Author: Dark. Mariann (dates uncertain; fl. 1818)
Title: Sonnets and Other Poems.
Date: 1818
Biographical Information
There is very little information available about Mariann Dark. Mary Ann Stiles was born September 12, 1793, to Henry Stiles, 1745-January 8 or 18, 1817, and Winifred Howell, 1748-March 21, 1826. Mary Ann was privately baptized in her infancy, and christened at Calne, Wiltshire, England in January 1801. Her father was a farmer at Whitley Farm, Calne, where Mary Ann/Mariann seemed to spend most of her time, and she had six siblings: Stephen, b. 1777; Robert, b. 1779; Edith, b. 1780; Sally or Sarah, b. 1783; Sophia, b. 1786; and Elizabeth, b. 1790. Mary Ann married Stephen Dark of Maiden Bradley at Calne, Wiltshire, England, November 24, 1814, with consent of parents. The license was signed by both and witnessed by Sarah Henly and Henry Stiles. They were not married long. The will of Henry Stiles written in January 1817 mentions his widowed daughter, Mary Ann Dark. The will of Stephen Dark of Maiden Bradley granted in April 1815 granted the administration of his estate to his widow. The date of Mary Ann’s/Mariann’s death is as yet unknown.
Mariann Dark’s Sonnets and Other Poems was published for the author in 1818, very shortly after her father’s death, and it seemed to serve as a kind of public memorialization/ memoir of him, as the volume had well over 200 subscribers. The volume was printed in South London by S. Curtis, Camberwell Press for the author, and published at seven shillings. The volume was sold by Messrs. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster-Row, London. Both the printer and the booksellers were quite prolific. Dark’s Sonnets and Other Poems was cited in a volume of Wiltshire Notes and Queries from 1896 to convey information about “Henry Stiles of Whitley, near Calne”; the notice quotes lines from the poem by Reverend W. L. Bowles, the minister at Bremhill and friend of both Henry and Mariann, that succeeds Mariann’s memoir.
The volume shows up in a catalog of items for auction to be sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, “Auctioneers of Literary Property and Works Illustrative of the Fine Arts, At Their House, No. 13, Wellington Street, Strand, W.C. On MONDAY, the 1st of JULY, 1867, and Five following Days, at One O’Clock Precisely.” The catalog is titled Catalogue of the Extraordinary Library, Unique of Its Kind, Formed by the Late Rev. F. J. Stainforth, Consisting Entirely of Works of British & American Poetesses, and Female Dramatic Writers, Together with Some Interesting Unpublished Manuscripts and Autograph Letters, Also a few Engravings, Framed and Glazed, tho original of which is now at the University of Colorado Libraries. Dark's volume is itemed with two other volumes: Tendrils of the Vine (1843) by Eliza Darnton, and Words in Season (1850) by Margaret E. Darton. Any connection between these volumes beyond first initial of last name is unapparent; perhaps they were bound together in 1850 or later.
SOURCES:
Catalogue of the Extraordinary Library, Unique of Its Kind, Formed by the Late Rev. F. J Stainforth, Consisting Entirely of Works of British & American Poetesses, and Female Dramatic Writers, Together with Some Interesting Unpublished Manuscripts and Autograph Letters, Also a few Engravings, Framed and Glazed. Catalogues of Items for Auction by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge. Printed by J. Davy & Sons, 137, Long Acre. 1867. pg. 41, item 853.
“Henry Stiles of Whitley, near Calne,” Wiltshire Notes and Queries: An Illustrated Quarterly Antiquarian & Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 1 1893-1895, Devizes: George Simpson, Jun., Gazette Office, 1896, pg. 416-417.
Prepared by Reva Graves, Univeristy of Nebraska, Spring 2018
© Reva Graves, 2018