Emily (sometimes written Emilie), was the daughter of Matthew de Putron, a member of Victor Hugo’s small but loyal entourage of Guernsey friends, and Marthe Bourgaize. A shipbuilder and trader (possibly also a smuggler) Matthew helped Victor Hugo source builders and furniture when he first arrived in Guernsey, and was the model for Mess Lethierry, canny uncle of Deruchette in Toilers of the Sea. He lived near Hauteville – the De Putrons had held land in Hauteville for centuries – but was not a member of the island’s elite. In fact, one of the grand De Saumarez family wrote that they were very keen to make sure that their sons were not educated with the likes of ‘De Putron’s sons’. Matthew De Putron built large sea-faring vessels in a ship-yard in St Julian’s Avenue. No doubt Victor Hugo was particularly taken with the necessity for the harbour wall to be knocked down and rebuilt every time De Putron needed to launch a ship! Matthew De Putron had been a neighbour of Henry Marquand, the editor of the Gazette de Guernesey and devoted acolyte of Victor Hugo. Henry Marquand eventually marrried Matthew’s eldest daughter, Martha. His youngest, Mary, married Théophile Guérin, François-Victor Hugo’s great friend and fellow Guernsey exile.
François-Victor and Emily met and bonded over their shared love of Shakespeare: François-Victor was a committed anglophile and translated the complete works of Shakespeare into French while he was in exile with his father. Victor Hugo visited London in the company of Mr and Mrs De Putron, Emily and François-Victor (it was in London that the photograph of her (below) was taken), and became godfather to Mary’s child with Henry Marquand. Emily was godmother. Georges Victor-Hugo, Victor Hugo’s grandson, was very fond of his uncle François-Victor and writes warmly of Emily de Putron, whom he had never met but whom family tradition remembered as quiet and gentle. She died of tubercolosis in January 1865, while Victor Hugo was in the process of writing Toilers of the Sea. François-Victor never married and died in 1873 at the age of 45 from renal tubercolosis.