Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jevons, Mary Anne

1399733Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 29 — Jevons, Mary Anne1892Charles William Sutton

JEVONS, MARY ANNE (1795–1845), poetess, eldest daughter of William Roscoe [q. v.], was born at Liverpool in 1795, and was married on 23 Nov. 1825 to Thomas Jevons. She was the mother of William Stanley Jevons [q. v.] Her youth was spent in constant companionship with her father, a good deal of whose poetical talent she inherited. She contributed to ‘Poems for Youth, by a Family Circle,’ 1820–1, 2 parts (3rd edition 1841), and wrote ‘Poems by one of the Authors of “Poems for Youth,” &c.,’ 1821, 12mo, pp. 66. She edited ‘The Sacred Offering, a Poetical Annual,’ 1831–8, the contents of which were chiefly written by members of the Roscoe family. Her own contributions were in 1845 collected under the title of ‘Sonnets and other Poems, chiefly Devotional,’ 8vo, pp. x, 134. In person she was remarkably handsome, with very fascinating manners. She died in London on 13 Nov. 1845.

[Letters and Journal of W. Stanley Jevons, 1886, p. 2; Gent. Mag. January 1846, p. 103; Brit. Mus. and Manchester and Liverpool Free Library Catalogues.]

C. W. S.