Author: Bath, Elizabeth (1772-1856)
Title: Poems, on Various Subjects
Date: 1806
Biographical Information
Not much is known about the life of Elizabeth Bath. She was born Elizabeth Paddy, daughter of Edward Paddy and Mary Rowling, in Falmouth, Cornwall. In 1796 she married one Henry Bath, a Quaker and metals merchant, and had a son with him. The exact date of their marriage is of some dispute: some sources state November 7th of that year, while a record of the Bath Family tree dating from Henry Bath himself, to the late 1800’s lists their marriage as having taken place in September, rather than November, 1796. She published what appears to be her first and only work, Poems, on Various Occasions, in 1806. Her death date is of dispute as well. Family trees place her death in 1844, while the Romantic Poetry by Women, A Bibliography 1770-1835 by J. R. de J. Jackson lists it as 1856. Based upon the reviews of her work, Elizabeth Bath was apparently a member of the Society of Friends and identified in the reviews as the daughter of Mr. Shurmer Bath, who was most likely her husband’s father. This is all the information that could be found on her through normal resources. At least some additional information may be hidden behind subscription paywalls on sites like ancesty.com, but the extent and accuracy of any such information remains unverified.
Sources
Jackson, James Robert DeJager. Romantic Poetry by Women: a Bibliography, 1770-1835. Clarendon Press, 1993.
ancestry.com
wikitree.com
myheritage.com
The Eclectic Review, 3 (April 1807), pp. 349-51
The Literary Panorama, 2 (September 1807), pp. 1197-98.
The Literary Annual Register, 1 (November 1807), pp 505-07.
Prepared by Asa Lambrecht, Universitry of Nebraska, Spring 2018
© Asa Lambrecht, 2018