Elizabeth Cobbold was a woman who could quite easily inhabit a Jane Austen novel; strong of character, independent by nature, smart, talented, resourceful, and philanthropic, she was a fascinating woman fully engaged in life in the early part of the 19th century.
She published her first group of poems at nineteen, followed by others. At the age of twenty-six she married a man thirty-four years her elder, who sadly died less than a year into the marriage. During this time she wrote her first novel, juggling her domestic duties with an active work and social life.
Her second husband, a wealthy brewer in Ipswich, was twenty years her senior and a widower with a brood of fifteen children. The success of the marriage was evidenced by the seven additional children Elizabeth had with him. She also had a keen interest in science, particularly the study of shells, corresponding with leading specialists in the field. So astute were her observations and enthusiasm for the subject, a fossil bivalve shell was named after her. In 1812 she founded a charity to provide clothing to poor children, and in 1820 she started a charitable bazaar.
