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The Birtwhistles of Craven and Galloway
Anna Jane Vardill; Birtwhistle heiress and Regency Poet
Figure 19 Anna Jane Vardill before and after her marriage to James Niven
Early life Anna Jane Vardill, John Birtwhistle’s grand-daughter, was born in London on 19^th November 1782, and died in Skipton on 4^th June 1852, having inherited much of the Birtwhistle estate in Craven. Anna appears to have spent most of her first decade in London, and it was from Clipstone Street in Marylebone that her father wrote two letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1790 and 1791, revealing a handwriting trait which his daughter would share; a unusual lower loop on a capital C. This feature of her handwriting enables us to identify a number of Anna’s anonymous works, particularly those submitted to the Attic Chest, a literary circle she belonged to in Regency London.
Figure 20 The unusual capital C of John Vardill (left) and his daughter Anna (right)
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