Jean Ingelow

INGELOW, Jean. b. Boston, Lincolnshire, 17 March 1820; d. Kensington, London, 20 July 1897. Rising from a background of genteel poverty, she became a highly successful poet, novelist and writer for children. She was the eldest of ten children of William Ingelow, a banker and shipping agent, whose fluctuating fortune led to bankruptcy in 1826. The family then apparently had no settled residence until moving to Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1834; Jean was educated largely by her mother and a maiden aunt. After a further unsettled period from 1845 to 1850, they lived at various London addresses; but Jean’s growing success as a professional writer brought financial security, and from 1855 the family...