Louisa Baldwin

The MacDonald sisters were four women of 19th-century English society, notable for their familial connections and marriages to prominent figures. They were Alice MacDonald, Georgiana MacDonald, Agnes MacDonald, and Louisa MacDonald. Their father was Reverend George Browne Macdonald (1805–1868), a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and their mother was Hannah Jones (1809–1875). The family had a total of eleven children, comprising seven daughters and four sons. The children included Mary (1834–1836), the firstborn; Henry (1836–1891), known as Harry; Alice (1837–1910); Caroline (1838–1854); Georgiana (1840–1920); Frederic William (1842–1928); Agnes (1843–1906); Louisa (1845–1925); Walter (1847–1847); Edith (1848–1937); and Herbert (1850–1851).

Alice MacDonald was born on 4 April 1837 in Sheffield. She married John Lockwood Kipling in March 1865. At that time, her husband had been appointed as Architectural Sculptor and Professor of Modelling at the School of Art and Industry in Bombay, now known as the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art. Alice and John Lockwood Kipling’s son, Rudyard Kipling, was born on 30 December 1865 on the school's campus.

Georgiana MacDonald was born on 28 July 1840 following her father’s assignment to a Birmingham Methodist circuit, where her family moved after her birth. She married Edward Burne-Jones, a member of the Birmingham Set, a group of artists and writers, in 1859. Georgiana and Edward Burne-Jones had three children: Philip, Christopher (who died in infancy), and Margaret. She became the mother-in-law of John William Mackail and grandmother of Denis Mackail and Angela Thirkell.

Agnes MacDonald was recognized for her talent as a pianist and was reputed to be the most attractive of the sisters. She married Edward Poynter, who would become the president of the Royal Academy, in 1866. Their marriage was a double wedding with her sister Louisa. Agnes’s husband experienced episodes of manic depression, and Agnes was noted as a source of affection in their household. She was associated with Burne-Jones’s painting "Green Summer" as an inspiration for one of the figures. Agnes MacDonald Poynter likely died in 1906 from cancer, after an operation in 1903.

Louisa MacDonald, born in 1845, was a writer. She married industrialist Alfred Baldwin in 1866, participating in a double wedding with Agnes. Their son was Stanley Baldwin, who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times. Louisa experienced health problems, including miscarriages and periods of darkness, which some have attributed to hypochondria. The family traveled during the 1870s to seek cures. She recovered in 1883 and became active in her local community near Stourport. She authored several works, including "A Martyr to Mammon" (1886) and "The Story of a Marriage" (1889). Louisa Baldwin also engaged in the arts by commissioning stained glass windows from Edward Burne-Jones for Wilden church. She is also recognized as the grandmother of Oliver and Arthur Baldwin, Earls Baldwin of Bewdley.

The MacDonald sisters' familial and marital associations linked them to notable cultural, artistic, and political figures of their era, with their lives intersecting significant domains of Victorian society.