Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Broderip, Frances Freeling

by George Clement Boase

BRODERIP, FRANCES FREELING (1830–1878), authoress, second daughter of Thomas Hood, the poet, who died in 1845, by his wife, Jane Reynolds, who died in 1846, was born at Winchmore Hill, Middlesex, in 1830. She was named after her father's friend, Sir Francis Freeling, the secretary to the general post office. On 10 Sept. 1849 she was married to the Rev. John Somerville Broderip, son of Edward Broderip of Cossington Manor, who died in 1847, by his wife Grace Dory, daughter of Benjamin Greenhill. He was born at Wells, Somersetshire, in 1814, educated at Eton, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. 1837, M.A. 1839, became rector of Cossington, Somersetshire, 1844, and died at Cossington on 10 April 1866. In 1857 Mrs. Broderip commenced her literary career by the publication of 'Wayside Fancies,' which was followed in 1860 by 'Funny Fables for Little Folks,' the first of a series of her works to which the illustrations were supplied by her brother, Tom Hood. Her other books appeared in the following order:

1. 'Chrysal, or a Story with an End,' 1861.
2. Fairyland, or Recreations for the Rising Generation. By T. and J. Hood, and their Son and Daughter,' 1861.
3. 'Tiny Tadpole, and other Tales,' 1862.
4. 'My Grandmother's Budget of Stories,' 1863.
5. 'Merry Songs for Little Voices. By F. F. Broderip and T. Hood,' 1865.
6. 'Crosspatch, the Cricket, and the Counterpane,' 1865.
7. 'Mamma's Morning Gossips,' 1866.
8. 'Wild Roses: Simple Stories of Country Life,' 1867.
9. 'The Daisy and her Friends: Tales and Stories for Children,' 1869.
10. 'Tales of the Toys told by Themselves,' 1869.
11. 'Excursions into Puzzledom. By T. Hood the Younger, and F. F. Broderip,' 1879.

In 1860 she edited, with the assistance of her brother, 'Memorials of Thomas Hood,' 2 vols., and in 1869 selected and published the 'Early Poems and Sketches' of her father. She also, in conjunction with her brother, published in a collected form 'The Works of T. Hood,' 1869-73, 10 vols. She died at Clevedon on 3 Nov. 1878, in her forty-ninth year, and was buried in St. Mary's churchyard, Walton by Clevedon, on 9 Nov., leaving issue four daughters.

[Gent. Mag. (1866), i. 769; Academy (1878), xiv.450.]

G. C. B.