JAMES, MARIA,
Is the daughter of a Welsh emigrant, who went to America in the early part of this century, when his daughter was about seven years old, and settled in the northern part of the state of New York. Maria James received but a very slight education, but from her earliest youth evinced a poetical talent very remarkable in a person circumstanced as she was; occupying generally the position of nursery-maid, or servant in families in the towns of that state. Her poems, with a preface by Alonzo Potter, D.D., now Bishop of Pennsylvania, were published in 1839.
JAMESON, ANNA,
Is one of the most gifted and accomplished of the living female writers of Great Britain. Her father, Mr. Murphy, was an Irish gentleman of high repute as an artist, and held the office of Painter in Ordinary to her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte. By her order he undertook to paint the "Windsor Beauties," so called; but before these were completed, the sudden death of the princess put a stop to the plan. Mr. Murphy lost his place; and his pictures, from which he had anticipated both fame and fortune, were left on his hands, without any remuneration. It was to aid the sale of these portraits, when engraved and published, that his daughter, then Mrs. Jameson, wrote the illustrative memoirs which form her work, entitled "The Beauties of the Court of King Charles the Second," published in London, in 1833. Prior to this, however, Mrs. Jameson had become known as a, graceful writer and accomplished critic on the Beautiful in Art, as well as a spirited delineator of Life. Her first work was the "Diary of an Ennuyee," published in London, in 1825, about two years after her marriage with Captain Jameson, an officer in the British army. Of this marriage—union it has never been—we will only say here, that it seems to have exercised an unfortunate influence over the mind of Mrs. Jameson, which is greatly to be regretted, because it mars, in a degree, all her works; but especially her latter ones, by fettering the noblest aspirations of her genius, instinctively feminine, and therefore only capable of feeling the full compass of its powers when devoted to the True and the Good. We shall advert to this again. The "Diary of an Ennuyee" was published anonymously; it depicted an enthusiastic, poetic, broken-hearted young lady, on her travels abroad; much space is here given to descriptions of works of art at Rome, and other Italian cities. This, on the whole, is Mrs. Jameson's most popular and captivating work; it appeals warmly to the sensibilities of the young of her own sex: its sketches of adventures, characters, and pictures, are racy and fresh; and the sympathy with the secret sorrows of the writer is ingeniously kept alive to the end. Her second work was "The Lives of the Poets," published in two volumes, in 1829; which was followed by "Memoirs of Celebrated Female Sovereigns," also in two volumes.
In 1832, appeared "Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical;" in many respects this is the best and most finished production of Mrs. Jameson's genius; the following year came out her "Beauties of the Court of Charles the Second."
