Author: Hands, Elizabeth
Biography:
HANDS, Elizabeth, formerly HERBERT (1746-1815: ODNB)
A maidservant of exceptional literary sophistication who has attracted the attention of several recent critics, she described herself accurately in her one published collection of verse as “born in obscurity, and never emerging beyond the lower stations in life.” Of her parents, only the names are known: they were Henry and Ann Herbert. She appears to have spent all her life within the boundaries of Warwickshire. She was baptised at Harbury on 5 June 1746 but grew up in Rowington and went to work at Allesley, near Coventry, for a family named Huddesford. It was at Allesley that she married William Hands (1746/7-1825), a blacksmith, on 6 Sept. 1784, and went to live with him at Bourton-on-Dunsmore. They had two daughters. Hands was self-educated, but using the pseudonym “Daphne,” she began to contribute verse to newspapers in Birmingham and Coventry, one of which, Jopson’s Coventry Mercury, advertised for subscribers for a collection of her poetry in 1788. Hands had many supporters in the area, including several masters at Rugby School. When the book appeared in 1789, it contained a long list of subscribers (including fellow-poets across the country) and was dedicated to Bertie Greatheed (q.v.). Reviewers were impressed by both the list and the work itself, which began with a daring treatment of a biblical subject, the rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon. She is not known to have published again, however. She died at Bourton in June 1815 and was buried there on June 28. Her husband was buried beside her ten years later. (ODNB 27 Jan. 2022; Orlando 27 Jan. 2022; Goodridge)