Constance Aston Fowler was a 17th-century English manuscript author and anthologist. Born "Constance Aston" about 1621,[1] she was the youngest child of Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar and Gertrude Sadleir, who were a Catholic family.[2][3] Her home was The Priory at St Thomas, near the family home of Tixal Hall in Staffordshire.[4]

Studied

Her Verse Miscellany of Constance Aston Fowler is studied as an example of "how manuscript texts were produced, disseminated, and preserved in provincial areas."[3] "Constance Aston Fowler built up her own private anthology, mingling the poems of her family with ones by Ben Jonson, Henry King, and John Donne.[3] Her father, her brother Herbert, sister-in-law Katherine Thimelby, sister Gertrude and their friend Lady Dorothy Shirley contributed.[3] Four of the poems in the anthology also appear in Tixall Poetry and the manuscript, HM 904.[5] She began the anthology in the 1630s and made the last entry in 1658. The manuscript now resides at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California (number HM 904).[5]

Constance married Walter Fowler in about 1634–1635 and had 12 children; Walter, Edward, William, Bryan, Thomas, Francis, Constance, Dorothy, Gertrude, Constance, Mary, and Magdalen. Edward, Bryan, Francis and Constance all died young.[6] Constance died on March 29, 1664, and is buried at Baswich, Staffordshire.[7]

References

  1. ^ authorities.loc.gov
  2. ^ Aldrich-Watson, Deborah (2000). The Verse Miscellany of Constance Aston Fowler: A Diplomatic Edition. Tempe, Arizona: Renaissance English Text Society. p. xxiii. ISBN 978-0-8018-6139-0.
  3. ^ a b c d Ezell, Margaret (1999). Social Authorship and the Advent of Print. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8018-6139-0.
  4. ^ Ezell, Margaret (1999). Social Authorship and the Advent of Print. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-8018-6139-0.
  5. ^ a b Aldrich-Watson, Deborah (2000). The Verse Miscellany of Constance Aston Fowler: A Diplomatic Edition. Tempe, Arizona: Renaissance English Text Society. p. x. ISBN 0-86698-252-3.
  6. ^ Aldrich-Watson, Deborah (2000). The Verse Miscellany of Constance Aston Fowler: A Diplomatic Edition. Tempe, Arizona: Renaissance English Text Society. p. xxix. ISBN 0-86698-252-3.
  7. ^ Aldrich-Watson, Deborah (2000). The Verse Miscellany of Constance Aston Fowler: A Diplomatic Edition. Tempe, Arizona: Renaissance English Text Society. p. xxix. ISBN 0-86698-252-3.

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Secondary sources

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