Mary Rolls née Hillary (also known as Mrs Henry Rolls; 13 September 1775 – 8 April 1835) was an English poet.

Life

Born on 13 September 1775 to Hannah (née Wynne; 1738–1806) and

Richard Hillary Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary (20 April 1919 – 8 January 1943) was an Anglo-Australian Royal Air Force fighter pilot during the Second World War. He wrote the book '' The Last Enemy'' about his experiences during the Battle of Brit ...

(1703–1789) in

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

, she was raised as a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

along with her older brothers Richard (1768–1803) and

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

(1771–1847). She married Henry Rolls (bapt. 1782–1838) on 16 July 1810, at St Anne's Church, Liverpool. He entered

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

in December 1810, was ordained in 1813, served a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

Boxworth Boxworth is a village in South Cambridgeshire, situated about eight miles to the north-west of Cambridge. It falls under the Papworth Everard and Caxton ward and lies within the diocese of Ely. The village covers an area of 1,053 ha. (2,602 a.) ...

, Cambridgeshire (1813–1816) before becoming

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

first of Barnwell St Andrew (1818), Barnwell All Saints (1819), then All Saints

Aldwincle Aldwincle (sometimes Aldwinkle or Aldwinckle) is a village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, with a population at the time of the 2011 census of 322. It stands by a bend in the River Nene, to the north of Thrapston. The name of the ...

(from 1820), all 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 ...

. They had at least four daughters and two sons, though only two survived to adulthood, with two of their daughters, Marianna Hillary (1811) and Maria Gulielma (1813), living less than a year. She died at Aldwincle rectory on 8 April 1835.

Poetry

Rolls published a number of books of poetry from 1815 to 1828. From 1817 she contributed to several periodicals, including ''

The Literary Gazette ''The Literary Gazette'' was a British literary magazine, established in London in 1817 with its full title being ''The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences''. Sometimes it appeared with the caption title, "London Lit ...

'', and ''

The Literary Magnet ''The Literary Magnet'' was a British magazine. Started as a weekly magazine in 1824 by Egerton Brydges and his son using the pseudonym Tobias Merton, it went through a number of editors, becoming a monthly magazine towards the end of 1824, was bo ...

''. From 1828 until her death she also contributed to annuals, such as ''

Forget-Me-Not ''Myosotis'' ( ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. The name comes from the Ancient Greek "mouse's ear", which the foliage is thought to resemble. In the northern hemisphere they are colloquially known as forget-me-no ...

''.

Bibliography

* ''Sacred Sketches from Scripture History'' (1815) * ''Moscow. A Poem'' (1816) * ''A Poetical Address to Lord Byron'' (1816) * ''The Home of Love, a Poem'' (1817) * ''Legends of the North, or, the Feudal Christmas; a Poem'' (1825) * ''Choice Selections, and Original Effusions; or, Pen and Ink Well Employed'' (1828)

Notes

References

{{authority control 1775 births 1835 deaths 19th-century English poets English women poets Romantic poets