Hannah Cowley

Antje Blank (University of Glasgow)

Ed. by Janet Todd, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

Born 14 Mar 1743
Died 11 Mar 1809
Activity 1763-1809

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Poet

Resources

Cowley's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Hannah Cowley was born Hannah Parkhouse in Tiverton in 1743. Her father Philip Parkhouse, a bookseller with a classical schooling, provided his daughter with a comprehensive education that was rare for young women of her time. Furthermore the shelves in her father’s shop supplied her with all recent publications, and, it seems, she was a voracious reader: her published writings show her well versed in works of classical mythology, Restoration and early eighteenth-century drama, Enlightenment philosophy, political debates, history and military campaigns.

In 1772 she married Thomas Cowley, the son of a Cockermouth bookseller. Income was scarce in their new household: her husband brought home a meagre annual salary of fifty pounds earned at the Stamp Office, which he supplemented with

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1866 words

Citation: Blank, Antje. "Hannah Cowley". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 April 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1046, accessed 16 April 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here