Lifespan: 1830-1908
Nationality: Irish
Genres: high society stories
Types of Work: Novels, translations
Other Names: Cashel Hoey
Bio:
Frances Sarah Johnston was born in Dublin, Ireland on 14 February 1830 to Charles Bolton Johnston and Charlotte Jane Shaw. Her father was secretary and registrar at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium. On 14 February 1846-- at age 16-- she married Adam Murray "A.M." Stewart. The couple had two daughters before he died in 1856.
After her husband's death, she moved to London and began writing reviews for The Morning Post and The Spectator. She also began to contribute articles and reviews on fine art to Freeman's Journal, The Nation, and other Dublin works. Through her literary pursuits she became acquainted with William Makepeace Thackeray as well as George Bernard Shaw.
In 1858 she married writer John Cashel Hoey and converted to Catholicism. In 1893 she again found herself a widow.
Frances wrote eleven novels, most about high society. Five of her works-- Land at Last, Black Sheep, Forlorn Hope, Rock Ahead, and A Righted Wrong-- were at first attributed to Edmund Yates with Frances acting as a "ghost writer" for the author. (A ghost writer writes material for a known author.) Later, her authorship of these works was revealed.
Frances died on 8 July 1908 at Beccles, Suffolk, England and was buried in the churchyard of the Benedictine church at Little Malvern, Worcestershire.
(A more extensive biography can be found here: http://victorianfictionresearchguides.org/frances-cashel-hoey/)
Novels:
Land at Last (1866)
Black Sheep (1867)
Forlorn Hope (1867)
Rock Ahead (1868)
A House of Cards (1868)
A Righted Wrong (1870)
Falsely True (1870)
A Golden Sorrow (1872)
Out of Court (1874)
The Question of Cain (1882)
The Lover's Creed (1884)
A Stern Chase (1886)