Fenwick, Eliza (1766–1840)

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Fenwick, Eliza (1766–1840)

British children's writer. Name variations: The Reverend David Blair. Born Eliza Jago, Feb 1, 1766, in Cornwall, England; died Dec 8, 1840, in Rhode Island; dau. of Thomas and Elizabeth Jago; m. John Fenwick, c. 1788; children: 2.

After separation from husband (1800) ran schools, worked as governess, and cared for orphans; moved to US with daughter; works include Secresy, or the Ruin Upon the Rock (1795), Presents for Good Boys (1805), Simple Stories in Verse (1809), and Rays from the Rainbow: Being an Easy Method for Perfecting Children in the First Principle of Grammar without the Smallest Trouble to the Instructor (1812).

See also A.T. Webb, ed., The Fate of the Fenwicks: Letters to Mary Hays, 1798–1828 (1927).

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