Author: Botsford, Margaret
Biography:
BOTSFORD, Margaret (b 1790?: Hollis)
A novelist, poet, and journalist, she published first as "a lady of Philadelphia" in 1816 but subsequently lived in other parts of the country--Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Maryland. She may already have been a widow when she published an anonymous political dialogue, The Reign of Reform, in 1830, but she was still active in literature and politics in 1860 and 1861 when two short poems written on behalf of The Constitutional Union Party were attributed on their title-pages to Mrs. Russel Botsford, author of The Reign of Reform. No public record of her marriage to Russel Botsford, no census records, and no death notice have as yet been discovered. Of three possible Russel Botsfords whose names are found in the newspapers--an MD, an attorney, and an Esq.--two were from Connecticut and one from Illinois, and all are unlikely. (Blain; ancestry.com 16 Dec. 2017, 11 July 2025) HJ
Other Names:
- Mrs. Botsford