Rebecca Hey
Rebecca Hey | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rebecca Roberts 1797 Leeds |
| Died | 1859 Leeds |
| Known for | Artist, poet, botanical illustrator, writer |
Rebecca Hey (née Roberts), also known as Mrs Hey, (1797–1859) was an English botanical artist and poet.
Biography
[edit]Rebecca Hey was born in Leeds and baptised at St. Peter on 21 April 1797. She was the third daughter of merchant Thomas Roberts and Esther Lucy.[1] She married William Hey III (1796-1875) in 1821.[2] He was an apothecary-surgeon, who became principal surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary in 1830, and with other medical practitioners set up the Leeds School of Medicine in 1831.[3] William Hey was one of the original 300 Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843.[4]
Rebecca Hey's first book was called The Moral of Flowers, which was an encyclopaedia of English flowers. Each article was written by her and was preceded by a colour engraving of a painting of the flower by artist William Clark, former draughtsman and engraver of the London Horticultural Society.[5] In the preface Hey credits the authors Sir J. E. Smith and Mr Drummond for the botanical information included in the descriptions.[6] Moral of Flowers focuses on flower poems that convey religious and moral messages, with a modest amount of botanical information including flowers' scientific names. Hey’s purpose is to “draw such a moral from each flower that is introduced as its appearance, habits, or properties might be supposed to suggest".[7] The book was popular and was reprinted in 1835 and 1849.[8]
Hey's next book was an encyclopaedia of trees, this time using her own paintings as well as her poems. Her works were originally published anonymously.[9]
Her final publication Holy Places, and Other Poems focused more on religion and the proceeds from the book went to Special Missions in India.[10]
Selected works
[edit]- The Moral of Flowers (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, 1833)[11]
- Sylvan Musings; or The Spirit of the Woods (London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1837)[12]
- Recollections of the Lakes, and Other Poems (London: Tilt & Bogue, 1841)[13]
- Holy Places, and Other Poems (London: J. Hatchard, 1859)
References
[edit]- ^ "Hey, Rebecca". jacksonbibliography.library.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ "Hey, William III (1796 - 1875)". livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
- ^ "William Hey (1796-1875), FRCS, surgeon of Leeds - Library | University of Leeds". explore.library.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ "Hey, William III (1796 - 1875)". livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
- ^ Popova, Maria (7 February 2020). "The Moral of Flowers: An Illustrated Victorian Encyclopedia of Poetic Lessons from the Garden". The Marginalian. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ The moral of flowers [poems by R. Hey]. Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, and J. Hatchard. 1833.
- ^ "Jane Loudon's wildfl owers, popular science, and the Victorian culture of knowledge". scholar.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
- ^ "Results for 'au:Rebecca Hey' [WorldCat.org]". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
- ^ Newsam, William Cartwright (1845). The poets of Yorkshire, commenced by W.C. Newsam; complete and publ. by J. Holland.
- ^ "Hey, Rebecca". jacksonbibliography.library.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ Rebecca Hey (1833). The moral of flowers [poems by R. Hey]. Oxford University.
- ^ OpenLibrary.org. "Sylvan musings, or, The spirit of the woods (1849 edition) | Open Library". Open Library. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
- ^ Halkett, Samuel (1971). Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature. Ardent Media.