Frances Arabella Rowden

Frances Arabella Rowden was the daughter of a clergyman. After serving as governess in the family of Lord Bessborough, she was tutor to Mary Russell Mitford at St. Quintan's School, Hans Place, from 1798 to 1802; Lady Caroline Lamb and Letitia Elizabeth Landon were also her pupils. Miss Rowden took over management of the school about 1809, and eventually married her former employer upon the death of his first wife.

TEXT RECORDS:

1810The Pleasures of Friendship.
1810The Pleasures of Friendship: Advertisement.
1810The Pleasures of Friendship: Part II.

PUBLICATIONS:

Poetical introduction to the study of botany. 1801.
The pleasures of friendship, a poem. 1810.
A Christian wreath for the pagan deities: or, an introduction to the Greek and Roman mythology. 1821.
A biographical sketch of the most distinguished writers of ancient and modern times. 1829.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English

education not known

woman writer
schoolmaster
tutor
poet

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Mary Russell Mitford

REFERENCE:

Not DNB; CBEL (3rd ed).

Biographical Dictionary of Living Writers of Great Britain and Ireland (1816); Mary Russell Mitford, in Dramatic Works (1854); A. G. K. L'Estrange, in Life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Frances Arabella Rowden:

1.	1802  Mary Mitford [mother] to Dr. Mitford, 2 June 1802; A. G. K. L'Estrange, Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford (1882) 3-4.
2.	1802  Anonymous, Review of Rowdon, Poetical Introduction to the Study of Botany; Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry for 1801 (1802) 435-36.
3.	1811  Mary Russell Mitford to William Elford, 15 December 1811; A. G. K. L'Estrange, Life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870) 1:131-32.
4.	1811  Mary Russell Mitford in "On Revisiting the School where I was educated" Poems (1811) 34-35.
5.	1812  Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Review of Rowden, The Pleasures of Friendship; The Monthly Review 67 (April 1812) 434.
6.	1854  Mary Russell Mitford, in Introduction to Mitford, Dramatic Works (1854) 1:x-xi.
7.	1870  A. G. K. L'Estrange, in Life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870) 1:20-21 &n.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Frances Arabella Rowden:

1.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Writers of Great Britain and Ireland (1816) 301.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1810  Mary Russell Mitford:   Frances Arabella Rowden, "Dedication to Miss Mitford" Pleasures of Friendship (1810) iii-iv.