediums of the late nineteenth century. Her works include There is No Death (1891) and The Spirit World (1894). Marryat's parents separated when she was young; her childhood was divided between her parents' residences, where she was privately educated. Shortly before her 21st birthday, she wed Thomas Ross Church, an officer in the Madras staff corps of the British Army in India; they spent the first seven years of their married life traveling India extensively before she returned to England in 1860. They had eight children but divorced in 1879; later that year, Marryat wed Colonel Francis Lean.