Age
The Dashwood girls judge her to be “not more than six or seven and twenty.”
Family and Situation
Lady Middleton is the daughter of Mrs. Jennings and the late Mr. Jennings, making her the sister of Charlotte Palmer. She is the wife of Sir John Middleton and together they have four children: John, William, and Annamaria, and one other child.
The Middletons live at Barton Park in Barton, Devonshire. They also appear to have a house in town in Conduit Street.
Lady Middleton has an uncle, her mother's brother, who lives in Weymouth. The families are close enough that her sister Charlotte is staying with him when the novel begins.
Connections
We’re told her husband’s wanted. But they would have been improved by some share of his frankness and warmth...though perfectly well-bred, she was reserved, cold, and had nothing to say for herself beyond the most common-place inquiry or remark.” We do know, though, that she places great importance on upper class housekeeping, as we’re told “Lady Middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table, and of all her domestic arrangements; and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties.” Elinor feels Lady Middleton contributes nothing to social gatherings and we are told from Elinor’s point-of-view that Lady Middleton “had nothing to say one day that she had not said the day before. Her insipidity was invariable, for even her spirits were always the same; and though she did not oppose the parties arranged by her husband, provided every thing were conducted in style and her two eldest children attended her, she never appeared to receive more enjoyment from them than she might have experienced in sitting at home.”
First and foremost, Lady Middleton is interested in the well-being of children and seems to lack perspective on how others may perceive them. When the Dashwoods visit Barton Park for the first time we’re told “Lady Middleton seemed to be roused to enjoyment only by the entrance of her four noisy children after dinner, who pulled her about, tore her clothes, and put an end to every kind of discourse except what related to themselves.” It is through attentions to these children -- who, it is implied, are rather rowdy -- that the Sir John was a sportsman, Lady Middleton a mother. He hunted and shot, and she humoured her children; and these were their only resources.”
Habits and Hobbies
When Marianne comes to play the pianoforte at Barton Park, the narrator says she “went through the chief of the songs which Lady Middleton had brought into the family on her marriage, and which perhaps had lain ever since in the same position on the pianoforte, for her ladyship had celebrated that event by giving up music, although by her mother's account, she had played extremely well, and by her own was very fond of it.”
