Frances Jacson is now accepted as the author of five late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century novels, published anonymously or with allusion to former titles in the chain, which were formerly attributed to
Alethea Lewis. She kept a diary throughout her middle and old age, and also published a single religious work. Her fiction, though it remains reliant on well-tried plot devices, is notable for its perceptive exploration of her heroines' minds. She shows a strong vein of satire, and freely presents bad parents and bad marriages.
Milestones
13 October 1754 FJ was born in the rectory at
Bebington in
Cheshire, the third of five children in her family who lived to grow up.
By November 1815 FJ published, with
Colburn,
Rhoda, a novel in three volumes, by 'the author of Things By Their Right Names, Plain Sense, &c.'
By October 1822 FJ published with
Colburn, as 'the author of Rhoda, &c', a novel entitled
Isabella.
