Frances Arabella Rowden

-
FAR , a schoolteacher by profession in the early nineteenth century, published mostly with instruction in mind. She began with a textbook on botany (designed to sanitize that topic after the work of Erasmus Darwin had made it controversial for females) which included inset poems. After another poem, she reverted to prose for books of religious tone on pagan mythology and the classics of European literature.

Milestones

1774

FAR was born in London, the eldest in a family of four girls, according to the ODNB.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

By December 1801

FAR issued by subscription her first book, A Poetical Introduction to the Study of Botany, a scientific textbook with inset poems.
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

After 3 September 1820

FAR 's final publication was A Biographical Sketch of the Most Distinguished Writers of Ancient and Modern Times, a collection of ancient and modern literary lives.
Rowden, Frances Arabella. A Biographical Sketch of the Most Distinguished Writers of Ancient and Modern Times.
1829, iv

Probably 1840

Frances Arabella de St Quintin , formerly Rowden, died. It is odd that the exact date is not recorded; nor is the place, whether Paris or somewhere back in England; the ODNB suggests Iver in Buckinghamshire.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Family

1774

FAR was born in London, the eldest in a family of four girls, according to the ODNB.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.