Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry

Poet, novelist, travel writer, children’s author, and literary reviewer. Pseudonym: “M. J. J.” Born in Derbyshire. Sister of Geraldine Jewsbury. Educated at Miss Adams’s school in Shenstone, Staffordshire, but left at age fourteen due to bad health and eventually became a governess. After the death of her mother in 1819, Jewsbury took care of her siblings and household. Prolific contributor to periodicals and literary annuals. Published Phantasmagoria, her first collection of her short prose and poetry, in 1825. Close friend of Felicia Hemans. Married Rev. William Kew Fletcher on 1 August 1832, leaving with him for India the following month to work as missionaries. She died of cholera in Poona. Biographical information: ODNB, Orlando. (SP, AC)