ROWSON, SUSANNA
Susanna Rowson, born in Portsmouth, England, in 1762, died in Boston, Mass., March 2, 1824. She was an only daughter of Lieutenant William Haswell, of the British Navy, who was, at the beginning of the Revolution, attached to the revenue service, and resided at Nantucket, near Boston. His property was confiscated by the Continental authorities; and himself and family removed on parole to Hingham in 1775, and in 1777 to Abington. A cartel was finally arranged by which Lieutenant Haswell was exchanged and sent back to England with his family. Miss Haswell took employment as a governess in early life, and was greatly devoted to literature. She married William Rowson, a musician in one of the bands of the household troops. About the time of her marriage she wrote and published a novel entitled Victoria, which she dedicated to the Duchess of Devonshire, who introduced her to the Prince of Wales. She was enabled, by this acquaintance, to obtain a pension for her father. On account of the financial embarrassment of her husband, they went on the stage in 1792, in Edinburgh. In 1793 they came to America, and first appeared in Annapolis, Maryland. Thence they went to the theatre in Philadelphia, and, after a season there, became members of the Federal Street Theatre in Boston. Mrs. Rowson, who had, in 1790, published in England the celebrated novel Charlotte Temple, had continued writing, and the extraordinary popularity of her story of the unfortunate English girl made it easy for her to follow the cultivation of letters. She retired from the stage in 1797, and established a school for young ladies, which remained, during her life-time, the most select and popular in New England. Her last appearance was in May, 1797, in her own comedy, Americans in England. Her Poems were published in Boston in 1804, and Lucy Temple, a sequel to Charlotte Temple, appeared in 1828.
SLAVES in ALGIERS;
OR, A
STRUGGLE for FREEDOM:
A PLAY,
INTERSPERSED WITH SONGS,
IN THREE ACTS.
By Mrs. ROWSON,