Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, Lady Stirling-Maxwell (née Sheridan; 22 March 1808 – 15 June 1877)[1] was an active English social reformer and author.

Although the jury found her friend not guilty of adultery, she failed to gain a divorce and was denied access to her three sons due to the laws at the time which favoured fathers.

[3][1] Her father was an actor, soldier and colonial administrator, the son of the prominent Irish playwright and Whig statesman Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his wife Elizabeth Ann Linley.

[4][5][6] Caroline's Scottish mother was the daughter of a landed gentleman, Col. Sir James Callander of Craigforth and Lady Elizabeth MacDonnell, sister of an Irish peer, the 1st Marquess of Antrim.

[7][8] Mrs. Sheridan authored three short novels described by one of her daughter's biographers as "rather stiff with the style of the eighteenth century, but none without a certain charm and wit...."[9] In 1817, her father died in South Africa while serving as colonial secretary at the Cape of Good Hope.

[11] Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, an old friend of her grandfather, arranged for them to live at Hampton Court Palace in a "grace and favour" apartment for several years.

Through her, Caroline became the aunt of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, later the third Governor General of Canada and eighth Viceroy of India.

In 1827, she married George Chapple Norton, barrister, Member of Parliament for Guildford, and the younger brother of Lord Grantley.

[15] During her early married years, Caroline used her beauty, wit and political ties to set herself up as a major society hostess.

[5][15] Her unorthodox behaviour and candid conversation raised many eyebrows in 19th-century English high society; she made enemies and admirers in almost equal measure.

[26] Not long after their separation, George abducted their sons, hiding them with relatives in Scotland and later in Yorkshire, refusing to tell Caroline their whereabouts.

[14][27][28][29] George accused Caroline of involvement in an ongoing affair with a close friend, Lord Melbourne, then Whig Prime Minister.

"[24] Despite this admission, hoping to avert an even worse scandal, he pleaded with Caroline to return to George, insisting that "a woman should never part from her husband whilst she can remain with him.

"[24] Lord Melbourne relented a few days later, stating that he understood her decision to leave: This conduct upon his part seems perfectly unaccountable...You know that I have always counselled you to bear everything and remain to the last.

[30]At the end of a nine-day trial, the jury threw out George's claim, siding with Melbourne,[31] but the publicity almost brought down the government.

[14] Due to her dismal domestic situation, Caroline became deeply involved in the passage of laws promoting social justice, especially those granting rights to married and divorced women.

When Parliament debated divorce reform in 1855, Caroline submitted to members a detailed account of her own marriage, and described the difficulties faced by women as the result of existing laws.

If her husband take proceedings for a divorce, she is not, in the first instance, allowed to defend herself...She is not represented by attorney, nor permitted to be considered a party to the suit between him and her supposed lover, for "damages."

[53] In 1854, her remaining son, Thomas Brinsley Norton, married a young Italian, Maria Chiara Elisa Federigo, whom he met in Naples.

John caused a scandal in 1879 by running off with another man's wife, the former Katharine McVickar, daughter of a wealthy American stockbroker.