Agnes Wheeler or Ann Coward (bap. 1734 – 1804) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

writer on the

Cumbrian dialect The Cumberland dialect is a local Northern English dialect in decline, spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands, not to be confused with the area's extinct Celtic language, Cumbric. Some parts of Cumbria have a ...

. She is known for one book published in 1790. ''The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom'' was an early attempt at recording the local dialect. There were four editions of the book. Her work was later used in ''Specimens of the Westmorland Dialect'' published by the Revd Thomas Clarke in 1887.Roy Palmer, ‘Wheeler , Agnes (bap. 1734, d. 1804)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 1 June 2017
/ref> She was born near

Cartmel Cartmel is a village in Cumbria, England, northwest of Grange-over-Sands close to the River Eea. The village takes its name from the Cartmel Peninsula, and was historically known as Kirkby in Cartmel. The village is the location of the 12t ...

and went to London for 18 years where she married a Captain Wheeler and worked as a housekeeper. She returned to Cumbria a widow where she wrote for the local press in plain English. She published her one book in dialect which initially had three dialogues but in later editions four. The conversations discuss a trip to London, the death of George III, christenings, deaths, cockfights and other subjects including hairstyles and fashion. The first edition is said to be so rare that the British Library does not have a copy. Wheeler died in Beetham where she had lived with her brother William in the medieval

Arnside Tower Arnside Tower is a late-medieval tower house (or Pele tower) between Arnside and Silverdale immediately to the south of Arnside Knott in Cumbria, England. History Arnside Tower was built in the second half of the 15th century. Tower houses w ...

. She was buried on 4 November 1804.

External links

* ''The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By A. W.'' Kendal, 1790
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** ''The Westmorland Dialect, in four familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By A. Wheeler.'' 2nd edition, London, 1802
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** ''The Westmoreland Dialect in four familiar Dialogues, in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By Mrs. Ann Wheeler. To which is added a copious Glossary of Westmoreland and Cumberland Words.'' A new edition, London, 1840
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* ''Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects. Dialogues, Poems, Songs, and Ballads, by various Writers, in the Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects, now first collected: with a copious Glossary of Words peculiar to those Counties.'' London, 1839
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References

1730s births 1804 deaths British women writers 18th-century British writers 18th-century English women writers People from Cartmel {{UK-writer-stub