Author: Barrell, Polly
Biography:
BARRELL, Polly (1775-1810: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born at Boston MA on 11 Sept. 1775, the daughter of Walter Barrell (1737-1805), inspector-general of customs, and his wife Elizabeth Strayer (1751-1782). After their property was looted by "liberty boys" and their Sandemanian Meeting-House burnt down during the American War, various members of the Barrell family were forced into exile in London via Nova Scotia (1774-1776) where several of them made claims for compensation for loss of property and other assets. Her parents and three of her siblings died in London and were buried at Bunhill Fields. They had lived at Robert Street, Bedford Row (Holborn). Her uncle Colburn Barrell (1753-1802) was declared bankrupt in 1788 and the entire family suffered financial hardship in England. Polly Barrell was the niece of Maria Barrell (q.v.) who had been married to her uncle Theodore Barrell (1741-1796). She published Riches and Poverty: a Tale (1808). She died on 5 Mar. 1810 and was buried at Bunhill Fields on 14 Mar. with her address given as Rawstone Street, Goswell Road (Clerkenwell). After her death, family or friends probably organised the publication of The Test of Virtue, and other Poems: the volume was at an advanced stage by July 1811 and was advertised at the end of the year. The novel Julia and the Illuminated Baron (1800), written by her more famous cousin Sally Wood (1759-1855), was sometimes erroneously thought to be by her. (ancestry.co.uk 29 Aug. 2020; E. Alfred Jones, The Loyalists of Massachusetts [1930]; P.W. Coldham, American Migrations, 1765-1799 [2000]; GM Apr. 1788, 374; Columbian Sentinel 2 June 1810; Literary Panorama 11 July 1811, 83; Morning Post 30 Dec. 1811) AA
Other Names:
- the late Miss P. Barrell