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1738-1825
Poet. Born Mary Whateley, the daughter of William Whateley, a gentleman farmer at Beoley, Worcestershire. Although she did not have the advantage of a good education she was an avid reader and began to write poetry at an early age. In 1760 she moved to Walsall to keep house for her brother. And within four years saw the publication of her first collection of poetry, Original poems on several occasions (1764). In 1766 she married John Darwall (1731-1789), vicar of St. Matthew's Church, Walsall. He already had six children by a previous marriage and Mary was to bear him six more. She assisted her husband in parish work, writing music for his congregation and running a printing press. Poetry continued her passion and she continued to contribute to the Gentleman's Magazine, sometimes using the name Harriot Airy. On the death of her husband in 1789 she moved to Newtown in Wales.
Much of Mary Darwall's poetry is pastoral in content, but there is coverage of wider contemporary ideas on satire, conflict and leisure. Her early work attracted comment from William Shenstone (1714-1763) and John Langhorne (1735-1779). Poems on several occasions was published in Walsall in 1794 and also includes work by two of her daughters.
Ann Messenger, late professor of English at Simon Fraser University in the United States has written a full biography of Mary Darwall, Woman and poet in the Eighteenth Century; The life of Mary Whateley Darwall (1738-1825) It is published by AMS Press Inc.
Page created 10 March 2002 and last updated 28 October 2002
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