Jane Barlow DLitt (1856 - 1917)

Born 17 Oct 1856 in Dollymount, County Dublin, Ireland

Ancestors

Died 17 Apr 1917 at age 60 in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Biography

Jane was born 17 Oct 1856 in Dollymount, County Dublin, the daughter of James Barlow and Mary Barlow.

She was a poet, novelist, and short story writer.

She was educated by the family's governess and her father at The Cottage, Raheny, Co. Dublin. She became proficient in French and German, and was a talented classical scholar and an accomplished pianist. She travelled much throughout Ireland, and in her twenties visited Italy, France, Greece, and Turkey.

In 1892 she published a collection of verse narratives, Bog-land studies, where she attempted to capture the specific qualities of the English language as spoken in the west of Ireland. This was followed by the hugely successful collection of stories Irish idylls (1892). Running into nine editions, it was read in France, Germany, Britain and America

When the University of Dublin first began to grant degrees to women, She was one of the first "to receive the highest honorary distinction that ancient seat of learning could bestow", a Doctor of Letters (D. Litt.).

She continued to write prolifically, producing a further five volumes of verse, eleven collections of stories and five novels and published under her own name and under the pseudonym Felix Ryark. She co-wrote with her father under the pseudonym Antares Skorpios.

Having rejected organised religion, in later years she became increasingly interested in the Psychical Research Society. She was among the first members of the society's Irish branch.

After the death of her father in 1913 she and her siblings moved to Bray, Co. Wicklow.

She died, unmarried, at the age of 59, at St Valerie, Bray, County Wicklow, in 1917. ^[1] She is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin

Death Notice - Irish Independent April 19, 1917

MISS JANE BARLOW, GIFTED IRISH AUTHORESS DEAD. Miss Jane Barlow, the gifted Irish authoress, whose death is announced, was the eldest daughter of the late Rev. J.W. Barlow, Vice-Provost T.C.D....

Probate ^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1917/05215/4442909.pdf
2. ↑ http://www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/reels/cwa/005014920/005014920_00019.pdf

• Dictionary of Irish Biography - Jane Barlow
• Wikipedia - Jane Barlow