Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/288

 against slavery, entitled ‘The Selling of Joseph’ (1700).

[Sewall's Letters and Diaries; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography.]

 SEWARD, ANNA (1747–1809), authoress, known as the ‘Swan of Lichfield,’ born in 1747 at Eyam, Derbyshire, was elder daughter of [q. v.] Her mother was Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. John Hunter, headmaster of Lichfield grammar school and the teacher of Dr. Johnson. Anna early developed literary tastes, and her father declared that she could repeat passages from ‘L'Allegro’ before she was three. In 1754 her father removed to Lichfield, where Anna resided for the rest of her life. There she became acquainted with [q. v.], and he encouraged her to write poetry.

In June 1764 her sister Sarah died when on the eve of marriage with Mr. Porter, Dr. Johnson's stepson. It would seem that he had thought of the elder sister before the younger (cf. Poetical Works, vol. i. pp. cxix–cxxi), and that after Sarah's death he wished to renew his addresses to Anna. But his advances were not encouraged. The gap left in her affections by the death of her sister was filled by Honora Sneyd, whom Mr. and Mrs. Seward adopted. Miss Sneyd became in 1773 Richard Lovell Edgeworth's second wife.

Henceforth Anna devoted herself mainly to her father (her mother died in 1780). Her leisure was spent in literary work, social duties, and in a voluminous correspondence with literary friends. She refused all offers of marriage. But she was at one time engaged to a ‘Colonel T.’ (cf. Letters, iv. 175–180), and in later life formed an attachment for John Saville, vicar-choral of Lichfield Cathedral (cf., Illustr. of Lit. viii. 427). When he died in 1803 she erected a monument to his memory in the cathedral.

Miss Seward's earliest poems appeared under the auspices of Anna, lady Miller [q. v.] in the ‘Batheaston Miscellany.’ Among them are an ‘Elegy on the Death of Mr. Garrick’ and an ‘Ode on Ignorance.’ In 1781 she published a ‘Monody on the unfortunate Major André,’ which was republished, with another popular elegiac effort on Captain Cook, in 1817. In 1782 she published ‘Louisa: a poetical novel.’ It was well received, won Hayley's admiration, and passed through five editions. About this time Miss Seward visited Hayley in Sussex, and there met Romney, who in 1786 painted her portrait. For some time the picture remained in Hayley's possession, but in 1788 Romney seems to have presented it to Miss Seward's father (cf., Memoirs, i. 277; , Letters, ii. 126). Miss Seward addressed a poem to Romney on the subject. In 1786 she paid one of her rare visits to London, and writes of ‘literary breakfastings’ at the house of Helen Maria Williams [q. v.], and of Mrs. Siddons's performance of Rosalind, which did not please her. Next year she made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Piozzi [q. v.], and frequently met at Lichfield Dr. Darwin, Thomas Day, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Dr. Parr, Howard the prison reformer, and Dr. Johnson. The last she cordially disliked (cf., Illustr. of Lit. vii. 321–63). About 1776 Miss Seward first met Boswell, whom she subsequently supplied with particulars concerning Johnson. Boswell, who knew her prejudice against Johnson, offended her by a somewhat cool reception of her statements (cf., Boswell, ii. 467; Gent. Mag. 1793, i. 197 et passim). Miss Seward published letters signed ‘Benvolio,’ decrying Johnson in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ in 1786 and 1793 (cf. Gent. Mag. 1786 i. 125–6, 302–4, 1787 ii. 684–5).

In March 1790 her father died, leaving her mistress of an independent fortune of 400l. a year. She continued to occupy her father's residence, the bishop's palace, Lichfield.

On the appearance of the first and second volumes of Scott's ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,’ in 1802, Miss Seward wrote to Scott warmly commending it. Despite the pedantry of her style he recognised her ‘sound sense and vigorous ability.’ She sent him a Scottish ballad of her own manufacture, ‘Rich auld Willie's Farewell,’ and Scott placed it among the ‘imitations’ which form a section of the ‘Border Minstrelsy.’ He relates that Miss Seward, whom he had never seen, sent him a long and passionate epistle on the death of a dear friend whom he had likewise never seen, but conjured him on no account to answer the letter since she was dead to the world. ‘Never were commands more literally obeyed,’ wrote Scott to Joanna Baillie. ‘I remained as silent as the grave, till the lady made so many enquiries after me that I was afraid of my death being prematurely announced by a sonnet or an elegy.’ In 1807 Scott paid Miss Seward a visit at Lichfield, and she greatly interested him. She characterised the meeting as ‘among the high-prized honours which my writings have procured for me.’

In 1799 Miss Seward published a collection of original sonnets intended to restore the strict rules of the sonnet. She handled