Martha Fowke

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Apart from her unidentified periodical contributions, most of the early eighteenth-century MF 's writings in prose (epistolary and autobiographical) and poetry have a strongly erotic tone. She has been described as a poet whose writing mediated between older courtly traditions of coterie writing and the new commercial world of publication.
Gerrard, Christine. Aaron Hill: The Muses’ Projector 1685-1750. Oxford University Press, 2003.
71
  • BirthName: Martha Fowke
  • Nicknames: Gloatitia
    The leading contemporary meaning of to gloat was to regard lasciviously, to give someone the glad eye.
    Gerrard, Christine. Aaron Hill: The Muses’ Projector 1685-1750. Oxford University Press, 2003.
    94
    ; The Amorous Lady
    Anthologist Roger Lonsdale printed under this name a selection of theBarbados Gazette poems which are now being attributed to MF .

  • Married: Sansom
    MF is sometimes known by her married name of Martha Sansom.
  • Pseudonym: Clio
  • Indexed: Mrs. Fowke
    The use of this name in print for MF reveals contemporary practice of applying Mrs to any woman of a certain social standing, regardless of whether or not she was married.
    ; Martha Fowke Sansom

Milestones

1 May 1689

MF was born at Hertingfordbury in Hertfordshire, the eldest child in her family.
Guskin notes that most reference sources date her birth to 1690, the year that appears on her tombstone.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Fowke, Martha. “Introduction”. Clio, edited by Phyllis J. Guskin, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 1997, pp. 15-50.
45n14

October 1723

Martha Sansom (formerly MF ) drafted the autobiographical, epistolary work later published as Clio.
Fowke, Martha. “Introduction”. Clio, edited by Phyllis J. Guskin, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 1997, pp. 15-50.
15

17 February 1736

Martha Sansom (previously MF ) died at her brother's house in Leicestershire.
Fowke, Martha. “Introduction”. Clio, edited by Phyllis J. Guskin, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 1997, pp. 15-50.
38-9
Lonsdale, Roger, editor. Eighteenth-Century Women Poets. Oxford University Press, 1990.
85

By February 1752

MF 's Clio; or, A Secret History of the Life and Amours of the Late Celebrated Mrs. S—n—m was posthumously published.
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
6 (1752): 148

Biography

Birth and Family

1 May 1689

MF was born at Hertingfordbury in Hertfordshire, the eldest child in her family.
Guskin notes that most reference sources date her birth to 1690, the year that appears on her tombstone.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Fowke, Martha. “Introduction”. Clio, edited by Phyllis J. Guskin, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 1997, pp. 15-50.
45n14

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