Author: Barnes, Esther
Biography:
BARNES, Esther (b 1744: ancestry.co.uk)
She was a schoolmistress of a boarding school in Shepton Mallett, Somerset. The humorous title poem in her collection, “The Disengaged Fair,” was written in response to an advertisement for a wife that she saw in the Bristol Journal of 10 Sept. 1796. No biographical information for an Esther Barnes in Shepton Mallett has been located. Helpfully, however, her book includes several other poems and one of these is an acrostic for her nephew whose father had died. The boy’s name was Robert Morrant who was born in 1785. His father, Robert Morrant (d 1789) had married Susannah Barnes in Shepton Mallett on 24 June 1783; Esther Barnes, her sister, was one of the witnesses. Their parents were Thomas Barnes and Susanna Oland who had married in 1737. Esther was baptised on 5 Aug. 1744 at Holy Trinity church, Westbury-on-Trym, Gloucestershire. Nothing more is known and no records for her death have been found. (ancestry.co.uk 28 May 2023; findmypast.co.uk 28 May 2023) SR