Author: Browne, Mary Ann
Biography:
BROWNE, Mary Ann, later Gray (1812-45: ODNB)
She is sometimes erroneously stated to be the sister of Felicia Hemans (q.v.). She was born at Bray, near Maidenhead, the eldest child of Thomas Browne and his second wife, Mary Anne Simmons. She was taught at home by her father and published Mont Blanc (1827) when she was just fourteen. It and her subsequent books were well-received including by Wordsworth and Coleridge (qq.v.), and widely reviewed. In 1828 the family moved to London where she met Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Mary Russell Mitford (qq.v.), and William Jerdan, editor of the Literary Gazette. She contributed to the literary annuals and other periodicals. After the publication of Repentance (1829), her poetry took a religious turn and in 1832 she had a conversion experience, exchanging “fancy for faith” as her obituarist put it. Her later volumes, including Ignatia (1838), Sacred Poetry (1840), and Sketches from the Antique (1844), illustrate this shift. Around 1836 the family went to Liverpool to provide a commercial education for her brother, Thomas Briarly Browne (1817-1889); he later studied at Trinity College Dublin and was ordained. In 1839 she was encouraged to contribute to the Dublin University Magazine and the family subsequently moved to Ireland. In August 1842 she married James Mundell Gray (1801-1859), a nephew of James Hogg (q.v.), at Aghada, Cloyne, Ireland. They lived at Sunday’s Well, just outside Cork. She applied to the RLF for assistance in 1843 and received £40. She died 28 Jan. 1845, probably of heart failure following the birth of a son, and was buried at St. Paul’s, Cork. After her death, the Dublin University Magazine published her “Poetical Remains” in six parts (April 1845-February 1846). (ODNB 16 Feb. 2021; Orlando; Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman’s Record [1853]; findmypast.co.uk 16 Feb. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 16 Feb. 2021; Dublin University Magazine, Mar. 1845, Mar. 1847; Manchester Mercury, 23 Oct. 1810; Cork Southern Examiner, 29 Jan. 1845; RLF, 1076; Boyle, 40-41) Contributions from AA