Possible Clues:

• 18's first lady outside the border
• A mother to a Jarrow scholar was a carpenter
• Book by George Eliot
• A lady must include plot in novel
• A woman admits plot is novel
• Eliot novel
• A titled lady crossing border in novel
• First man with a venerable name in Victorian novel
• Confine to bed in A&E? That's novel!
• Lying down, mother's devoured English novel