Emet-Ulla de Froment

Biography

The daughter of a Turkish chief-janissary, Sar Aly Oda Bachy,¹ she was adopted after the Siege of Otchakov by George Keith, Lord Marischal. In 1763 she converted to christianity, was baptized Marie Emeté, and married Denis-Daniel de Froment,² but the marriage was dissolved in 1765, and Emet-Ulla lived with her adopted father until his death in 1778.³

Life with James Boswell

Boswell first met her on June 13, 1764, when she arrived to Utrecht together with Lord Marischal. Boswell was to accompany them to Berlin.

Although at first she seemed to dislike Boswell, they quickly seemed to find some pleasance in each other's company. On the second day after leaving Utrecht, Boswell wrote of her “I find Madame de Froment very lively, although she has an indolence, or, as the French say, a ‘nonchlance’, that is terrible. She does not dress. Scarcely even will she speak. I talked with her in rather too galant a strain.” On June 27 they discovered that they were both subject to the occasional bout of serious depression. She said that “[e]xercise and dissipation, with moderate enjoyment, were the only remedies”.

They dined tête-à-tête on several occasions, as the Earl Marischal was often otherwise engaged due to his higher status.

Notes

Note 1: The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1766-1769, Volume 1: 1766-1767, p. 146

Note 2: The Journal of his German and Swiss Travels, 1764, p. 4

Note 3: Correspondence of James Boswell and John Johnston, p. 132

Mentioned in

Emet-Ulla de Froment is mentioned in:

• Boswell in Holland 1763-1764
• Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1763-1764