Author: Hemans, Felicia Dorothea
Biography:
HEMANS, Felicia Dorothea, formerly Browne (1793-1835: ODNB)
One of the six children of George and Felicity Dorothea (Wagner) Browne, she was born on 23 Sept. 1793 in Liverpool and educated at home. The family moved to north Wales following reverses in business, in 1800; in 1809 they settled in St. Asaph. George Browne emigrated alone to Canada about 1806 and died a few years later. As Felicia Dorothea Browne, she published three volumes of verse before she was twenty, the first of them (when she was fifteen) dedicated to the Prince of Wales whose name headed the list of subscribers. On 13 Jul 1812 at St. Asaph she married Captain Alfred Hemans. They had five sons but separated amicably in 1818, whereupon Mrs. Hemans renewed her professional career as a writer. She contributed prose articles and verse to the major periodicals, magazines, and annuals, besides her more substantial adaptations, translations, and collections of original poetry that appeared in volume form--about twenty titles in her lifetime. She also maintained a prodigious correspondence. After the death of her mother in 1827, she moved with her younger children back to Liverpool and then in 1831, in search of better health, to Dublin, where she died on 16 May 1835 after a bout of scarlet fever, and was buried at St. Ann's, Dawson St. In the last months of her life Sir Robert Peel sent £100 to help with expenses, and the RLF (unasked) voted £50 at its meeting of 8 Apr., on the recommendation of Charles W. Dilke, a member of the Committee, who reminded them of her "high and deserved" reputation. Her sister Harriett (Browne) Hughes Owen edited her Works in seven volumes, with a memoir (1839). (ODNB 4 Mar. 2019; RLF #825; findmypast.com. 5 Feb. 2025) HJ
Other Names:
- F. Hemans
- Felicia D. Hemans
- Felicia Dorothea Browne
- Felicia Hemans
- Hemans
- Mrs. F. Hemans
- Mrs. Felicia Hemans
- Mrs. Hemans