Woman of the Century/Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer

LATIMER. Mrs. Elizabeth Wortneley, author, born in London, England. 26th July, 1822. Her maiden name was Mary Elizabeth Wormeley. Her parents were Rear Admiral Ralph Randolph Wormeley, of the English Navy, and Caroline Preble, of Boston, Mass. ELIZABETH WORMELEY LATIMER. She was the first of the family, on her father's side, born outside of Virginia, and the first, on her mother's side, born outside of New England for nearly two-hundred years. Her grandfather, lames Wormeley, was in England during the Revolution and served as captain in Windsor in the body-guards of George III. After the Revolution he returned to Virginia, but in 1797 he went back to England, taking with him his young son, whom he placed in the English Navy. Mrs. Latimer's childhood was passed partly in Boston and partly in the Eastern counties of England. In 1836 her family moved to London, where they saw a great deal of American society. In 1839 they went abroad and spent three years in Pans, France. In 1842 Miss Wormeley spent the winter in Boston as the guest of the family of George Ticknor, and in the cultured society of that city she derived much encouragement for her fancy for literature. Her first appearance in print was in the appendix to Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico," for which she had translated an ancient Mexican poem. Returning to London, in 1843. she published her first novel and began to contribute to magazines. The family were in Paris during the revolution of 1848, were in London during the Chartist demonstration in the same year, and afterward they sailed for the United States, making their home in Boston and Newport, R. I. Admiral Wormeley died suddenly in Utica. N. Y., on his way to Niagara Falls, in 1852. On 14th June, 1856, Miss Wormeley became the wife of Randolph Brandt Latimer. For twenty years she lived principally in her school-room and nursery, and it was not till 1876 she again joined the ranks of literary workers. Her pen has been a prolific one. Her books, published in England and the United States, are numerous. Among the most popular are "Amabel" (London and New York, 1853; "Our Cousin Veronica" (New York, 1856); "Salvage" (Boston, 1880); "My Wife and My Wife's Sister" (Boston, 1881); "Princess Amelie" (Boston, 1883); "A Chain of Errors" (Philadelphia, 1890); "France in the XIXth Century" (Chicago, 1892). Her miscellaneous work includes translations, essays on Shakespeare's comedies, stories, ballads and articles for "Putnam's Magazine," "Harper's Magazine," and other standard periodicals. Mrs. Latimer is now living in Howard county, Maryland.