Jane Louisa Willyams (20 October 1786 – 28 May 1878) was a British novelist and historian. Her work focused on early Protestantism in Europe.
Jane Louisa Willyams | |
---|---|
Born | 20 October 1786 Carnanton House |
Died | 28 May 1878 (aged 91) Budleigh Salterton |
Parent(s) |
Jane Louisa Willyams was born on 20 October 1786 at Carnaton House in Cornwall. She was one of eight children of James Willyams.[1]
With her sister Charlotte Champion Willyams Pascoe she wrote a novel, Coquetry (1818), published thanks to the help of Sir Walter Scott.[1]
Willyams never married. After the death of her father in 1828, Willyams became a resident of a Protestant nunnery in Bristol, the Ladies’ Association. She left the following year, writing about her "disappointment at not finding the society composed of consistent and self-denying Christians."[2]
After a four month stay at Chillon Castle, she published the novel Chillon: or, Protestants of the Sixteenth Century. An Historical Tale in 1845.[1] The same year she published an anti-Catholic tract, The Reason Rendered: A Few Words Addressed to the Inhabitants of M——, in Cornwall.[3]
She published a history of the Waldensians, a heretical sect founded in the 12th century often seen as proto-Protestant, in 1855 and a novel about the Hapsburgs, The Tower of the Hawk, in 1871.[1]
Jane Louisa Willyams died on 28 May 1878 in Budleigh Salterton.[1]
Bibliography
edit- Coquetry, 1818[1]
- Chillon: or, Protestants of the Sixteenth Century. An Historical Tale. 2 vol. London: Hatchard, 1845.[4]
- The Reason Rendered: A Few Words Addressed to the Inhabitants of M——, in Cornwall. London, 1845.[3]
- A Short History Of The Waldensian Church In The Valleys Of Piedmont: From The Earliest Period To The Present Time, 1855[1]
- The Tower of the Hawk: Some Passages in the History of the House of Hapsburg. 1 vol. London: Hatchard, 1871.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g "Obituary". The Academy: 508. 8 June 1878.
- ^ Collier, Jacqueline (June 2014). A 'blessed asylum' or a utopian vision: the viability of a Protestant nunnery in early nineteenth-century England (PDF) (PhD thesis). Bath Spa University.
- ^ a b Gleadle, Kathryn (2009-09-24). Borderline Citizens: Women, Gender and Political Culture in Britain, 1815-1867 (1 ed.). British Academy. doi:10.5871/bacad/9780197264492.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-726449-2.
- ^ a b "Author: Jane Louisa Willyams". At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901. Retrieved 2022-12-15.