Susan Smythies

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SS published three novels during the 1750s, which show her well versed both in the modern novel created by Henry Fielding and Richardson , and in an older tradition of satirical and didactic fiction relying on such techniques as humours names and inset tales. The children's books bearing her name did not appear till after her death.
  • BirthName: Susan Smythies
  • Pseudonyms: A Lady; The Author of The Stage-Coach and Lucy Wellers
  • Indexed: Smythes
    The family name altered in spelling from Smythes to Smythies close to SS 's lifetime.

Milestones

13 January 1721

SS was born in Colchester, the eldest of a family which later became very numerous.
The person who submitted this birth-date to the FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service gave it as 13 January 1720, but under Old Style the new year did not begin until March.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Genealogical Notes to the Pedigree of the Smythies Family”. Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Vol.
4: 4
, 1912, pp. 276 - 86, 306.
314
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By November 1753

SS anonymously published her first novel, The Stage-Coach: Containing the Character of Mr. Manly, and the History of his Fellow-Travellers, in two volumes.
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
9 (1753): 394
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.

6 May 1758

Proposals appeared in the Ipswich Journal for SS 's third and final novel, The Brothers, which was published by subscription the same year, alluding on the title-page to her previous works.
Black, Frank Gees. “Miss Smythies”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 1756, 26 Sept. 1935, p. 596.
596
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.

After July 1774

SS , who was alive when her father made his will, may have died at any date after that.
“Genealogical Notes to the Pedigree of the Smythies Family”. Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Vol.
4: 4
, 1912, pp. 276 - 86, 306.
313

Biography

Birth and Family

13 January 1721

SS was born in Colchester, the eldest of a family which later became very numerous.
The person who submitted this birth-date to the FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service gave it as 13 January 1720, but under Old Style the new year did not begin until March.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Genealogical Notes to the Pedigree of the Smythies Family”. Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Vol.
4: 4
, 1912, pp. 276 - 86, 306.
314
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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