Author: Abdy, Maria
Biography:
ABDY, Maria, formerly SMITH (1797-1867: ODNB)
She was born on 30 Jan. 1797 and baptised at St. Mary le Bow in London on 25 Feb., the daughter of Maria (Smith) and Richard Smith, a solicitor. They lived at Woburn Place, Russell Square, Bloomsbury. She was also the niece (on her mother’s side) of Horatio and James Smith (qq.v.). She married the Rev. John Channing Abdy (1792-1845) on 10 May 1821 at Leyton. On his father’s death in 1823, he took over as rector of St. John Horsleydown, Southwark. They had one son who later also entered the church. After her husband’s death in 1845 and her mother’s in 1849, she was left comfortably off with income and property. She lived firstly as a boarder in Pall Mall, then stayed with her son, before finally moving to Margate. She died on 19 July 1867 at 7 Marine Terrace, Margate, Kent, and was buried at St. Peter’s, Isle of Thanet, leaving an estate of under £10,000. She published Poetry (1834) and seven subsequent volumes, the last appearing in 1862. She contributed to the New Monthly Magazine and the Metropolitan Magazine and had over eighty contributions to the Annuals. Much of the verse is pedestrian but it includes several acute explorations of the status of the poetess (fame, destiny, enchantment) and the condition of women in various occupations (seamstress, governess, widow). (ODNB 14 Feb. 2021; Orlando; ancestry.co.uk 14 Feb. 2021; LES 19 Nov. 1849; GM June 1845, 670 and Sept. 1867, 399; Boyle 3-6; Curran Index; CCEd; Virginia Hromulak, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 38/2 [2019], 313-35) AA
Other Names:
- Mrs. Abdy
- Mrs. [Maria] Abdy