Loudon, Jane |
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BORN 19 Aug 1807, Bartley Green: Kitwell House (near Birmingham) - DIED 13 Jul 1858, London BIRTH NAME Webb, Jane GRAVE LOCATION London: Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, Kensal Green (074/PS (4547)) |
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Jane Loudon was the daughter of Thomas Webb, Esq., a rich manufacturer from Edgbaston, Birmingham. After her mother died in 1819 she travelled with her father in Europe and learned several languages. After his return to England he speculated with his money and he lost it. They moved to his property Kitwell House in Bartley Green where he died penniless in 1824. Jane was without income but around that time she wrote an uncommon novel about a mummy that was set in the 22th century. She was probably influenced by the research resulting from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and by Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein". "The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century" was published anonymously in 1827 by Henry Colburn in three small volumes. John Claudius Loudon praised it in his journal in 1829 because of the original inventions it contained. He asked for a meeting with the author and when they met in 1830 he was surprised to find out that she was a woman. They married seven months later and in 1832 their daughter Agnes Loudon was born. Inspired by her husband's work and by her desire to make gardening an acceptible hobby for women, she specialised in writing gardening books for women. She taught her self to paint and illustrated them herself. When her husband died in 1843 she received a pension from the Civil List of hundred pounds a year. In 1849 she was adked to edit the magazine The Ladies’ Companion at Home and Abroad. This was a success but after her own book sales declined she was asked to resign. She was impoverished at the time of her death in 1858 in London. Family • Daughter: Loudon, Agnes • Husband: Loudon, John Claudius (1830-1843) |
| Images |
 The grave of John Claudius Loudon and Jane Loudon at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Picture by Androom (17 Aug 2017) |
Sources • Jane Loudon - Wikipedia |
