Marianne Wing was born about 1819 in Braintree, Essex, England, the daughter of William Wing. By 1851 she was living in Chelmsford with her husband, William Abbott, a retired farmer, and their two young children, Joseph William and Clara Maria....
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Marianne Wing was born about 1819 in Braintree, Essex, England, the daughter of William Wing. By 1851 she was living in Chelmsford with her husband, William Abbott, a retired farmer, and their two young children, Joseph William and Clara Maria. Ten years later she was living with her husband in Black Notley. By 1881 she was widowed and living with her unmarried sister, Sarah Wing, in Lambeth. In 1889, at age 70, she married James Raper, a joiner/carpenter, at St Stephen's, Walbrook. She died an inmate at Peckham House Lunatic Asylum on February 17, 1892. Manuscript notebook containing 36 original poems and prose meditations, with 12 original illustrations. A dedication, to the author's brother, is dated January 20, 1836; another piece is dated 1834. Most of the other pieces are undated, but appear to have been written around the 1830's and are signed either "M Wing" or "M W." One poem (leaf 43 recto) is signed "Marianne Wing." The final two poems, dated 1880 and 1881 (each written to one of her grandchildren), are signed "Mrs. Abbott" and "M. Abbott," respectively. An ownership inscription at the front reads: "Mrs. W. Abbott / Original Poems." The illustrations, mostly watercolors of birds and flowers, include pencil drawings of Cowling Castle in Kent, a rose, and a sailboat. In contemporary green calf with gilt border on covers; spine gilt, with two red morocco labels reading "Original" and "Vol. I.".
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