Mary Alcock (née Cumberland, – 1798) was an English poet, essayist, and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
. She was part of
Lady Anne Miller's literary circle in
Bath.
Biography
Mary Cumberland was the youngest child of Joanna Bentley (1704/5–1775) and Bishop
Denison Cumberland
Denison Cumberland was an 18th-century Anglican bishop in Ireland.
He was nominated Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh on 19 April 1763 and consecrated on 19 June that year; and translated to Kilmore"London: being an accurate history and descr ...
(1705/6–1774).
Richard Bentley, classicist and master of
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, was her maternal grandfather, and
Richard Cumberland Richard Cumberland may refer to:
* Richard Cumberland (philosopher) (1631–1718), bishop, philosopher
* Richard Cumberland (dramatist) (1732–1811), civil servant, dramatist
* Richard Cumberland (priest) (1710–1737), Archdeacon of Northa ...
(1732–1811), playwright, was her brother.
She spent her childhood in the town of
Stanwick, Northamptonshire and in
Fulham
Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...
,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
. In 1762 her family relocated to the
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label=Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from ...
, when Denison Cumberland's father was appointed as chaplain to
George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax
George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, (6 October 1716 – 8 June 1771) was a British statesman of the Georgian era. Due to his success in extending commerce in the Americas, he became known as the "father of the colonies". President of th ...
,
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...
. It was there that she married, in or around 1770, although the identity of Alcock, her husband, has not been satisfactorily established (according to her will he was the Rev. Alexander Alcock).
Her husband's mental health seems to have been fragile and the marriage was probably unhappy. She nursed her parents through long illnesses until their deaths and cared for her seven nieces after the death of her sister, Elizabeth Hughes, in 1770. A widow by the early 1780s, she moved to
Bath, Somerset
Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...
, where she was part of the literary circle of
Anne Miller (1741–1781) and took part in her poetry contests. She participated in various charitable activities.
There are two pieces in her published works that critique the popular sentimental novel as "hobgoblin nonsense": "The Scribbler," and "A Receipt for Writing a Novel."
[Folger Collective on Early Women Critics, ''Women critics 1660-1820: an anthology'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 161—164) ("A Receipt for Writing a Novel" is reproduced in this text and can be found at th]
Internet Archive
Never robust, she died at the age of fifty-seven in
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
. Her niece Joanna Hughes edited her collected works after her death: some 183 pages of poems and essays. The collection received little critical interest, although subscribers included leading cultural and literary figures such as
Charles Burney
Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...
,
Elizabeth Carter
Elizabeth Carter (pen name Eliza; 16 December 1717 – 19 February 1806) was an English poet, classicist, writer, translator, linguist, and polymath. As one of the Bluestocking Circle that surrounded Elizabeth Montagu,Encyclopaedia BritannicRet ...
,
William Cowper
William Cowper ( ; 26 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scen ...
,
Hannah More
Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a ...
, and some members of the royal family.
Selected works
*''The Confined Debtor: a Fragment from a Prison'' (1775)
*''The Air Balloon, or, Flying Mortal'' (London: E. Macklew, 1784): poem, 7 pp., pub. anon.
*
Poems … by the Late Mrs Mary Alcock''Ed. Joanna Hughes (London: C. Dilly, 1799)
References
Resources
Alcock, Mary" The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 2110. Accessed 2022-07-26.
*Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. "Alcock, Mary." ''
The Feminist Companion to Literature in English
''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' is a biographical dictionary about women writers.
''Companion'' was edited by Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. It was ...
''. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990. 13.
*Ellis, Markman.
Alcock , Mary (1741?–1798)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 19 Jan. 2007.
*Lonsdale, Roger, ed. "Mary Alcock (née Cumberland)." ''Eighteenth century women poets: an Oxford anthology''. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1989; rpt. 1990, pp. 461—468.
Internet Archive
See also
*
Romantic literature in English
Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. Scholars regard the publishing of William Wordsworth's and Samuel Coleridge's ''Lyrical Ballads'' in 1798 as probably th ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcock, Mary
1740s births
1798 deaths
18th-century English women writers
18th-century English writers
18th-century English poets
English women poets
People from North Northamptonshire
Literary circles