Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lynch, Theodora Elizabeth

1449886Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 34 — Lynch, Theodora Elizabeth1893George Clement Boase

LYNCH, THEODORA ELIZABETH (1812–1886), poetical and prose writer, daughter of Arthur Foulks by his wife, Mary Ann McKenzie, was born at Dale Park, Sussex, in 1813. Her father was a Jamaica sugar-planter, and on his plantation, the Lodge estate in the parish of St. Dorothy, Jamaica, she was married on 28 Dec. 1835 to Henry Mark Lynch, second son of John Lynch of Kingston, Jamaica. Her husband, born in Kingston on 29 Oct. 1814, was admitted a student of the Middle Temple 31 May 1837, and was called to the bar 12 June 1840, He practised his profession in Jamaica, and was nominated one of the judges there, but died of yellow fever at Kingston on 15 July 1845, and was buried at Halfway Free Church, St, Andrews, on 16 July.

After her husband's death Mrs. Lynch returned to England and devoted herself to writing works of fiction. Her books, the scenes of which are often laid in the West Indies, are mostly intended for young people. She died at 81 St. John's Wood Terrace, London, 37 June 1885, aged 75.

Her published works were: 1. 'Lays of the Sea, and other Poems. By Personne.' i.e. T.E. Lynch, 1846; 2nd edit. 1850. 2. 'The Cotton Tree, or Emily, the little West Indian,' 1847 ; another edit. 1853. 3. 'The Family Sepulchre, a Tale of Jamaica,' 1848. 4. 'Maude Effingham, a Tale of Jamaica,' 1849. 5. 'Stories from the Acts of the Apostles,' 1850. 6. 'The Little Teacher,' 2nd edit. 1851. 7. 'The Mountain Pastor,' 1852. 8. 'Millie Howard, or Trust in God,' 1864. 9. 'The Red Brick House,' 1866. 10. 'The Wonders of the West Indies,' 1866. 11. 'The Story of my Girlhood,' 1657. 12. 'The Exodus of the Children of Israel, and their Wanderings in the Desert,' 1857. 13. 'The Story of the Patriarchs,' 1860. 14. 'Son of the Evening Land, and other Poems,' 1861. 15. 'Rose and her Mission, a Tale of the West Indies,' 1863. 16. 'The Sabbaths of the Year, hymns for Children,' 1864. 17. 'Years Ago, a Tale of West Indian Domestic Life of the Eighteenth Century,' 1865.

[Times, 9 July 1885, p. 6 ; Athenæum, 4 July 1885, p. 18; information from Edward B. Lynch, esq., Spanish Town, Jamaica.]

G. C. B.