— The Corvey Poets Project at the University of Nebraska —

British Poetry of the later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries

Bibliographical and Contextual Apparatus

[Melesina C. Trench]

Campaspe:  an Historical Tale; and Other Poems. By Mrs. Trench. [Southampton:  Baker], 1815. Pp. 40.

Biographical Information

Though I found biographical information for Melesina Trench in three sources, the information was brief, but thorough. Melesina Trench was born Melesina Chenevix in Ireland on March 22, 1768 into a family of Huguenot descent. She was orphaned as a toddler, leaving her paternal grandfather, the Bishop of Waterford, to raise her until his death in 1779. Trench's maternal grandfather, Archdeacon Gervais, then took the responsibility of raising her. It was in Archdeacon Gervais' well-stocked library that Trench got most of her education (Kunitz 628). At age 18 she married Col. Richard St. George, and by age 22 she was a widow and had an infant son. After the death of her husband, Trench traveled in Germany and France. She began writting letters to Mary Leadbeater which made critical comments on books (many by women), with some poems and essays (Blaine 1095). In 1802 Trench went to Paris for 'a short vacation ramble', but the war with Britain resumed and she was trapped in France (Greer 633). In the meantime Trench met and married Richard Trench, a man who was six years younger than she. The marriage was said to be a happy one. During their entrapment in France, Richard Trench was imprisoned by Napoleon because he was thought to be a barrister.

In 1807 the couple escaped France to Dublin with their first son. They eventually had a total of 9 children (8 boys and 1 girl) during their marriage, however only three survived into adulthood. Of her three surviving sons two became noted authors (Kunitz 628). According to British Authors of the 19th Century, she continued to write, but neither her novels, her verse, nor her essays had the literary value of her letters and journal entries (Kunitz 628). Her son Richard Chenevix Trench edited these journals and letters into a book called her Remains nearly forty years after her death (Greer 633). The book included travel descriptions, celebrity encounters, and her responses to marriage and motherhood. Of her poetry she wished that she had less flattery and more criticism and instruction (Blaine 1095). If you read the reviews of her work you will see that she gets a lot of flattery, though much is deserved in my opinion. Trench died in 1827 at the age of 59 she left behind her letters and journals.

Sources

Blaine, Virginia, Patricia Clements, Isobel Grundy. eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English Women Writers from the Middle Ages to Present. London: Yale UP, 1990. pp. 1095.
Greer, Germaine, Elaine Showalter, eds. The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. pp. 633.
Kunitz, Stanley J., ed. British Authors of the 19th Century. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1936. pp. 628.
Lendering, Jona. Ammon. http://www.livius.org/am-ao/ammon/ammon.htm
Trench, Melesina C.. Campaspe: an Historical Tale; and Other Poems. Southampton: Baker, 1815.

Prepared by Jessica Kubick, University of Nebraska, December 2004.
     © Jessica Kubick, 2004.