Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins

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EST published four novels and a (collaborative) book of poems during the last two decades of the eighteenth century. She was also said to have written translation and contributions to periodicals.

Milestones

By 27 February 1763

EST was born in London, second of an innumerable family
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
(of which two brothers and four sisters are recorded).
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Sir Thomas Edlyne Tomlins
Tomlins, Elizabeth Sophia, and Sir Thomas Edwyne Tomlins. Tributes of Affection. Longman and Dilly.
18-19

Mid January 1785

EST titled her first novel The Conquests of the Heart and published it as by a Young Lady. Both the London edition and a Dublin one from the same year are now extremely rare.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
1: 364
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

About 19 December 1786

EST 's second novel, The Victim of Fancy, published as by a Lady, appeared, post-dated 1787. It was epistolary and highly sentimental, composed in response to the cult of Goethe 's (translated) The Sorrows of Werter.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
1: 414

30 June 1798

EST for the first time set her name to her next and final novel, Rosalind de Tracey.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
1: 763
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

8 August 1828

EST died of an apparent fainting fit at Chaldon in Surrey. She had had a fall from a pony the day before, and may probably have died of concussion.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

It seems that she was known by her second name, Sophia, and her eldest brother by his, since in the book of poems they published together she is S for Sophia while he is E for Edlyne.
Tomlins, Elizabeth Sophia. “Introduction”. The Victim of Fancy, edited by Daniel Cook, Pickering and Chatto, p. xi - xxxi.
xi

Birth and Family

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