Surname: Besemeres Forename(s): Jane b. 1827. d. 1905. Nationality: English. VIAF.
Poet, novelist, teacher, and governess. Pseudonym: “Janet Byrne.” Governess and then
family friend to the Dent family, based in Stafford, and especially close to Rupert
Arthur Dent, who was deaf and who later became an artist. Founded the Staffordshire
Church Mission to the Deaf and Dumb in 1886, and the Wolverhampton Home for Deaf and
Dumb Women and Girls. Publications include Picture Teaching Series of Books for the Young (1873), Patsy’s First Glimpse of Heaven (1873), Comfort: A Book for the Cottage (1882), Wonders Under the Earth (1882), and Vanished Faces, and Other Poems (1884). Also authored books for primary school and religious books. Biographical
information: Reilly, Late Victorian Poetry, p. 44; Cushing 352; “Deaf Artist, Rupert Arthur Dent, and Jane Besemeres,” UCL Ear Institute & Action on Hearing Loss Libraries <https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/library-rnid/2013/06/07/deaf-artist-rupert-arthur-dent-and-jane-besemeres/>
(15 August 2021). (KH, CC)