Agnes Wheeler or Ann Coward (bap. 1734 – 1804) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

writer on the

Cumbrian dialect Cumbrian dialect or Cumberland dialect is a local dialect of Northern England in decline, spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands. Some parts of Cumbria have a more North-East English sound to them. Whilst clear ...

. She is known for one book published in 1790. ''The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom'' was an early attempt at recording the local dialect. There were four editions of the book. Her work was later used in ''Specimens of the Westmorland Dialect'' published by the Revd Thomas Clarke in 1887.Roy Palmer, ‘Wheeler , Agnes (bap. 1734, d. 1804)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 1 June 2017
/ref> She was born near

Cartmel Cartmel is a village in Furness (traditionally "Lancashire-over-the-Sands" (and in the ceremonial county of Cumbria), England, northwest of Grange-over-Sands close to the River Eea. The village takes its name from the Cartmel Peninsula, a ...

and went to London for 18 years where she married a Captain Wheeler and worked as a housekeeper. She returned to Cumbria a widow where she wrote for the local press in plain English. She published her one book in dialect which initially had three dialogues but in later editions four. The conversations discuss a trip to London, the illness of George III, christenings, deaths, cockfights and other subjects including hairstyles and fashion. Wheeler died in

Beetham Beetham is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. It is situated on the border with Lancashire, north of Carnforth. It is part of the Arnside and Silverdale, Arnside and Silverdale ...

where she had lived with her brother William in the medieval Arnside Tower. She was buried on 4 November 1804.

External links

* ''The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By A. W.'' Kendal, 1790
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** ''The Westmorland Dialect, in four familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By A. Wheeler.'' 2nd edition, London, 1802
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** ''The Westmoreland Dialect in four familiar Dialogues, in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By Mrs. Ann Wheeler. To which is added a copious Glossary of Westmoreland and Cumberland Words.'' A new edition, London, 1840
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* ''Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects. Dialogues, Poems, Songs, and Ballads, by various Writers, in the Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects, now first collected: with a copious Glossary of Words peculiar to those Counties.'' London, 1839
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References

1730s births 1804 deaths British women writers 18th-century British writers 18th-century English women writers People from Cartmel {{UK-writer-stub