Life
1790-1846 [née Browne; afterwards Phelan; fin. Tonna; occas. as
“Charlotte Elizabeth”]; b. Norwich, 1 Oct., dg. Rev. Michael
Browne, minor canon in Norwich; m. Capt. Phelan and lived unhappily with
him in Ireland; separated when he was posted to Nova Scotia; met Hannah
More, evangelist (?Sept. 1824); wrote numerous anti-Catholic tracts for
Dublin Tract Society as ‘Charlotte Elizabeth’ early in 1820s;
lived in Kilkenny and other parts of Ireland; her novel Derry: A Tale
of the Revolution [1824] went into many editions, and was later revised
in response to Presbyterian criticism; issued improving works incl. Anne
Bell; Or, My Faults (1826), The Simple Flower (1826), Philip,
And His Garden (1827), all for Religious Tract Society in London,
serving the Irish market; best remembered for Orange ballads such as “The
Maiden City” and “No Surrender” protesting against suppression
of Orange Order in 1825; Deserter (1836); m. Lewis Hippolytus J.
Tonna (1812-37), asst-dir. United Service Institution and religious controversialist;
moved to London on husband’s death in 1837; The Lady Flora Hastings;
Letters from Ireland (1838); later fiction incl. Conformity
(1841) and Falsehood and Truth (1841); Helen Fleetwood, A Tale
of the Factories (1841), also issued Personal Recollections [q.d.]
and Letters from Ireland, 1837 (1838); d. 12 July 1846; there
is a life by Mrs C. L. Balfour. DNB PI IF JMC DBIV SUTH OCIL
[ top ]
Works
Derry, A Tale of Revolution in 1688 [1824] (London: Nisbet 1833
and edns. incl. 1839; 1886), xvi, 317pp. [bibl.];
Letters from Ireland, 1837 (1838). Reprints, Irish Recollections, ed. Patrick Maume (Dublin: UCD
Press 2004), 208pp. [incorp. Personal Recollections].
Bibliographical
details
Derry: A Tale of the Revolution,
by Charlotte Elizabeth [pseud.] (London: James Nisbet 1833), iv, 382pp.,
8o; Do. [new edn.] (London: James Nisbet & Co. 1873), xxiv, 317, 8pp.,
12o. [see Notes, infra.]
[ top ]
Notes
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (1912),
lists Osric, A Missionary Tale, and Other Poems (Dublin ?1825),
several eds.; Izram, A Mexican Tale, and Other Poems (London 1826);
The Convent Bell and Other Poems (NY 1845); Posthumous and Other
Poems (London: Thomas Ditton 1846); The Minor Poems of C. E.
(Dublin ?1848).
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington 1904), notes that she signed contribs. ‘Charlotte Elizabeth’; best known for vigorous Orange songs quoted infra; b. 1 Oct., 1790, dg. Rev. M. Browne of Norwich; m. Capt. Phelan, separated, m. L. .H. J, Tonna, lived in Kilkenny, becoming deeply in love with that part of Ireland; Oscric; Izrani, A Mexican Tale, and The Convent Bell, Poems; Dublin Tract Society; ed religious publications. JMC selects ‘The Maiden City’ and ‘The Orangeman’s Submission’ verses written and published anonymously when the Orange Institution was disbanded.
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), records that she lived in Kilkenny and other parts of Ireland for many years; tracts; several volumes of verse; The Rockite [1832], Tithe War from Protestant standpoint, c.1820, opposed to Moore’s work of 1824; and Derry, A Tale of Revolution ([1839]; 6th ed. 1886); contrib. proceeds of sale towards teaching of the Protestant religion ‘in their own tongue to the Irish speaking aborigines of the land’ (Pref.); ‘Popery is the curse of God upon the land’; this and similar views expressed throughout. See also Alan Eager, bibl., Tonna, C. E. [pseud. Charlotte Elizabeth Tonne], Personal Recollections (n.d.).
British Library lists 36 titles incl. Derry: A Tale of the Revolution, by Charlotte Elizabeth [pseud.] (London: James Nisbet 1833), iv, 382pp., 8o; Do. [new edn.] (London: James Nisbet & Co. 1873), xxiv, 317, 8pp., 12o.
COPAC (Manchester) lists Osric: A Missionary Tale; with The Garden, and Other Poems (1825); Zadoc, the Outcast of Israel (1825); Anne Bell; or The Faults (1826); The Grandfathers Tales, &c. (1826); Izram; a Mexican Tale; and Other Poems (1826); Perseverence; or, Walter and His Little School (1826); The Bird’s Nest. (1827); The Hen and Her Chickens. (1827); The System; A Tale of the West Indies (1827); The Willow Tree. (1828); The Rockite: An Irish Story (1829, 1846); The Swan (1829); Try again. (1831); The Burying Ground. (1830, 1832); Little Oaths. (1830); Maternal Martyrdom: A Fact, Illustrative of the Improved Spirit of Popery, in the Nineteenth Century. (1830); Answering Again (1831); The baby (1831); The Glow-Worm (1831); The Wasp. (1831); The Bible; The Best Book (1832); The Dying Sheep. (1832); The Fortune Teller (1832); White Lies. (1833); Derry; A Tale of the Revolution (1833, and edns. to 1885); The Oak-Grove (1833); The Newfoundland Fisherman: A True Story. (1835); Good and Bad Luck (1834); A Few Words on the Eightieth Psalm (1835); Chapters on Flowers (1836 , 1839); Letters from Ireland [in] 1837 (1838); Glimpses at the Past (1839); Conformity; A Tale (1841); Helen Fleetwood (1841); A Peep into Number Ninety [of “Tracts for the Times”, by J. H. Newman (1841); Judah’s Lion (1843); Personal Recollections (1843); Second Causes; or, Up and Be Doing (1843); Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places (1844); The Works of Charlotte Elizabeth, intro. by Mrs. H. B. Stowe (1844), with port.; The Minor Poems of Charlotte Elizabeth, written especially for Juvenile Readers […] (1848). ill. engrav.; Posthumous and Other Poems (1846); War with the Saints (1848); Short Stories for Children. (1850), ill.; Juvenile Tales for Juvenile Readers. (1861), ill., pls.; Philip and His Garden. With Other Stories (1861), ill. by W.S. Coleman; Stories from the Bible; to which is added Paul the Martyr of Palestine (1861); Rachel; or, Little faults, &c. (1862), ill.; The Happy Mute : A Memoir of John Britt (1871); Kindness to Animals (1877), ill.; Also Ivanka Kovacevic, ed., Fact into Fiction : English Literature and the Industrial Scene, 1750-1850. 1975); Falsehood and Truth ; Conformity (1975);
Ulster Libraries: BELFAST CENTRAL LIBRARY holds Derry, fiction (1834); Deserter (1836); The Lady Flora Hastings; Letters from Ireland (1838); Personal Recollections [q.d.]. UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER (Morris Collection) holds Derry, a Tale of the Revolution of 1688 (1886) 317pp; Letters from Ireland, 1837 (1838).
Patrick Maume writes: ‘[...] the sixth and
subsequent editions of Derry (the text normally found in second-hand
bookshops) differ from the original version, which places much more emphasis
on Anglican-Presbyterian dissensions among the defenders of the city.
This was harshly criticised by J. S. Reid (History of the Presbyterian
Church in Ireland) as uncritically repeating and exaggerating accusations
made by anti-Presbyterian Anglican polemicists, and she revised the book
after Henry Cooke drew Reid’s criticisms to her attention.’ (EIRData Correspondence, April 2004.)
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)