Biographical Information about Barbara Hofland with particular relevance to The Merchant's Widow

Barbara Wreaks was born at Sheffield in 1770. Her father, Robert Wreaks, was a staple product manufacturer. She lost him when she was still an infant. After her mother quickly remarried, she was sent to live with a maiden aunt. In her early days Barbara kept a milliner's shop in Church Lane and contributed several poems to the 'Sheffield Courant' and 'Sheffield Iris'. In 1795 she contributed her first literary essay 'Characteristics of some leading inhabitants of Sheffield' to the 'Sheffield Courant'. In 1796 Barbara married Thomas Bradshaw Hoole, a Sheffield merchant, who tragically died from consumption only two years after their marriage leaving her a widow with a four month old son to take care of. Barbara was left with a 'considerable' estate, which unfortunately was soon lost through the failure of the firm with which it was involved. Her son's inheritance and her estate were wiped out. To help support herself and her son she published, with the help of a generous subscription from the people of Sheffield (some 2000 subscribers), a book of poems which for a short time made her enough money. She made enough money she was able to buy a boarding house in Harrogate. After a year of trying to make the business a success, it eventually failed, however while contending with the difficulties in which were involved with running a boarding school, she found time to make herself known as a writer of fiction. Thus achieving a short-lived independence. The following year, after ten years of widowhood, she married the struggling young artist Thomas Christopher Hofland. T. Christopher Hofland was known for his scenes overlooking Sheffield. In 1812 she published one of the novels she wrote while in Harrogate, The Clergyman's Widow; it sold 17,000 copies. The ill success of her husband's business compelled her to work even harder. By 1824 she had produced almost twenty works of fiction. Moving to London in 1811 helped increase her output, the first of these published was The Daughter-in-Law. Her next publication was her most famous to date, The Son of a Genius (1816). It well deserved this success from its genuine truth to nature, the vivid portrayal of the artistic temperament as she had observed it in her husband, and the artless but touching expression of her affection for her son by her fist marriage, whose early death from consumption cast a shadow over her life. She also wrote a spirited pamphlet on the disagreements between George IV and Queen Caroline, and, anticipation some modern developments of journalism, contributed letters of London literary gossip to provincial journals. She died on November 9, 1844 at the age of 74 in Richmond, Surrey.