Author: Benger, Elizabeth Ogilvy
Biography:
BENGER, Elizabeth Ogilvy (1777-1827: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born on 6 Feb. 1777 at or near Wells, Somerset, and was an only child; she was baptised at St. Cuthbert's, Wells, on 13 Mar. Her father, John Benger, was a purser in the navy; her mother was Elizabeth (Chambers) Benger. Most of her formative years were spent in Chatham and Rochester. She lacked literary surroundings and later claimed to have been obliged to read the open books in shop windows, returning each day when the page had been turned. However, her parents arranged for her to learn Latin at a local boys' school when she was twelve. In 1797, following the death of John Benger a year earlier, the family moved to Devizes where a well-stocked library was available. On a further move to London in 1808, Benger found herself in congenial company among literary Dissenters, and became something of a literary lionizer. She wrote novels and biographies; she also translated and published a volume of Klopstock's letters (1814). Mme de Staël said that she was the most interesting woman she had seen in England. She died in London onb 9 Jan. 1827 and was buried at St. Pancras. An obituary, while praising her talents, suggested that she was better off dead because "Old age would have found her solitary and unprovided." (RPW; ODNB 5 Mar. 2020; ancestry.co.uk 17 Feb. 2025; Enniskillen Chronicle 8 Feb. 1827) SR
Other Names:
- E. Benger
- Miss Benger