Parkes (Belloc), Bessie Rayner (F)

b. 16 June 1829. d. 29 March 1925. Nationality: English. VIAF.
Prominent feminist campaigner, journalist, and poet. Pseudonym: “B. R. P.” Briefly edited the *Waverley Journal* and then established and edited *The English Woman’s Journal* (although Emily Davies took over the editorship for six months in 1862). Part of the Langham Place Group. A prominent campaigner in support of the Married Women’s Property Bill and reform of the Divorce Act (1855). Author of *Poems* (1852), *Summer Sketches and Other Poems* (1854), and *Fifty Years* (1904). Her feminist prose includes *Essays on Woman’s Work* (1865). Converted to Catholicism in 1864. Married Louis Belloc on 19 September 1867 and lived in France with him until his death in 1871, after which she lived periodically in France and in England until financial difficulties in 1877 forced her to retire to a cottage in Sussex. Her children, also writers, were Marie Belloc Lowndes and Hilaire Belloc. Biographical information: *ODNB*, *Orlando*. (AC)

Poems associated with this person

Poem title Date Periodical Roles id #
The Reply of the Fairies 1854-11-25 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6242
Two Graves 1858-04-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 1557
The Old Chateau 1859-03-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 1631
Gibson’s Studio 1859-05-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 1633
Minerva Medica. For E. B. 1859-07-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 1635
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Oberon Loquitur) 1859-12-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 1640
New Year’s Wishes 1860-01-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 1647
The Wind Amid the Trees 1861-11-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 1669
The Palace and the Colliery 1862-02-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 15849
The First Primrose 1863-04-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 1701
The Voyage of the John Duncan from Gravesend to Dunedin 1863-05-01 The English Woman’s Journal Poet 15855
Fontainbleau 1864 Good Words Poet 1608
A Highland Romance 1866-02-01 Good Words Poet 1793
The Campagna of Rome 1866-08-01 Good Words Poet 1808