Mary Josephine Elizabeth Foley
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Mary Josephine Elizabeth Doyle née Foley aka The Ma'am (8 july 1837 - 30 december 1920) was the mother of Arthur Conan Doyle. Married to Charles Altamont Doyle, she had 9 children : Annette (Tottie/Nan) (1856), Catherine (1858), Arthur (1859), Mary (1861), Caroline (Lottie) (1866), Constance (Connie) (1868), Innes (Duff) (1873), Jane (Ida) (1875), Bryan Mary (Dodo) (1877).
Photos
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Mary Foley aged 17 (Drawn by Richard Doyle, July 1854). -
Mary Foley aged 30 (1867). -
Mary Doyle aged 54 (1891). -
Family photo with Mary Doyle is sitting in the center with the bonnet (1904). -
Mary Doyle with his daughter Connie (1910s). -
Mary Doyle at Masongill house (1910s). -
Mary Doyle at Masongill cottage (1910s). -
Grave of Mary Doyle at Grayshott, inscribed "To Know Her Was To Love Her."
Arthur Conan Doyle about his mother
In his auto-biography Memories and Adventures, he wrote :
- « In the household was a bright-eyed, very intelligent younger daughter, Mary, who presently went off to France and returned as a very cultivated young woman. The romance is easily understood, and so Charles Doyle in the year 1855 married Mary Foley, my mother, the young couple still residing with my grandmother. [..] But it was still my dear mother who bore the long, sordid strain. Often I said to her, "When you are old, Mammie, you shall have a velvet dress and gold glasses and sit in comfort by the fire." Thank God, it so came to pass. [..] He greatly admired my dear little mother with her grey Irish eyes and her vivacious Celtic ways—indeed, no one met her without being captivated by her. » — Chapter I. Early Recollections.
- « My mother, however, who had never been a very devoted daughter of that great institution [i.e. Roman Catholic faith], became less so as life progressed, and finally found her chief consolation in the Anglican fold. » — Chapter III. Recollections of a Student.
- « I answered that I was by no means sure of my literary success as yet, and that I could not so easily abandon the medical career which had cost my mother such sacrifices and myself so many years of study. » — Chapter IX. Pulling Up the Anchor.
- « Soon after its appearance it was translated into French, and my dear old mother, herself a great French scholar, had the joy when she visited Fontainebleau to hear the official guide tell the drove of tourists that if they really wanted to know about the Court of the great monarch, they would find the clearest and most accurate account in an Englishman's book, "The Refugees." » — Chapter X. The Great Break.
- « On September 18, 1907, I married Miss Jean Leckie, the younger daughter of a Blackheath family whom I had known for years, and who was a dear friend of my mother and sister. » — Chapter XXI. The Years Between the Wars.
- « In the presence of Miss Besinnet as medium and of several witnesses I have seen my mother and my nephew, young Oscar Hornung, as plainly as ever I saw them in life—so plainly that I could almost have counted the wrinkles of the one and the freckles of the other. In the darkness the face of my mother shone up, peaceful, happy, slightly inclined to one side, the eyes closed. My wife upon my right and the lady upon my left both saw it as clearly as I did. The lady had not known my mother in life but she said, "How wonderfully like she is to her son," which will show how clear was the detail of the features. » — Chapter XXXII. The Psychic Quest.
Important dates in her life
1837
- 8 july : Mary Josephine Elizabeth Foley was born in Lismore, Ireland.
1855
- 31 july : Marriage with Charles Altamont Doyle at Edinburgh's Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary.
1856
- 22 july : Birth of her first child Annette (Tottie/Nan).
1857
- Charles and Mary lived at 1 South Nelson Street, Edinburgh.
1858
- 22 april : Birth of her 2nd child Catherine.
- 22 october : Death of this 2nd child.
- Charles and Mary lived at 5 Nelson Street, Edinburgh.
- Charles and Mary lived at 11, Picardy Place, Edinburgh until 1861.
1859
- 22 may : Birth of her 3rd child Arthur.
1861
- 4 may : Birth of her 4th child Mary.
- Charles and Mary lived at 3 Tower Bank, (Tower Bank House) Portobello.
1863
- 3 june : Death of her 4th child.
1866
- 22 february : Birth of her 5th child Caroline (Lottie).
- Charles and Mary lived at 3 Tower Bank, (Tower Bank House) Portobello.
1868
- 4 march : Birth of her 6th child Constance (Connie).
- Charles and Mary lived at Liberton Bank, Liberton (Edinburgh).
1873
- 31 march : Birth of her 7th child Innes (Duff).
1875
- 16 march : Birth of her 8th child Jane (Ida).
- Charles and Mary lived at 2, Argyle Park Terrace.
1877
- 2 march : Birth of her 9th child Bryan Mary (Dodo).
1920
- 30 december : Death of Mary aged 83. She was buried at Grayshott, next to his daughter-in-law Louisa and his grand-son Kingsley.
Related articles
- 30.12.1920 : Death of Mrs Doyle (obituary)
- 01.01.1921 : Sir A. Conan Doyle's Mother (obituary)
Performers
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Alison Leggatt as Ma'am (ACD's mother) (1972). -
Margaret Hakansson as Mrs Mary Foley Doyle in Sherlock Holmes and the Lure of the Reichenbach (1995) -
Sarah Collier as Mary Doyle in The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes (2000). -
Sinéad Cusack as Mary Doyle in The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle (2005). -
Sandra Voe as Mary Doyle in Arthur & George (2015).
