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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Jane Carr Bateman

Author: Jane Carr Bateman (1817–1885)

Alternate Name(s): Terry (maiden name)

Biography: Jane Carr Bateman was born in 1817 in Kent, the second daughter of Wilkins George Terry and Christiana Isabella Tytler. Her father was a captain in the 1st Life Guards and then the Assistant Superintendent of the Liberated African Department, Sierra Leone. From the evidence of her later writings, Bateman spent some time in west Africa during her father's residence there. In 1844, she married William Bateman, a Royal Navy surgeon. The couple, after his retirement, lived in Folkestone where he had a practice. In the 1850s, Bateman began writing, and her first story "Eric Walderthorn" appeared in Household Words after heavy editing by Charles Dickens. She followed this with a handful of novels: The Netherwoods of Otterpool (1858); Who is to Have It? (1859); Forgiveness (1860), a love story set amid the colonial life of Sierra Leone; The Two Families; or, The Power of Religion (1864), a didactic novel; and Ierne of Armorica: A Tale of the Time of Chlovis (1873), an historical novel. She died in 1885.

References: Gentleman's Magazine (March 1844; February 1865)

Fiction Titles:

  1. The Netherwoods of Otterpool: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Bentley, 1858.
  2. Who is to Have It?: A Novel.  1 vol.  London: Routledge, 1859.
  3. Forgiveness: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: T. C. Newby, 1861.
  4. The Two Families: or, The Power of Religion.  1 vol.  London: Hatchard, 1864.
  5. Ierne of Armorica: A Tale of the Time of Chlovis.  1 vol.  London: Burns and Oates, 1873.