Her biographer Janet Todd argues, on the testimony of Colonel Thomas Colepeper
, that AB
's mother was his wet-nurse, who was born Elizabeth Denham and had a brother who was a university-educated physician.
Todd, Janet. The Secret Life of Aphra Behn. Rutgers University Press.
13-15
Literary responses
Sarah, Lady Piers
Thomas Colepeper
, who recorded SLP
's marriage, called her a great poetess.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
She may well be one of the three Kentish women poets whom Anne Finch
celebrated (along with herself) in The Circuit of...
Textual Features
Maureen Duffy
MD
was the first to discover the testimony about Behn's origins of Thomas Culpeper
or Colepeper.
Duffy, Maureen. “My Life with Aphra Behn”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
