Biography
Concerning Holford: A Brief Biography of Margaret Holford the Younger
Margaret Holford the Younger was an artistically-gifted woman with a love of literature and creative writing. Her passion and skill for this field saw her great success in her time, with the influence of her work even reaching as far as affecting Jane Austen. The Orlando Project serves as the basis for much of the following biography; despite the abundance of information found there, however, some interesting details are also included from sources that may be less obviously connected to Holford (such as the Jane Austen Society of North America in their description of Austen’s book Pride and Prejudice). For the sake of order, and in a fashion I believe to be most efficient, I have divided this biography into sections concerning Holford’s early life and early works, her expansion through popularity into the literary world, and her twilight years.
In her early life, both fate and personal drive pushed Holford in the direction of the writer. Margaret Holford the Younger was born to a mother of the same name (save for the title) sometime prior to June 1st, 1778, on which date she was christened; she was born at Chester, with four sisters born in the years following, making her the eldest of her siblings (Orlando). As described in the Orlando Project’s page concerning Holford, she was born into a minor degree of privilege relative to other members of the English gentry at the time, though her family was not as high in standing as many others. Her mother (referred to hereafter as Holford the Elder, or simply the Elder) was a novelist of significant reputation in England, having fostered a successful career with her writing talent years prior (Orlando). In remarks about her mother, Holford described her mother as someone who had “imbibed and inherited the taste which ha[d] devoted [her] to the service of the Muse;” in essence, her mother served as great inspiration in regard to Holford’s own artistic endeavors (Orlando). Holford’s father, unfortunately, had not had the chance to make any such impact on her; Allen Holford of Daventry died early in Holford’s childhood, and following his death she remained for some years with her mother in Chester (Orlando). Education in Holford’s early life was largely handled at home, and, perhaps extraordinarily, much of this education came through her obsessive reading of a variety of books. Holford had a love of reading from a very young age and engaged in this practice frequently (Orlando). From a young age, as early as eight and simultaneous with her burgeoning affection for reading, Holford wrote creatively; she composed a number of poems throughout her early life, many of which, short as they were, would eventually be published in a volume sometime in her thirties (Orlando). Perhaps chief amongst her earliest artistic achievements is the publication of Calaf, a Persian Tale, which was presented in two volumes and created sometime before August of 1798 (when she was about 17 years old); originally, this work was anonymous, and in 1800 an edition by William Lane claimed the author to be “M Holford, author of Selima…,” that is, her mother (Orlando). Curiously, however, the Lane edition also followed the statement of authorship with a cryptic phrase: “The acorn droppeth not from the oak without the will of heaven” (Orlando), which may have been a subtle suggestion that the work was in fact that of Holford the Younger, rather than the Elder. 1800 also saw the publication of Holford’s First Impressions, which prompted Jane Austen herself to change the name of her then-unpublished book to Pride and Prejudice. Holford’s greatest literary success was struck early in her life as well, in 1809, with the publication of her historical verse romance Wallace (The Fight of Falkirk), which was inspired by Walter Scott’s Marmion. 1811 saw Holford finally attach her name to a collection of romantic poems dedicated to her mother; in 1816, Holford also published a verse romance entitled Margaret of Anjou, which was also dedicated to her mother (Orlando).
Later in Holford’s life, and especially following 1800, she began to expand her friendships into influential circles as her fame increased. The success of works like Wallace managed to earn some of her poetry a spot in Richard Alfred Davenport’s Poetical Register (Radcliffe). Holford made a number of significant friendships after 1800, with one of her earliest being a close relationship with Joanna Baillie that began with correspondence in 1813; they were polite and friendly to one another, and in at least on case Holford was ecstatic to publicize some of Baillie’s books (Orlando). Holford’s friendship with Joanna Baillie is also apparent after the 1820 publication of her only novel, Warbeck of Wolfstein, which she dedicated to Baillie (Orlando). Mary Anne Schimmelpennick is another significant friendship of Holford’s (Orlando), who in fact is the subject of a letter sent to Messrs Arch by Holford in 1814; the letter itself is preserved in William Upcott’s Original Letters Collected by William Upcott of the London Institution: Vol. XXX: Eminent Women, 1824. The contents of the letter is a brief inquiring about a missing volume from the three Schimmelpennick had published. Holford’s friendship with Schimmelpennick began at least as late as 1814 (Orlando), though perhaps earlier, and in the letter in Upcott’s album Holford makes clear her affection toward her friend when she states that she is “warmly interested in her success” (Upcott 62). She also formed a friendship with Sir Walter Scott, which began uneasily, but they eventually met in 1824 at the Baillie’s house (Orlando). Among her friends, one in particular, Henrietta Maria Bowdler, seemed of particular importance to Holford; she once referred to Bowdler as “a rare & beautiful specimen of human nature” (Orlando), which clearly illustrates this fondness. Another friendship, this one with Eliza Fletcher, also prompted Holford to help boost Fletcher’s sculptor son Augus’ career through patronage (Orlando). Holford also became friends with the early feminist (or proto-feminist) Lady Isabella King after visiting Bailbrook House in Clifton (Orlando). Her friendship with King is reflected in Holford’s volume of verse entitled The Past, which she dedicated to King (Orlando). Also among her notable friends was Charlotte (Lady Bedingfield), Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, Walter Savage Landor, William Sotheby, Thomas Campbell, and Jane Porter (Orlando). Topping off the years Holford spent expanding her network of friends, she also spent time travelling through France in June of 1821, after which point she travelled to Florence and spent the winter (Orlando).
Holford’s twilight years saw her come to face ill health (which likely played a part in a dip in publicized works at the time), but it also saw the joys of a late marriage. The years of 1824 and 1825 saw Holford’s health gradually deteriorate, much to the concern of her friend, Joanne Baillie; Holford was ill for a large portion of those two years, having suffered bilious attacks that would intermittently return for a time to follow (Orlando). October of 1826, following her long battle with poor health, saw the aging Holford’s betrothal; on the 16th of that month, at just shy of fifty years old, Holford married and became the third wife to Septimus Hodson (Orlando), who is described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as a clergyman of the Church of England. Holford’s (at that point “Hodson”, though she will still be referred to as she has previously) marriage to Septimus Hodson seems to have been a happy one, as she states in a letter to Joanne Baillie, but their union remained childless (Orlando). This fact is not surprising, given Holford’s age and her husband’s ten-year seniority. Septimus Hodson was also a writer, having published numerous works on political and religious matters. He also unfortunately suffered from ill health; he would die on the 12th of December, 1833, leaving Holford a widow (Orlando). A short time prior to her husband’s death, in 1827, Holford published a volume of hymns entitled Death-Bed Hymns, Death-Bed Thoughts (Orlando), which might bode rather ominously when seen in retrospect; the volume was published by John Murray and was intended to be read by those facing death (Orlando). Holford would then go on to publish her late husband’s sermons before the year was through (Orlando). After her husband’s death, Holford spent some time living with Mrs. Lawrence at Studley Park (Studley Royal), Ripon; by November of 1835, however, Holford moved to Dawlish on the Daven coast (Orlando). Her time at Dawlish was spent initially in a beautiful cottage, and then later in another home, but she would never again leave the Devon coast (Orlando). She also spent a time considering plans to travel once again, but she ultimately decided to spend the remainder of her years in Dawlish; from then until 1852 she carried on as such, and on the 11th of September of that year Holford, aged 72, died at Plantation Terrace in Dawlish. Her legacy was one of remarkable artistic skill and influential poetry and prose, much of which is, perhaps unfairly, obscure alongside others popular at the time.