Author: Sargeant, Anne Maria
Biography:
SARGEANT, Anne Maria (1810-52: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born in 1810 at Tetbury, Gloucester, the daughter of Joseph Sargeant and his wife Anne Townsend. No baptism is recorded but she and her sister Emma Louisa (1813-1835, q.v.) were later baptised at Broad Street, Reading (Non-Conformist), on 1 Jan. 1830. She published The Isle of Wight, and Other Poems (1832) with only 50 subscribers (of whom seven were family members). She also wrote tales for children and contributed to Chambers’ Journal and La Belle Assemblée. Two works are Victorian conduct books for church school leavers and maids: A Word in Season (1849) and The Maid-of-all-Work’s Complete Guide (1850). None of her literary activity seems to have been very successful and in 1837 she applied to the RLF for assistance and received three small payments of £10-£20 (1837-1848). She had hoped to open a small shop as a sort of circulating library but the payments she received would never have facilitated this. She died of heart disease, aged 42, 18 Apr. 1852, at Wharton Street, Pentonville. Her sister Charlotte Elizabeth, who was living at the same address, died 19 Jul. 1852, aged 32, from consumption. Her other sister, Emma Louisa Hartwell, had died in 1835 shortly after giving birth. (ancestry.co.uk 5 Aug. 2020; RLF 883; GM June 1852, 635; Kendal Mercury 24 Apr. 1852) AA