Timeline: Women write; the Devon text; A Chronological list of names, places and texts.

Timeline: Women write; the Devon text; a Chronological list of names, places and texts   

Old Vicarage Ilfracombe 
Charlotte Chanter and her husband
(Photo: kindly provided by Ilfracombe Museum)

 

Here you'll find a chronological list with names of some of the women writers who had connections with Devon, information about the place where they lived or stayed, followed by one or more of their writings, followed by the date of printing or publishing, if known and in some cases a link to find out more. In no way is this a definitive list of all the women who may have written in or about Devon up to 1965, but many of them are key to the lost canon of female writers connected with the county.

Medieval-Tudor

Margaret Beaufort, Duchess of Richmond, Henry VII’s Mother. Sampford Peverell: Translation of Blanchardine and Eglantine, 1488; Ship of Fools printed, 1509.

Honor Grenville, Viscountess Lisle, (b. ca.1493). married Sir John Bassett of Umberleigh. Keen letter writer, remembered because of The Lisle Letters. 

Katherine Courtenay, sister in law of Henry VII, Tiverton Castle: Will, 1527.

Anne Dowriche, Mount Edgecumbe, Lapford and Honiton: The French Histoire, 1589.

Ursula Fulford, of Great Fulford, may have known Anne Dowrich and may have written or translated early texts.

Anne Prowse (Vaughan-Locke), Exeter: The Marks of the Children of God, (Translation), 1589.

Anne, Lady Southwell (Harris), Cornworthy, Commonplace Book, early C16.
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Civil War/Stuarts

Priscilla Cotton, Exeter: To the Priests and People of England, 1655.

Susanna Parr, Exeter: Vindication, 1659.

Celia Fiennes 1662-1741, Journalist, visited Exeter 1698 and Mount Edgecumbe, 1680s

 
Elizabeth Polwhele, Tiverton: The Faithful Virgins,1670; The Frolics. 

Mary Lady Chudleigh, Ashton: The Ladies Defence, 1701.

Lady Ann Clifford, Chudleigh, Pharmacopia, 1690.

Late C17-end C18

Mary Palmer (1716–1794),  Plymouth (See Plymouth's Literary Past)  and Torrington. See A Devonshire Dialect

Delariviere Manley, in South-West England, 1694-96, Stage Coach Jou rney to Exeter, 1725.

Catherine Jemmat, (Yeo), born Exeter, Memoirs and Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, 1750's.

Hannah Cowley, Tiverton, The Runaway, 1776; Collected Works, 1813; The Maid of Aragon, 1780.

Joanna Southcott, Gittisham, Strange Effects of Faith, 1792.

Mary Hunt, Exeter, On Visiting Dunkeswell Abbey, 1786.

C19

Elizabeth Simcoe, Wolford near Honiton, Canadian Diary, 1796.

Elizabeth Thomas/Bridget Bluemantle, Berry, The Husband and Wife, 1808 and other novels.

Sophie Dixon, Plymouth, Ten Days Excursion on the Western and Northern Borders of Dartmoor, 1830.

Margaret Croker, Holbeton, The Question, Who is Anna? (?)

Anna Eliza Bray, Tavistock, The Borders of the Tamar and Tavy, 1879.

Mary Ward, Brixham, Original Poems, 1807.

Ann Dunsterville, Exeter, Poems on Several Occasions, 1807.

Mary Maria Colling, Tavistock, Fables and Other Pieces in Verse, 1831.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sidmouth and Torquay, Prometheus Bound (trans), 1833.

Mary Windeatt, Ashburton, Legend of Totnes Castle. 

Grace Aguilar, Tavistock and Teignmouth, The Magic Wreath, 1835.

George Eliot, Ilfracombe, Recollections of Ilfracombe, 1856.

Elizabeth Charles, Tavistock, The Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family, 1862.

Charlotte Yonge, Puslinch, ​The Daisy Chain, 1856.

Charlotte Chanter, Ilfracombe, Ferny Combes, 1856.

Maria Susannah Gibbons, East Budleigh, Travels in a Donkey, 1885/7.

Christabel Coleridge, Torquay, Tender Mercies of the Good, 1895.

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, Poetry (childhood holidays Halsdon, in Devon). 

Mary St Leger Harrison (Lucas Malet), Clovelly, Mrs Lorimer; a Study in Black and White, 1882, The Carissima, 1896.

May Sinclair, Sidmouth, Audrey Craven, 1897, Mary Olivier: a Life, 1919.

1900-1965
Mary Patricia Willcocks, Ivybridge and Exeter, The Wingless Victory, 1907, Wings of Desire, 1912.

 
Edith Holden, Dousland, The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady, 1905.

Margaret Pedler, ​Zeal Monachorum, near Bow, The Hermit of Far End, 1920, The Splendid Folly, 1921.

Mary Elfreda Kelly, Kelly, near Tavistock, wrote Village Theatre, ca. 1917.

E.M.Delafield, Cullompton, Zella Sees Herself, 1915, Consequences, 1919, Diary of a Provincial Lady, 1930.

Sylvia Townsend Warner, Nr South Brent, Monolith, 1916.

Jean Rhys, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966.

Freya Stark, Nr Chagford, Traveller's Prelude, ?.

Frances Bellerby, Clearbrook and Goveton, Selected Poems, 1986 and A Breathless Child, 1952

Ethel Mannin, Shaldon, Sunset Over Dartmoor, 1977.

Elizabeth Goudge, Marldon, Gentian Hill, 1950.

Sylvia Plath, North Tawton, The Bell Jar, 1963, Ariel, 1965.