Jane Bowdler was a poet and essayist

Family

Jane was the eldest daughter of Thomas Bowdler of Bath, Somerset (1706–1785) and his wife Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, née Cotton (died 1797), a religious writer. Jane was the sister of John Bowdler the Elder (1746–1823), a religious pamphleteer, and Thomas Bowdler

Thomas Bowdler

Thomas Bowdler was an English physician who published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work, edited by his sister Harriet, intended to be more appropriate for 19th century women and children than the original....

 (1754–1825), who is remembered for publishing expurgated editions of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

, edited largely by his sister Harriet

Henrietta Maria Bowdler

Henrietta Maria Bowdler , commonly called Mrs. Harriet Bowdler, was an author and expurgator.-Life and works:Bowdler was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, and sister of John Bowdler the elder and Thomas Bowdler the elder...

, and of other works.

The non-literary member of the family was another sister, Frances (born c. 1747), She was presumably the lively, unconventional "Miss Bowdler" of Bath who features in a diary that the twenty-year-old Frances Burney kept of a lengthy visit to Teignmouth

Teignmouth

Teignmouth is a town and civil parish in Teignbridge in the English county of Devon, situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign about 14 miles south of Exeter. It has a population of 14,413. In 1690, it was the last place in England to be invaded by a foreign power...

, Devon, in 1773.

Posthumous success

Jane Bowdler took to writing when she lost her voice for a period of four years in about 1777. She had suffered from intermittent ill health since contracting smallpox in 1759. She died in 1784 at Ashley and was buried in the family vault in London.

Jane's Poems and Essays by a Lady Lately Deceased was published by her family for charity in 1786 and reprinted 16 times up to 1830. A special edition was printed in 1797 in line with her mother's will, and distributed to friends instead of a mourning ring. Among the book's many advocates was Queen Charlotte

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the Queen consort of the United Kingdom as the wife of King George III...

, who read it three times. Further unpublished pieces by Jane appeared in a family memoir.