Author: Carnes, Hannah
Biography:
CARNES, Hannah, formerly Steward, later Garwood (c. 1789-1863: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born in a village in Ireland but her date of birth is not known. The certificate of her marriage to Robert Garwood in 1853 gives her father's name as William Steward, parish clerk. The Life of Hannah Carnes, Compiled from her own Papers (n.d.) indicates that at an early age she moved to Dublin where she lived with a wealthy aunt. According to The Life, she was married on 13 May 1811 but the surname of her husband is not known and it is likely that she was married three times. Soon after the marriage, her husband became an inmate in a lunatic asylum while she spent a year caring for her father (her mother had already died). When her husband recovered, they migrated to London but he became unemployed and they faced destitution; they were rescued by a gift of food and an employment opportunity for her husband. They moved to Colchester, Essex, where her husband may have died. She became an itinerant Wesleyan preacher and her Life describes her experiences in several Essex locations. She married William Carnes (1789-1842), a tea merchant, and they settled in Church Street, Saffron Walden, Essex. No marriage record has been located and the date of William’s death is not known. She married Robert Garwood, a tailor, in Saffron Walden on 19 Aug. 1853 and died in Saffron Walden of "dropsy" on 25 Sept. 1863. The Widow’s Cottage was reprinted in 1840 and 1844 but without the other “pathetic” poems which were issued separately as Juvenile Poems in 1846. Her other publications include The Mysterious Travellers (1831 and 1861, with Elizabeth Taylor of Saffron Walden), The Beauties of Saffron Walden (1842, 1847), The Beauties of Halstead and Other Original Poems (1861), and Truthful Pathetic Poetry (n.d.) (ancestry.co.uk 30 Oct. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 30 Oct. 2023; The Life of Hannah Carnes, n.d.; Catalogue of Items for Auction by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge [1867]; contributions from AA)