Mary Darwall

Mary Whateley (or Wheatley) was born in Worcestershire where she was acquainted with William Shenstone. After contributing several items to the Gentleman's Magazine as "Harriet Airy" she published a volume of poems with Robert Dodsley that went into a second edition. In 1766 she married the Rev. John Darwall, managing a large family. Upon his death in 1789 she retired to Wales, from where she published a second volume of poems by subscription in 1794. She contributed to a collection by her daughter, Elizabeth Darwell, entitled The Storm, and other Poems (1810).

TEXT RECORDS:

1764The Pleasures of Contemplation.
1794A Scotch Pastoral.
1794Elegy on the Ruins of Kenilworth Castle.
1794The Self-Exiled Minstrel.

PUBLICATIONS:

Original poems on several occasions. By Miss Whateley. 1764.
Poems on several occasions. By Mrs. Darwall. 2 vols, 1794.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

no formal education

woman writer
poet

Gentleman's Magazine
The London Magazine
Lady's Poetical Magazine

Rev. Henry Francis Cary
Rev. John Langhorne
William Shenstone

REFERENCE:

Not DNB; not NCBEL.

John Wall, in Gentleman's Magazine 32 (February 1762) 84; David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); Ian Gordon, in Shenstone's Miscellany 1759-1763 (1952); Todd, Dictionary of ... Women Writers 1660-1800 (1987); Lonsdale, Eighteenth-Century Women Poets (1989); Jane Spencer, Woman and Poet in the Eighteenth Century: The Life of Mary Whateley Darwall (1738-1825) (1999).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Mary Darwall:

1.	1759  William Woty, "To Miss Harriet Airy" Gentleman's Magazine 29 (July 1759) 334.
2.	1761  William Shenstone to Richard Graves, 14 September 1761; Shenstone, Works (1769) 3:373-74.
3.	1761  John Wall, "A Letter from Dr. Wall to a Friend of his, with the following Letter and Poem" London Chronicle (29 December 1761) 628.
4.	1762  John Wall, "On Miss Whately" Gentleman's Magazine 32 (February 1762) 84.
5.	1764  John Langhorne, "To Miss W. occasioned by reading some Pieces of her Poetry" Darwall, Original Poems on Several Occasions, by Miss Whateley (1764) 11-12.
6.	1766  B. F., "To Miss Whately on her Poems" Gentleman's Magazine 36 (April 1766) 188-89.
7.	1788  William Hamilton Reid, "Ode on reading Poems by Miss Whateley; now Mrs. Dorwell, of Walsal, in Staffordshire" Gentleman's Magazine 58 (August 1788) 733.
8.	1794  Henry Francis Cary, "Stanzas addressed to the Author" Darwall, Poems on Several Occasions (1794) 69.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Mary Darwall:

1.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 1:144-45.
2.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 86.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1759  William Woty:   Harriott Airy [Mary Darwall], "To Mr. Copywell" Gentleman's Magazine 29 (March 1759) 282.
2.	1763  William Shenstone:   Mary Darwall, "Inscription for William Shenstone" Public Advertiser (22 February 1763).
3.	1764  Rev. John Langhorne:   Mary Darwall, "To the Rev. John Langhorne, on reading his Visions of Fancy, &c" Darwall, Original Poems on Several Occasions, by Miss Whateley (1764) 114-17.
4.	1794  Rev. Henry Francis Cary:   Mary Darwall, "To Mr. Cary, in Reply [to Stanzas addressed to the Author]" Darwall, Poems on Several Occasions (1794) 70-71.