Mary Collier

Stephen Van-Hagen (University of Coventry)

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 c. 1688
Died c. 1762
Activity c. 1739-c. 1762

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Collier's Works

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On the basis of her “Remarks” at the beginning of

Poems on Several Occasions

(1762), which account for virtually all that is known about her, Mary Collier must have been born

.1690. She states that she was born near Midhurst in Sussex, “of poor, but honest Parents” (“Some Remarks upon the Author’s Life”, 1762: iii) who taught her to read until her mother’s early death. Nothing more was known about her birth until the scholar H. Gustav Klaus discovered parish records in 2000 that make reference to a “Mary, daughter of William Collyer”, baptised at Lodsworth, three miles from Midhurst, on 9 October 1688 (Klaus, 2000: 201-04). Collier was not sent to school, being “set to such labour as the Country afforded” (1762: iii), improving her education herself. Having…

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3585 words

Citation: Van-Hagen, Stephen. "Mary Collier". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 March 2007; last revised 10 March 2022. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=955, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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