Frances Notley

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FN wrote novels and short stories from the middle to the late nineteenth century, frequently combining sensational and supernatural elements. Many of her stories are set in her native Cornwall, and draw on the culture and stories of the region.

Milestones

13 January 1821

Frances Eliza Millett Thomas (later FN ) was born at Landager near Liskeard in Cornwall.
A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors and the Feminist Companion both give her birthdate as 1820, but the International Genealogical Index lists her from parish records, with all her names and her parents' names, as born on this date.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Kirk, John Foster, and S. Austin Allibone, editors. A Supplement to Allibone’s Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors. J. B. Lippincott.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Kirk, John Foster, and S. Austin Allibone, editors. A Supplement to Allibone’s Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors. J. B. Lippincott.

Late 1850

The anonymous three-volume novel Pique, A Tale of the English Aristocracy was probably FN 's first; its authorship was alluded to two years later on the title page of her Agatha Beaufort; or, Family Pride.
The OCLC attributes an undated edition of Pique, A Tale of the English Aristocracy to FN , while attributing an entry for both Pique, A Tale of the English Aristocracy and Pique, A Novel to Sarah Stickney Ellis , the latter a yellowback edition published in 1869 as by the author of Agatha Beaufort. The British Library Catalogue also tentatively attributes an edition of 1850, called simply Pique, A Novel, to Ellis (who was by this date publishing under her own name) but attributes the authorship of Pique to Notley in its record for Agatha Beaufort. It may be as a result of this confusion that the OCLC attributes to Ellis, or the author of Pique, a book called Family Pride from the 1850s, since Notley later published a novel by that name.
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.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
1207 (14 December 1850): 1309
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.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

By 5 December 1868

FN published Olive Varcoe, A Novel under her pseudonym Francis Derrick.
The earliest edition listed in OCLC WorldCat is a Boston one of 1870 (followed by a Toronto edition in 1871). Neither the British Library nor the Bodleian Library possess a copy earlier than the new edition of 1872, issued under the name of Francis Derrick; however, Olive Varcoe was reviewed by Geraldine Jewsbury in the Athenæum on 5 December 1868, and FN published Simple as a Dove as by the author of Olive Varcoe in 1869.
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
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.
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
2145 (1868): 751

By September 1912

FN died at Totnes in Devon in her early nineties, having been a widow for almost sixty years.
The Trustees of FreeBMD,. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.

Biography

Birth, Family, Education

13 January 1821

Frances Eliza Millett Thomas (later FN ) was born at Landager near Liskeard in Cornwall.
A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors and the Feminist Companion both give her birthdate as 1820, but the International Genealogical Index lists her from parish records, with all her names and her parents' names, as born on this date.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Kirk, John Foster, and S. Austin Allibone, editors. A Supplement to Allibone’s Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors. J. B. Lippincott.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Kirk, John Foster, and S. Austin Allibone, editors. A Supplement to Allibone’s Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors. J. B. Lippincott.