Henrietta Maria Bowdler

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HMB , who published mainly in the early nineteenth century, was an editor, conduct-book writer, theological writer, poet, and novelist. She was also the originator of the project for rendering Shakespeare inoffensive to delicate ears, which is more generally connected with the name of her brother Thomas .
Title-page of Henrietta Maria Bowdler's anonymous "Sermons on the Doctrines and Duties of Christianity", fourth edition, 1803. A contemporary has added the author's name: "Mrs Harriet Bowdler of Bath." This copy bears the ownership stamp of a theological seminary, and a librarian has repeated Bowdler's full name.

Milestones

1750

HMB was born at Covington in Huntingdonshire, into a family of six children.
The year comes from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (older sources give it as 1753); the place was submitted by a collateral descendant to the FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Probably late 1786

HMB 's first work for publication was probably the editing of her late sister Jane 's Poems and Essays, by a Lady lately Deceased.
An obituary of HMB in the Gentleman's Magazine seems to confuse authorship of this work, failing to mention Jane and identifying HMB as the writer, rather than the editor, of the volume.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
100 (1830): 1: 567
Although the second edition was also dated 1786, the work was still listed as newly published in February 1787.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
57 (1787): 1: 168
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

1801

HMB published her anonymous Sermons on the Doctrines and Duties of Christianity; their anonymity shaped their reception, for they were assumed to be by a man.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

25 February 1830

HMB died at Bath of smallpox, from which she was in her last days almost blind.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
100 (1830): 1: 567
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
2: 616

Biography

Birth and Family

1750

HMB was born at Covington in Huntingdonshire, into a family of six children.
The year comes from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (older sources give it as 1753); the place was submitted by a collateral descendant to the FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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