‘Right or Wrong,’ 1859. Meanwhile she published two stories for children, ‘The History of an Adopted Child,’ 1852, and ‘Angelo, or the Pine Forest in the Alps,’ 1855; and she wrote stories for Mrs. S. C. Hall's ‘Juvenile Budget,’ and short tales for ‘Household Words.’ Her ambition was to become a journalist, but her delicate and nervous constitution made her unfit for the work. She, however, was for many years a constant contributor to the ‘Athenæum,’ and wrote occasionally in the reviews. An article by her on ‘Faith and Scepticism’ was printed in the ‘Westminster Review’ for 1849.
In 1866 she removed to Sevenoaks, Kent, and lived there until 1880, when, being afflicted with cancer, she removed to a private hospital at Burwood Place, Edgware Road, London. During her last illness she was visited by Carlyle, Professor Huxley, J. A. Froude, and others. She was buried at Brompton cemetery, in Lady Morgan's vault.
[Manchester Examiner and Times, 24 Sept. 1880; Athenæum, 2 Oct. 1880, p. 434; Carlyle's Reminiscences; Jane Welsh Carlyle's Letters, passim; Mrs. Alexander Ireland's Memoir of Jane Welsh Carlyle (1891); Froude's Carlyle's Life in London, 1884, i. 207; Reid's Life of W. E. Forster, 1888, i. 227; S. C. Hall's Retrospect, 1883, ii. 148; Edmund Yates's Recollections, 1884, i. 27; information kindly supplied by Mrs. M. A. Everett Green and Mr. A. Ireland.]
JEWSBURY, MARIA JANE, afterwards Mrs. Fletcher (1800–1833), authoress, eldest daughter of Thomas Jewsbury, was born at Measham, Derbyshire, on the border of Leicestershire, on 25 Oct. 1800. She was educated at a school at Shenstone kept by a Mrs. Adams, but when fourteen years old she was taken away on account of her delicate health. About 1818 her family removed to Manchester. Shortly afterwards she lost her mother, whereupon the charge of her sister Geraldine [q. v.] and three brothers fell upon her. Her first published poem came out in ‘Aston's Manchester Herald.’ In 1824 she was induced by Alaric A. Watts, editor of the ‘Manchester Courier,’ to adopt literature as a profession, and through his introduction her first work, ‘Phantasmagoria, or Sketches of Life and Character,’ was published at Leeds (2 vols. 8vo), with a dedication to Wordsworth. About this time she had a long and serious illness, in the course of which she wrote her ‘Letters to the Young,’ published in 1828, 12mo; 2nd edition 1829, 3rd edition 1832. In 1829 her ‘Lays of Leisure Hours’ were issued with a dedication to Mrs. Hemans. In the following year she brought out her last work, ‘The Three Histories: the History of an Enthusiast, the History of a Nonchalant, the History of a Realist,’ 8vo; 2nd edition 1832, 3rd edition, Derby, 1838. Much of her best writing appeared from 1830 to 1832 in the ‘Athenæum.’ She also wrote in one or more of the annuals, but nothing she ever wrote, clever though it was, gave an adequate idea of her actual talents.
On 1 Aug. 1832 she married, at Penegroes, Montgomeryshire, the Rev. William Kew Fletcher, a chaplain in the East India Company's service, with whom she sailed for Bombay. She died fourteen months later, on 4 Oct. 1833, at Poonah, a victim to cholera. Some extracts from the journal of her voyage to and residence in India are given in Espinasse's ‘Lancashire Worthies.’
In person she was tall and well-formed. Her vivacity and conversational powers rendered her remarkably fascinating to her friends. Wordsworth, who addressed his poem of ‘Liberty’ to her in 1829, said that in the quickness of the motions of her mind she had no equal within the range of his acquaintance. Miss Landon spoke of the ‘extreme perfection of her language; it was like reading an eloquent book full of thought and poetry.’ Christopher North, in ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ,’ March 1829, speaks in eulogistic terms of her genius.
There are portraits of her in William Cooke Taylor's ‘National Portrait Gallery,’ vol. iii., and the ‘Christian Keepsake.’ Mr. Fletcher died in 1867 at Worthing.
[National Portrait Gallery, iii. 36; Espinasse's Lanc. Worthies, vol. ii.; Athenæum, February 1845, p. 114; Chorley's Memorials of Mrs. Hemans, i. 180; Life of Alaric A. Watts, 1884, i. 178, ii. 16; S. C. Hall's Retrospect, 1883, ii. 148; Knight's Life of Wordsworth, iii. 108–110, 112; Knight's edition of Wordsworth, viii. 204, 212.]
JEZREEL, JAMES JERSHOM (1840–1885), the assumed name of James White, founder of the Jezreelites, was a private in the 16th regiment at Chatham, who on 15 Oct. 1875 became a member of a sect called ‘The New House of Israel’ (or the Joannas, i.e. followers of Joanna Southcott), of which Mr. and Mrs. Head were the founders. On 26 Dec. in the same year he was dismissed from the society, when Mrs. Head's sister and sixteen members joined him and founded ‘The New and Latter House of Israel.’ In February 1876 he went to India with his regiment, but was in a short time bought out of the army and returned to England under the name of James Jershom Jezreel, an appellation probably derived from the prophet Hosea, but his initials J. J. J. were supposed to represent Joanna Southcott, John Wroe,
