Anne Francis

07 April 1738 - 07 November 1800

AF was both a scholar and a poet. Her four poetry volumes, published during the 1780s, are closely and ambitiously related to the traditions of classical, biblical, and English literature. Her collected volume shows that she wrote across most of the forms and styles then fashionable. During the radical 1790s she took to periodical and broadside publication to bolster the reactionary side of the political divide.

Milestones

Before 7 April 1738

Anne Gittins (later Anne or Ann Francis ), one of two daughters, was born. This was the date of her baptism in the Saxon church at South Stoke in West Sussex, a little village near Arundel.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Late 1787

AF changed publishers from Dodsley to Becket when she added to the voices raised in response to Goethe in Charlotte to Werther. A Poetical Epistle.

Francis, Anne. Charlotte to Werther. A Poetical Epistle. T. Becket.

prelims

15 August 1798

A political poem by AF appeared at Norwich in the form of a broadside: A Plain Address to my Neighbours, on the model of Hannah More .

Jackson, James Robert de Jager. Romantic Poetry by Women: A Bibliography, 1770-1835. Clarendon Press.

129

7 November 1800

AF died, most probably at Edgefield in Norfolk.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Family

Before 7 April 1738

Anne Gittins (later Anne or Ann Francis ), one of two daughters, was born. This was the date of her baptism in the Saxon church at South Stoke in West Sussex, a little village near Arundel.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.