“Whatever we are to call it”

Adeline Virginia Stephen was born in 1882, into a distinguished Victorian family. Her paternal great grandfather, James Stephen (1758–1832), a self-made man, was a lawyer, fervent abolitionist, and friend of the famed English abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759–1833), whose sister he married after his first wife’s death. He had three sons, all of whom became successful lawyers.