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Ann Yearsley

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Ann Yearsley (1753-1806). Mezzotint by Joseph Grozier, 1787. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery.

Ann Yearsley
Born July 8, 1753(1753-Template:MONTHNUMBER-08)
Bristol, England
Died May 6, 1806(1806-Template:MONTHNUMBER-06) (aged 52)
Melksham, England
Resting place Clifton, Bristol
Occupation milkmaid], poet
Nationality English
Citizenship United Kingdom British subject

Ann Yearsley (1753 - 8 May 1806) was an English poet and prose writer, known as "Lactilla" or the "Bristol Milkwoman."

Life[]

Yearsley was born at Bristol in 1756 of lowly parents. Her mother sold milk from door to door. Ann, who followed her mother's calling, had no education. A brother taught her to write, and she had a taste for reading.[1]

In 1774 she married a farmer, John Yearsley, and in 7 years bore him 6 children.[2] The family fell into poverty and distress, and Hannah More's cook brought the poor milkwoman and her poetic endeavours to the notice of her mistress, who gave the poetess a grammar, a spelling-book, and a dictionary. Mrs. More revised her poems, and wrote (she calculated) over 1,000 pages in transcribing and correcting them and in seeking subscribers.[1]

The book was published by subscription in 1784 (cf. Roberts, Memoirs of Hannah More, i. 361 et seq.). There were more than a thousand subscribers, among them the most illustrious persons of the day. Over £600 was realised, and Hannah More invested the money in the funds, with herself and Mrs. Montagu, who called Mrs. Yearsley "one of nature's miracles," as trustees.[1]

The deed of trust excluded Mrs. Yearsley from control of the money. This arrangement did not satisfy the poetess, and a breach with More followed. The 4th edition of the Poems on Several Occasions, published in 1786 at Mrs. Yearsley's risk, contains by way of preface a letter from Hannah More to Mrs. Montagu, giving one version of the dispute and Mrs. Yearsley's statement of her case against Hannah More. The next year (1787) was published a new volume, entitled Poems on Various Subjects, and other pieces, to which Mrs. Yearsley prefixed a further narrative of Mrs. More's treatment of her.[1]

Deprived of Hannah More's patronage, Mrs. Yearsley's prospects sank. On 2 November 1789 a tragedy by her in 5 acts and in verse, entitled Earl Goodwin, was performed at Bath, and again on 9 November at Bristol (cf. Gent. Mag. 1789, ii. 1045). It is an historical tragedy, without any love interest, and contains in act v. a good comic song. It was published in 1791.[1]

In 1793 she opened a circulating library in Bristol, which provided her family's main income for the next decade.[3]

In 1795 she issued in 4 volumes an historical novel, The Royal Captives: A fragment of secret history, purporting to be copied from an old manuscript. The story is based on that of the Man in the Iron Mask, whom Mrs. Yearsley identified with the twin-brother of Louis XIV.[1]

Joseph Cottle, the Bristol publisher, who knew her well, declared her to be "a very extraordinary individual. Her natural abilities were eminent, united with which she possessed an unusually sound masculine understanding, and altogether evinced, even in her countenance, the unequivocal marks of genius" (cf. Reddie, Literary and Scientific Anecdotes, 175-176; Gentleman's Magazine, liv. ii. 897).[1] A letter written by her to a clergyman, 29 October 1797, about her poems is, in handwriting and style of composition, that of a person of ordinary education (cf. Addit. MS. 18204, f. 196).[4]

After her husband died in 1803,[2] Mrs. Yearsley's last years were spent in retirement at Melksham, Wiltshire, where she died on 8 May 1806.[1]

Writing[]

Her poems are much in the style of the minor poets of Hayley's school, and are overladen with strained imagery. Horace Walpole noted her perfect ear and taste (cf. Letters, ed. Cunningham, viii. 523); Miss Seward brackets her with Burns as a miracle (cf. Letters, i. 394, ii. 364). Southey allowed her some feeling and capability, but added, "though gifted with voice, she had no strain of her own whereby to be remembered, but she was no mocking-bird."[1]

Ann Yearsley's portrait was painted by Sarah Shiells, and a fine mezzotint engraving of the picture, published 16 May 1787, is in the British Museum print-room. The poetess is there represented as a good-looking buxom woman. There also exists an engraved portrait by Lowry, in which the countenance is of a more intelligent type.[4]

Other works by Mrs. Yearsley are: 1. ‘Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave Trade,’ 1788. 2. ‘Stanzas of Woe,’ 1790. 3. ‘Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI,’ 1793. 4. ‘An Elegy on Marie-Antoinette,’ 1795 (?). 5. ‘The Rural Lyre, a Volume of Poems,’ 1796.[4]

Recognition[]

Her eldest son, William Cromartie Yearsley, was apprenticed to an engraver, and engraved some of the plates illustrating his mother's books. He died prematurely.[4]

Pickering & Chatto released a 4-volume Collected Works of Ann Yearsley in January 2014.[5]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • Poems on Several Occasions (1st edition with preface by Hannah More). London: T. Cadell, 1785.
  • Poems on Various Subjects. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1787; Oxford, UK, & New York: Woodstock Books, 2004.
  • A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave Trade. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1788.
  • Stanzas of Woe. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1790.
  • An Elegy on Marie Antoinette. Bristol, UK: privately published, printed by J. Rudhall, 1795.
  • The Rural Lyre: A volume of poems. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1796.
    • also printed in The Romantics: Women poets. (12 volumes), London: Routledge, 1996.[3]
  • Selected Poems (edited by Tim Burke). Cheltenham, UK: Cyder Press, 2003.

Plays[]

  • Earl Godwin: An historical play (performed 1789). London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1791.

Novel[]

Non-fiction[]

  • Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI. Bristol, UK: privately published, 1793.
  • Sequel to 'Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI'. Bristol, UK: privately published, 1793.

Collected editions[]

  • Collected Works (edited by Kerri Andrews). London: Pickering & Chatto, 2014.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]

See also[]

References[]

  •  Lee, Elizabeth (1900) "Yearsley, Ann" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 63 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 3120-311  . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 16, 2017.
  • Mary Waldron (1996) Lactilla, Milkwoman of Clifton: The life and writings of Ann Yearsley, 1753–1806

Notes[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Lee, 310.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ann Yearsley 1752-1806, Poetry Foundation. Web, Jan. 16, 2017.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ann Yearsley (1752-1806), BrycchanCarey.com. Web, Jan. 16, 2017.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lee, 311.
  5. ↑ The Collected Works of Ann Yearsley, University of Strathclyde Glasgow. Web, Jan. 16, 2017.
  6. ↑ Search results = au:Ann Yearsley, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 16, 2017.

External links[]

Poems
Books
About

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Yearsley, Ann

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