Author: STICKLAND, Mrs. M.
Biography:
STICKLAND, Mary (1751-1806: ancestry.com)
No copy has been located of Miscellaneous Poems and Other Compositions by widow Mrs. M. Stickland of Exeter. The poet’s identity, her given name, and the proper spelling of her surname are identified in her 4 May 1792 submission to the RLF (“rejected as inadmissible”): “Mrs. Mary Stickland, of Blandford, widow of a surgeon apothecary formerly practicing at Dorchester.” She almost certainly is the Mary Willis, born at Dorchester on 20 Sept. 1751, who was the daughter of John Willis and his wife, Mary Tapper. With her husband, Nathaniel Stickland (1746-1785), she had four children: John (b 1773), Nathaniel (b 1777), James (b 1782), and Mary (b 1784). There is no known record of Mary and Nathaniel’s marriage. Between the time of her husband’s death and her application to the RLF, she became impoverished, why, though, is unclear. Ten years earlier Nathaniel had inherited a substantial sum, £900, from his mother; two years before that, his sister Ann left him £100. In 1781, Nathaniel and his brother Richard subscribed to an edition of the poems of John Richard Churchill Sabine (q.v.). There are few other traces of her existence or that of her husband. She was buried at All Saints, Dorchester, on 4. Dec. 1806. (ancestry.com 20 Jan. 2025; RLF file 13) JC
Other Names:
- Mrs. M. Strickland