born december 25th, about 1777. died april 16th, 1859.

I PROTEST against dates! What has a woman got to do with dates!” exclaimed “Sydney, Lady Morgan,” as she chose to call herself. She kept the secret of her birth with admirable tact; but she is supposed to have been born in the year 1777, or thereabouts. Knowing she was so sensitive upon this point, her unsparing critic and enemy, Croker, took a mean revenge against her by always speaking of her as “Miss Owenson, of the eighteenth century.”

Sydney Owenson was one of the two daughters of an Irish land-steward named MacOwen, which he Anglicised to Owenson. He became stage-struck, entered the profession and went over to London, where he made his first appearance in Rowe's play of “Tamerlane.” He was tolerably successful, and “Mr. Owenson, the great London actor,” made a “starring” tour through the provinces. While at Shrewsbury he met a certain Miss Hill, “a simple woman of a certain age,” who was completely fascinated by the handsome Irishman. She eloped with him; they were married, and their eldest child was the subject of this memoir.