Mary Matilda Betham

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MMB , writing during the Romantic period, had a vocation as a poet which she took very seriously and which was recognised during her lifetime by positive reviews and the respect of more famous poets. Yet a large part of her output seems to be untraceable: she often published anonymously in magazines, or sent work to friends that never reached print. A strong interest in women's literary history informs her biographical dictionary of women (which provides rich coverage of writers) and her adaptations and fictionalisation of the twelfth-century poet Marie de France and her poetry.
Drawing of Mary Matilda Betham. Her head is hanging down a little; her low scoop neckline, worn with two strings of beads, reveals slightly rounded shoulders. Her hair is short and curly.
"Mary Matilda Betham" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Matilda_Betham.jpg.

Milestones

Late 1775
Though MMB is generally said to have been born at Stradbroke in Suffolk, it was probably her christening that was recorded on 1 January 1776 at Haceby in Lincolnshire.
Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
1804
MMB published her Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of every Age and Country. It appeared in two separate editions this year, one of 774 pages and one of 872.
British Library Catalogue.
Burmester, James, Rosamund Burmester, and Emma Pound. English Books. James Burmester Rare Books, 1985.
67, 2
By late 1816
Matilda Betham published The Lay of Marie , A Poem, dedicated to Lady Bedingfield and advertising itself as from a diss. by G. de la Rue on Marie de France, and abstracts of her lays.
Lamb, Charles, and Mary Lamb. The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb. Marrs, Edwin J.Editor , Cornell University Press, 1975.
3: 236
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online.
30 September 1852
MMB died at an address in Burton Street, London; she was in her mid-seventies.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
n.s. 34 (1852): 549

Biography

Birth and Background

Late 1775
Though MMB is generally said to have been born at Stradbroke in Suffolk, it was probably her christening that was recorded on 1 January 1776 at Haceby in Lincolnshire.
Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.