Memoir of Hannah Taylor: Extracted from her own Memorandums

York: Printed for W. Alexander..., 1820. FIRST EDITION. 12mo, 182 107 mms. pp. iv, 5 - 168, original printed boards, uncut; boards a bit soiled, but a good copy with the contemporary autograph "Mary Stevens 1822" on the recto of the front paste-down end-paper TAYLOR, Hannah, formerly HARRIS (1774-1812) was born on 21 Nov. 1774 probably in Yorkshire, the eldest of six children in a Quaker family. Her father, William Harris, was a mariner who died at sea when she was fifteen. She had married by 1799, the year with which her memoir begins. Her husband, Henry Taylor of North Shields, Northumberland, was in the navy and went to sea soon after their child was born. Although the memoir does not give details, he seems later to have abandoned her; this and the death of their child were events from which she never recovered. She lived with her siblings both in Ireland and in Cumberland for the rest of her life. In Ireland she visited Clonmel which had a large and very active Quaker community. The memoir describes her illnesses and depression, the deaths of some of her siblings including a sister in Clonmel, and her attendance at Quaker meetings in England and Ireland. She died at Thirsk, North Yorkshire, of a lung infection and was interred in the Quaker burial ground. One of her sisters edited her diary and poems for publication. (ancestry.co.uk 2 Dec. 2021; Memoir). Jackson: Bibliography of Romantic Poety.