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Anna Seward
Anna Seward
Courtesy of
Revolutionary Players Online
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Anna
Seward was born in 1741 in Eyam,
Derbyshire to Elizabeth and Thomas Seward.
She was one of four children – the
only one who survived to adulthood. Her
parents were very educated, and her home
life was filled with intellectual people
and progressive discussion. Her father Thomas
was very supportive of Anna’s developing
education. She learned French, Latin and
Italian.
As a child, she was
extremely close to Honora
Sneyd, the daughter of a family friend.
Through the years, they |
were inseparable. When Honora
married in 1773, Anna was agitated and their relationship
rapidly deteriorated. Anna was devastated when Honora
died in 1781. Anna never
married, and spent her life advocating for moderate
reform of gender equality; Anna did not believe
in absolute equality. She did, however, hold many
radical views in politics, a she was pro-American
independence and opposed to slavery.
Anna was a member of the second
generation of the Bluestockings. Her writing and
association circle included Eleanor Butler, Elizabeth
Cornwallis, Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Day, Richard
Lowell Edgeworth, William Hayley, Hester
Thrale, Sarah Ponsonby, Sir Walter Scott,
Honora Sneyd and Helen Maria Williams. Her friends
referred to her as “The Swan of Litchfield”.
She published several pieces, and
her writing was marked with themes of painful
memory, loss and intense emotion. She also worked
in romantic verse and elegiac poetry, recalling
experiences of places and events or general themes
of love. Anna’s pieces are not popular with
today’s readers. Her works include Llangollen
Vale (1796), A Rural Coronation
(1776) and Elegy on Captain Cook (1782).
Anna died in 1809.
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