Author: Jamieson, Frances
Biography:
JAMIESON, Frances, formerly THURTLE (1779-1870: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born on 26 Oct. 1779 and baptised on 24 Nov. at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn, London, the daughter of Samuel Thurtle and his wife Elizabeth (maiden name unknown). Nothing is known of her education or early life. She married Alexander Jamieson, LLD (Aberdeen), on 1 Mar. 1820 at Kensington Church. He was a schoolmaster and a prolific author of educational works: a geographical gazeteer, grammars, dictionaries, and elements. She had also acquired a literary reputation with Ashford Rectory: A Tale (1817), Memoirs of Brillante (1817), The Young Travellers (1818), The History of France (1818), and The History of Spain (1820). After her marriage she continued to publish with The Village Coquette (1822), The House of Ravenspur (1822), and her verse drama, listed here, Cadijah (1825). In 1824 they moved from Kensington to Heston House on Hounslow Heath where they ran a school. From 1826 to 1838 they ran the Wyke House Academy at Sion Hill, Brentford End, Middlesex, which prepared students for civil careers in the army, navy, civil service and professions. It went bankrupt in 1838 and Alexander Jamieson became a clerk in an actuary’s office. They moved to Bruges, Belgium, where they also taught, but his health deteriorated and he suffered a stroke. He died there on 6 July 1850. She stayed on for a while, living on an annuity of £80 and £20 from friends but applied to the RLF in June 1853 in order to support two orphaned nieces, Elizabeth and Jane Jamieson, and was awarded £40. She later moved to Ghent before returning to England. Towards the end of her life, the failure of the Albert Assurance Company reduced her income from £100 p.a. to £20 and she was forced to apply to the RLF again. She was living at Argyle Terrace, Kensington, and asked for assistance in furnishing a cheaper house. She was awarded £50 paid in six instalments, four of which were paid posthumously. She died, almost completely forgotten, on 5 Mar. 1870 at 5 Stamford Street, South Kensington, London, aged 90, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery. She left an estate of under £300 to her niece Jane Jamieson. (ancestry.co.uk 7 Sept. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 7 Sept. 2022 ; Morning Chronicle 14 Apr. 1820 ; RLF 1/ 1326 [as widow], 1/1813 [in her own right]; EN2 537) AA
Other Names:
- Mrs. Jamieson