Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (October 1, 1790 – July 12, 1846) was an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 evangelical Protestant

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

 writer and novelist who wrote as Charlotte Elizabeth.

Life

She was the daughter of Michael Browne, rector of St. Giles's Church and minor canon of Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....

, where she was born on 1 Oct. 1790. She married in early life a Captain Phelan of the 60th regiment

King's Royal Rifle Corps

The King's Royal Rifle Corps was a British Army infantry regiment, originally raised in colonial North America as the Royal Americans, and recruited from American colonists. Later ranked as the 60th Regiment of Foot, the regiment served for more than 200 years throughout the British Empire...

, and spent two years with him while he served with his regiment in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

. They then returned to Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, where Phelan owned a small estate near Kilkenny

Kilkenny

Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...

. The marriage was not a happy one, and they separated about 1824. Mrs Phelan subsequently resided with her brother, Captain John Browne, at Clifton

Clifton, Bristol

Clifton is a suburb of the City of Bristol in England, and the name of both one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells...

, where she made the acquaintance of Hannah More

Hannah More

Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...

. She later moved to Sandhurst

Sandhurst

Sandhurst is a small town and civil parish in England of 7,966 homes and 20,803 inhabitants , primarily domiciliary in nature with a few light industries...

, and then to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. In 1837 Captain Phelan died in Dublin, and in 1841 his widow married Lewis Hippolytus Joseph Tonna

Lewis Hippolytus Joseph Tonna

Lewis Hippolytus Joseph Tonna was an English polyglot and campaigner on behalf of evangelical protestantism....

. She died at Ramsgate

Ramsgate

Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...

 on 12 July 1846, and was buried there.

Writing career

While in Ireland Mrs. Tonna began to write, as "Charlotte Elizabeth," tracts for various religious societies. She was very hostile to the Catholic Church, and some of her publications are said to have been placed on the Index Expurgatorius. In 1837 she published an abridgment of Foxe's Book of Martyrs

Foxe's Book of Martyrs

The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe, more accurately Acts and Monuments, is an account from a Protestant point of view of Christian church history and martyrology...

. She edited The Protestant Annual, 1840, and The Christian Lady's Magazine from 1836, and The Protestant Magazine from 1841 until her death. She also wrote poems, two of which, The Maiden City and No Surrender, were written specially for the Orange

Orange Institution

The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...

 cause. Writing in 1899, O'Donoghue

David James O'Donoghue

David James O'Donoghue was an Irish biographer and editor. He attended a Catholic school and furthered his own education at the British Museum. He began his journalistic work by writing for the Dublin papers upon subjects relating to Irish music, art, and literature...

 stated that these "are extremely vigorous and popular. They are quite the best Orange songs that have been written."

Works

• Zadoc, the Outcast of Israel (London, 1825)
• Perseverance: a Tale (London, 1826)
• Rachel: a Tale (London, 1826)
• Consistency: a Tale (London, 1826)
• Osric: a Missionary Tale, and other Poems (Dublin, 1826?)
• Izram: a Mexican Tale, and other Poems (London, 1826)
• The System: a Tale of the West Indies (London, 1827)
• The Rockite: an Irish Story (London, 1829)
• The Museum (Dublin, 1832)
• The Mole (Dublin, 1835)
• Alice Benden, or the Bowed Shilling (London, 1838)
• Letters from Ireland, 1837 (London, 1838)
• Derriana
• Deny (1833; 10th ed. 1847)
• Chapters on Flowers (London, 1836)
• Conformity: a Tale (London, 1841)
• Helen Fleetwood (London, 1841)
• Falsehood and Truth (Liverpool, 1841)
• Personal Recollections (London, 1841)
• Dangers and Duties (London, 1841)
• Judah's Lion (London, 1843)
• The Wrongs of Woman , in four parts (London, 1843-4)
• The Church Visible in all Ages (London, 1844)
• Judea Capta: an Historical Sketch of the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans (London, 1845)
• Works of Charlotte Elizabeth (with introduction by Mrs. H. B. Stowe, 2nd edit. New York, 1845)
• Bible Characteristics (London, 1851)
• Short Stories for Children (Dublin, 1854)
• Tales and Illustrations (Dublin, 1854)
• Stories from the Bible (London, 1861)
• Charlotte Elizabeth's Stories (collected, New York, 1868)
• Kindness to Animals: or, The Sin of Cruelty Exposed and Rebuked (Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1845) (available online)
• Little Oaths (New York: American Tract Society, 18--?)(available online)
• Patty; or, Beware of Meddling(Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 18--?)(available online)
• Richard and Rover (New York: Lane & Tippett for the Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1846)(available online)
• The Bible The Best Book (New York: American Tract Society, 185-?)(available online)
• The Burying-ground. (N.Y. American Tract Society, 185-?)
• The Newfoundland fisherman: a true story (N.Y. American Tract Society, 18--?)
• Personal Recollections. 1841 (London: R. B. Seeley & W. Burnside, 1841)
• The Perils of the Nation: An Appeal to the Legislature, The Clergy, and the Higher and Middle Classes (London: Seeley, Burnside and Seeley, 1843)

External links