Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Candler, Ann
CANDLER, ANN (1740–1814), poetess, ‘The Suffolk Cottager,’ born at Yoxford, Suffolk, 18 Nov. 1740, was one of the children of William More, a working glover of Yoxford. Her mother was a daughter of Thomas Holder of Woodbridge, the surveyor of the window-lights for that part of the county. In 1750 her father removed to Ipswich, where his wife died in 1751. Ann taught herself to read and write, and studied all accessible travels, plays, and romances. In 1762 she married Candler, a cottager of Sproughton, a village about three miles out of Ipswich. From 1763 to 1766 Candler served in the militia (Poetical Attempts, p. 5), and this service, combined with the man's drinking habits, kept Ann and her growing family poor. In 1777 Candler enlisted in the line; Ann was forced to put four of her six children into the workhouse, and was herself upon a sick bed for eleven weeks. In 1780, after a brief visit to her husband in London (ib. p. 10), she took refuge in Tattingstone workhouse, where she gave birth to twin sons on 20 March 1781; she wrote one of her poems on their deaths a few weeks after. In 1783, when Candler came back discharged, she joined him for a time; but illness made them both return to the workhouse, whence Candler dismissed himself in six months, and Ann never saw him again. Staying in the workhouse she set to work upon the little poems by which she is known. The ‘Ipswich Journal’ published one in March 1785, ‘On the Death of a Most Benevolent Gentleman’ (Metcalfe Russell of Sproughton); she wrote one in 1787, ‘To the Inhabitants of Yoxford;’ one in 1788 to a lady who had befriended her, with the title ‘An Invitation to Spring,’ and another spring song to the same lady in 1789. The ‘Ipswich Journal’ (17 Sept. 1814) ascribes the following poems also to her; ‘A Paraphrase of the 5th chap. of the 2nd Book of Kings;’ the ‘History of Joseph, in an Address to a Young Man;’ and the ‘Life of Elijah the Prophet,’ which probably appeared in that journal from 1790 onward, and remain uncollected. By 1800 it was proposed to publish a little volume of Ann Candler's work by subscription; and by 24 May 1802 she was under a roof of her own at Copdock, just by Sproughton, near a married daughter. Her book was published at Ipswich in 1803, 8vo. She died on 6 Sept. 1814, at Holton, Suffolk, aged 74 (Ipswich Journal, 17 Sept. 1814).
[Short Narrative preceding her Poetical Attempts, pp. 2–6, 8, 9, 11, 13; Ipswich Journal, 17 Sept. 1814.]