Anna Eliza Bray

Anna Eliza Bray (born Kempe, afterwards Stothard; 25 December 1790 – 21 January 1883) was an English historical novelist. She also wrote several works of non-fiction.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bray/bio.html

Despite her isolated existence, brought on by constant concerns about delicate health, which she termed her "nervousness" (Bray 18), Bray lived to the age of 93. She died in 1883. The Athenaeum ran the following notice: "The death is announced of the oldest lady who claimed a considerable place among living writers. Mrs. Bray, who has passed away in her ninety-third year, was the last link between us and the generation which was in its prime in the early years of this century" (qtd. in Low 185).”

Biography

Extracted from https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bray,_Anna_Eliza_(DNB00)_

BRAY, ANNA ELIZA (1790–1883), novelist, daughter of John Kempe, bullion porter in the Mint, and Ann, daughter of James Arrow of Westminster, was born in the parish of Newington, Surrey, on 25 Dec. 1790.

In February 1818 she was married to Charles Alfred Stothard, the son of the distinguished royal academician and an artist himself, whose talents were devoted to the illustration of the sculptured monuments of Great Britain. With him she journeyed in France, and her first work consisted of 'Letters written during a Tour in Normandy, Brittany, &c., in 1818.' Her husband was unfortunately killed through a fall from a ladder in Beer Ferrers church, Devonshire, on 28 May 1821, while he was engaged in collecting materials for his work, 'The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.' By Stothard she had one child, a daughter, born posthumously 29 June 1821, who died 2 Feb. 1822.

After a long life spent in literary labours, she died in London on 21 Jan. 1883. Her autobiography to 1843 was published by her nephew, Mr. John A. Kempe, in 1884: but it is neither so complete nor so accurate as might have been expected. It discloses an accomplished and kindly woman, proud of her own creations, and enthusiastic in praise of the literary characters with whom she had come in contact.

A year or two after the decease of Stothard his widow married the Rev. Edward Atkyns Bray [q. v.], the vicar of Tavistock. She then entered upon novel writing, and from 1826 to 1874 she issued at least a dozen works of fiction. most popular of her novels were those which were based on the history of the principal families (the Trelawneys of Trelawne, the Pomeroys, and the Courtenays of Walreddon) of the counties of Devon and Cornwall. They were all of them of an historical character, and proved so popular that they were issued in a set of ten volumes by Longmans in 1845-6, and were reprinted by Chapman & Hall so recently as 1884.

Her last years were embittered by the report that during a visit to Bayeux in 1816 she had stolen a piece of the tapestry for which that city is famous: but her character was cleared by the correspondence and leading articles which appeared in the columns of the 'Times' on the subject.

Notes

Portrait: Anna Eliza Bray (née Kempe), by William Brockedon. black and red chalk, 1834 13 3/4 in. x 10 1/4 in. (349 mm x 261 mm). Transferred from National Gallery, 1994. Primary Collection NPG 2515(71) link

Trivia: 0029 Monday’s Child – Trad (1838) This English fortune-telling nursery rhyme was first recorded in Anna Eliza Bray’s “Traditions of Devonshire” in 1838 but the tradition of fortune telling by days of birth is much older and dates back as far as the 1570s. The lyrics have changed over the years but modern versions include:

• Monday’s child is fair of face
• Tuesday’s child is full of grace
• Wednesday’s child is full of woe.

Paul McCartney used similar lyrics in The Beatles’ 1968 song Lady Madonna.

Family notes: Anna Eliza Bray was a “sort of cousin” to the Rossetti family (Pre Raphaelite artists). The exact relationship seems to be that the poet Christina Rossetti Is the novelist Anna Eliza (Kempe) Bray’s uncle's great granddaughter. relationship path

Genealogy

• Elizabeth Ann Kempe
• FamilySearch Family Tree
• Birth: Dec 25 1790 - Newington, Surrey, London, England
• Death: Jan 21 1883 - London, England
• Parents: John Kempe, Ann Kempe (born Arrow)
• Spouses: Charles Alfred Stothard, Rev. Edward Atkyns BRAY Vicar of Tavistock
• Children: Blanche Anna Eliza Stothard (died young)
• Siblings: Edward Gibbon Kempe, Jemima Kempe, Alfred John Kempe

References

• "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N6KW-YQD : 19 September 2020), Anna Eliza Stothard in entry for Blanche Anna Eliza Stothard, 1821.Bromley, Kent, England, United Kingdom 23 Sep 1821
• "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGJ4-YRV : 9 November 2019), Edward A Bray, Tavistock, Devon, England; citing Tavistock, Devon, England, p. 12, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
• Autobiography of Anna Eliza Bray: (born 1789, Died 1883) By Mrs. Bray (Anna Eliza) GoogleBooks
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 06. Bray, Anna Eliza by William Prideaux Courtney. link Cites
• [Maclean's Trigg Minor, i. 78; Southey's Life and Correspondence; Mrs. Bray's Autobiography, 1884; Library Chronicle, i. 126-9.]
• Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-22. London, England: Oxford University Press; Volume: Shearman - Stovin (Vol 18). Page 320 AncestryImage
• Archives Spotlight: Papers of Anna Eliza Bray (1790-1883) The papers of 19th Century author Anna Eliza Bray have recently been catalogued at West Sussex Record Office and are now available for researchers to access. The catalogue can be viewed via our Search Online facility at http://www.westsussexpast.org.uk/searchonline/
• “A Peep At The Pixies, or Legends Of The West.” by Anna Eliza Bray. Synopsis: Anna Eliza Bray (1790-1883) was a British novelist. She was the daughter of Mr J. Kempe, and was married first to C. A. Stothard, son of Thomas Stothard, R.A., and himself an artist, and secondly to the Rev. E.A. Bray. She wrote about a dozen novels, chiefly historical, and The Borders of the Tamar and Tavy (1836), an account of the traditions and superstitions of the neighbourhood of Tavistock in the form of letters to Robert Southey, of whom she was a great friend. This is probably the most valuable of her writings. Among her works are Branded, Good St. Louis and his Times, Trelawney, and The White Hoods: An Historical Romance.
• “Life of Thomas Stothard, R. A., with personal reminiscences.” Volume 1. by Bray, Mrs. (Anna Eliza), 1790-1883. Publication date 1851 Archive.Org
• Thomas Stothard, R.A. : an illustrated monograph. by Coxhead, A.C. Publication date 1906 Page 14 Archive.Org
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Eliza_Bray
• “ Anna Eliza Bray: A Biography” Lexi Stuckey, MA candidate, University of Central Oklahoma. “ Bray was not only a successful novelist; she also forged friendships with two important literary figures of her time: the Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, and her cousin, the poet Christina Rossetti. ...” cites
• Bray, Anna Eliza. The Autobiography of Anna Eliza Bray: Born 1789, Died 1883. Ed. John A. Kempe. London: Chapman and Hall, 1884.
• Hamer, Lynne. "Folklore and History Studies in Early Nineteenth-Century England: Jane Porter and Anna Eliza Bray." Folklore Historian 10 (1993): 5-28.
• Low, Dennis. The Literary Protégées of the Lake Poets. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006.
• Rossetti, Dante; Rossetti, William Michael (1895). Dante Gabriel Rossetti; his family-letters, with a memoir by William Michael Rossetti. London: Ellis and Elvey. Page 30. Archive.Org
• Bray [nee Kempe; other married name Stothard], Anna Eliza (1790–1883) Beverly E. Schneller https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/3291 Extract Bray [nee Kempe; other married name Stothard], Anna Eliza (1790–1883), novelist and writer, was born on 25 December 1790 in Newington, Surrey, the daughter of John Kempe, a porteur d'or at the Royal Mint, and Ann, daughter of James Arrow and Elizabeth Jerdan Arrow...
• British Travel Writing Bray, Anna Eliza née Kempe, previously Stothard, 1790—1883 Anna Kempe was born at Newington, Surrey, daughter of John Kempe, porteur d'or at the Royal Mint, and his wife Ann, née Arrow. After a brief career as an actress, she married her drawing tutor, Charles Alfred Stothard (1786-1821; ODNB), in February 1818. Their honeymoon in France provided material for her first book, Letters Written during a Tour. In 1822, Anna Stothard married the Reverend Edward Atkyns Bray (1778-1857; ODNB) after Charles Stothard died in a fall. Her subsequent career as a novelist attracted the attention of Robert Southey who suggested the subject for A Description, which takes the form of a series of letters to Southey. Anna Bray published one other travel book after a tour of Switzerland in 1839: The Mountains and Lakes of Switzerland; with Descriptive Letters of Other Parts of the Continent (3 vols, 1841). She continued to publish novels and other prose writings until her death in 1883.
• OBEY, ERICA. ""The Poor Girl's Talent": Romantic Mentorship and Mary Colling's "Fables"." Keats-Shelley Journal 59 (2010): 65-77. Accessed September 22, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41409531.
• https://www.kempfamilyhistory.com/getperson.php?personID=I127967&tr...
• A General History of the KEMP and KEMPE Families of Great Britain and her Colonies. Part IV. (1902) Page 16-17. Archive.Org