Author: Chetwynd, Mary Anne
Biography:
CHETWYND, Mary Anne, formerly PETIT
She was born on 16 Jan. 1805 at Darfield, Yorkshire, the second daughter and third of six children of Rev. John Hayes Petit, perpetual curate of Shareshill, Staffordshire, and his wife Harriet Astley, who had married in 1800. Nothing is known about her education. She married Henry Chetwynd of Brocton Lodge, Berkswich, Staffordshire, on 6 Sept. 1827 at St. Mary’s, Lichfield. He was landed gentry, not clergy, and also owned Chetwynd House, Norwood, Surrey (now south London). They had two sons and two daughters. Shortly after her marriage she published the work listed here which featured a galaxy of contemporary female poets. Much later she published A Poetical History of England (1849) and A Short Poetical Compendium of the History of Russia(1854). The title pages of her books also give her as the author of Elements of Knowledge for Children. The Staffordshire bibliographer Rupert Simms lists this last as published by her Stafford publishers, R. & W. Wright, but gives no date and no copy has been located. She died on 5 Jan. 1888 at 4 St. Margaret’s Road, St. Leonard’s on Sea (Hastings), Sussex, leaving an estate of £1402. Her husband Henry Chetwynd had predeceased her in 1870, leaving an estate of £12,000. She has sometimes been confused with Mrs. Henry Wayland Chetwynd (formerly Davidson) (1828-1901), a Scottish Victorian novelist. (ancestry.co.uk 20 Jan. 2023; Simms, 104; Burke [1880], 241; Birmingham Journal 8 Sept. 1827; Bell’s Weekly Messenger 13 Aug. 1870; Morning Post 10 Jan. 1888; At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901, victorianresearch.org) AA
Other Names:
- Mrs. H. Chetwynd