Author: Rowse, Elizabeth
Biography:
ROWSE, Elizabeth (c. 1774-1847)
It cannot yet be established where she was born or whether she married. The pedagogical works listed here arose from her teaching and running a school. The 1808 edition of Outlines of English History gives the author as Elizabeth Rowse but the 1833 edition gives Mrs. Rowse. This may, however, be a courtesy title and although her death certificate records her as “widow of Rowse Gentleman,” there is no evidence of a husband at any point in her life and it might just have been assumed. There are many possible explanations. She seems to have run the school for young ladies on her own--indicating she was unmarried, separated, or had been widowed early. She signed the preface to the 1833 edition of Outlines from [2] Clapham Terrace, London. In 1835, with the lease coming to an end, she sold the contents and may have moved to Taunton, Somerset, where she died at Rizdon House on 15 Apr. 1847, aged 73. The newspaper report of her death identified her as “formerly principal of an educational establishment for young ladies at Clapham Terrace.” Rowse (and the variant spelling Rouse) is a West-Country, predominantly Cornish surname, so she may have returned to family, but there is nothing to corroborate this and there may be other explanations. (MH 24 Feb. 1835; SJC 20 Apr. 1847; GRO death cert.) AA
Other Names:
- Mrs. Rowse