Author: Crawley, Eliza
Biography:
CRAWLEY, Eliza, later MURDEN (1784-1847: findagrave.com)
Her title-pages inform us that she was "a young lady of Charleston" (1808) and later "a lady of Charleston" (1826). The names of her parents have not been found but she was evidently well educated and well read. In 1808, she published a collection of verse with a subscription list nine pages long, in double columns. In December of the same year she married Jeremiah Murden (1785-1838), a merchant and one of her subscribers, at St. Philip's Episcopal Church. They had four daughters and one son. In 1826 Mrs. Murden issued Miscellaneous Poems incorporating the verse published under her maiden name with a separate half-title. The Murdens jointly established a seminary for young ladies in 1827 that survived until 1913--by then under the name "Miss Murden's Seminary" since Malvina (1810-90) and Victoria (1815-80) took it over after their mother's death and all four sisters appear to have taught at it at one time or another. She died in Charleston and is buried in the cemetery of St. Philip's, as is her husband. (findagrave.com 12 Jan. 2021; ancestry.com 12 Jan. 2021; findmypast.com 12 Jan. 2021; Louis Palmer Towles, ed., A World Turned Upside Down [1996]; contributions from AA)