Sophie O'Ferrall Confalonieri

A brief introduction

Sophie O’Ferrall descended from a family with Irish, English, Danish and Russian origins. Her father Roger O’Ferrall was Chamberlain of the Kingdom of Denmark and owned many plantations (as well as slaves) on the Island of Saint Croix, in the US Virgin Islands. In 1797 he married the daughter of the Russian Titular Counsellor and Conference Secretary in Helsingor, Sophie Krempien (or Krempion). 

Sophie O’Ferrall was the penultimate of eight children. Her death certificate states she was born in 1812, likely in Devonshire, where the O’Ferrall family lived before moving to Copenhagen. She lived in the capital of Denmark until 1830 when she joined her brother Edward in Paris, at their aunt’s Madame de Bourke, widow of the Danish minister Edmund de Bourke. 

Soon after Sophie made the acquaintance of Anne Lister who kindly enough travelled with her across Germany to Copenhagen in the summer of 1833. Sophie remained in Denmark until 1839, with her sister Countess Emily Blücher, when she made her way back to the French capital. Two years later, she married the Italian patriot  Count Federico Confalonieri from Milan. After her husband’s death she actively supported the Italian unification cause (1861). 

Sophie died in Blevio, near Lake Como, where she had eventually settled.

For a more in-depth look at Sophie O'Ferrall's life, see ongoing research by Anne Lister Italia.