Maria Jane Jewsbury
Maria Jane Jewsbury was an English poet and novelist born on October 25, 1800, in Measham, Derbyshire. As the eldest of seven children, she faced significant domestic responsibilities, especially after her mother's death, which limited her literary pursuits to late nights. Despite these challenges, Jewsbury developed a passion for writing from a young age, publishing her first major work, "Phantasmagoria: Or, Sketches of Life and Literature," in 1825. The collection was dedicated to the influential poet William Wordsworth, who recognized her talent and encouraged her amidst societal expectations for women to prioritize domestic roles. Jewsbury's writing often explored themes of death and melancholy, reflecting her personal struggles and insights. In 1832, she married the Reverend William Kew Fletcher and moved to Bombay, India, where she engaged in humanitarian work during a cholera epidemic. Tragically, Jewsbury passed away on October 4, 1833, just before her thirty-third birthday, taking with her many unpublished poems that she had hoped to share. Her life and work exemplify the complexities faced by women writers in the 19th century, balancing artistic ambition with societal obligations.
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Subject Terms
Maria Jane Jewsbury
Writer
- Born: October 25, 1800
- Birthplace: Measham, Derbyshire, England
- Died: October 4, 1833
- Place of death: Poona, India
Biography
Maria Jane Jewsbury was born on October 25, 1800, in the small village of Measham in Derbyshire, England. She was the eldest of seven children born to Maria Smith and Thomas Jewsbury, a cotton merchant. Jewsbury attended Miss Adams’s school at Shenstone, but she had to leave when she was fourteen because of ill health. When her father suffered financial difficulties in 1818, he moved the family to Manchester, a large city that offered more libraries and cultural attractions than Measham. Jewsbury was an inveterate reader, and since she was nine years old she had hoped to write a well-received novel that would bring her fame.
The times were not propitious for women with literary aspirations, or who chose any life other than that of wife and mother. Jewsbury began to sense what was in store for her when her mother died in 1919, leaving her in charge of her younger siblings, including a one-month-old baby. She found she had to confine her reading and writing to late evenings, when all the chores were done and the children were safely in bed. She wrote to a friend about the “miseries of combining literary tastes with domestic duties. . . children’s incessant questions and a sick baby’s crying.”
Still, she managed to follow her literary interests. Her first major publication, Phantasmagoria: Or, Sketches of Life and Literature, a two-volume poetry collection, appeared in 1825. The collection was dedicated to poet William Wordsworth, whose works had affected her deeply. She sent him a copy, was invited to his house, and formed a close friendship with his daughter Dora. Wordsworth, though wishing Jewsbury would give up the life of a writer and settle down to domesticity and needlework, recognized a talent and gave her much needed encouragement. In the spring of 1926, when she suffered an illness, he wrote a sonnet in her honor and included her in an other poem.
Though Jewsbury became well known and respected for her easy wit, charm, and masterful use of language, she never gained the satisfaction that, as a child, she was sure would come with fame. She always believed she could have found a better way to convey her thoughts and to give her images greater impact. She was insightful, with her writing conveying the essence of her personality. To a friend, she wrote: “In the best of everything I have done, you will find one leading idea—death: all thoughts, all images, all contrast of thoughts and images, are derived from living much in the valley of that shadow. . . the sober hue, which. . . blends equally with the golden glow of sunset, and the bright green of spring. . . is seen equally in the ’temple of delight’ as in the tomb of decay and separation. I am melancholy by nature, cheerful by principle.”
In 1832, against her father’s wishes, she married the Reverend William Kew Fletcher, voyaging with him to Bombay, India, where he became chaplain in the East India Company. There, she tended to the sick, fed the hungry, and provided what relief she could to the suffering. Whole families were being wiped out by famine, and when the Fletchers were able to rescue a child from her dead father’s arms, they immediately adopted her.
Jewsbury succumbed to the cholera epidemic that had brought so many of India’s poor to her door. She died on October 4, 1833, three weeks before her thirty-third birthday. Gone, too, was the major body of her work. She brought to India the many poems she published anonymously and was planning to reword and sign her name to them. However, she was unable to do this before she died, and the poems she took to India were not returned to England.