Adelaide de Montgolfier was born in 1789 in Annonay, France, the daughter of Adelaide and Jacques-Etienne de Montgolfier. Her father (1745-1799) was the co-inventor of the Montgolfière hot air balloon. Adelaide de Montgolfier turned down an offer of marriage in 1811 (see GCPP Parkes 17a/1/2/1). She was a close friend of Louise Swanton Belloc (1796-1881, writer, translator and Parisian salonnière), whom she probably met in Annonay in the 1820s. Adelaide was also a writer and undertook some work in collaboration with Louise. She was godmother to Louise’s younger daughter Adelaide Belloc (1828-1897, known as Lily, later Mme Millet, later Mme Ballot). During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and the Siege of Paris Adelaide de Montgolfier remained in Paris. She wrote many letters during this period to Louise, who spent the war in exile first in the Isle of Wight and then in Richmond, Surrey. Adelaide de Montgolfier died in 1880 and was buried at La Celle St Cloud near Paris.