Lifespan: 1776-1850
Nationality: Irish/English
Genres: Historical fiction
Types of Work: Novels, plays, essays
Contemporaries: Anna Maria Porter, Julia Pardoe
Bio:
Jane Porter was born 17 January 1776 in Durham, England to English army surgeon and dragoon William Porter and Jane Blenkinsop. Her father died in service to his country when Jane was a young girl. Her father's family were a well-known and storied branch of Irish aristocracy. Her mother was English. After William's death, the family moved to Edinburgh, where Jane's mother superintended the education of her children herself, the family being left in difficult circumstances after the death of her husband.
Jane and her sister, Anna Maria Porter (also a well-known author), as well as a brother-- all being noted for early instances of genius-- were educated in a celebrated day-school in Edinburgh. It was in this city that Jane and her sister met Sir Walter Scott when he was still just a boy.
At the age of eighteen, Jane published her first novel, Scottish Chiefs, and it immediately became a literary success. In response to the sensation created by her work, her mother withdrew her from society to the seclusion of a country town. It was in this cottage retreat that she and her sister, Anna Marie wrote many of their early novels.
Jane and her sister were both described as being "singularly beautiful". At twenty, Jane became engaged to a young soldier who was killed in the Peninsula. She spent the rest of her life wearing mourning clothes in memory of him.
Jane died on 24 May 1850 at the home of her eldest brother at Portland Square, Bristol.
Jane primarily wrote historical novels. Her 1810 work, The Scottish Chiefs about William Wallace was one of the earliest examples of an historical novel. (The French version was banned by Napoleon.) A later novel, The Pastor's Fireside, was about the Stuarts.
You can find several first-hand accounts of the authoress here.
Novels:
The Scottish Chiefs (1810)
The Pastor's Fireside (1815)
Tales Round a Winter Hearth (1821- with Anna Maria Porter)
Duke Christian of Luneburg (1824)
Coming Out and The Field of Forty Footsteps (1828- with Anna Maria Porter)