Louisa Matilda Spooner,

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

L. M. S. (1820 – 5 December 1886), was a Welsh novelist.

Life

She was born in

Maentwrog Maentwrog () is a village and community in the Welsh county of Merionethshire (now part of Gwynedd), lying in the Vale of Ffestiniog just below Blaenau Ffestiniog, within the Snowdonia National Park. The River Dwyryd runs alongside the vil ...

and baptised on 24 March 1820, as the fifth of eventually ten children of her English parents James Spooner (1790–1856) and his first wife, Elizabeth (née Easton; 1787–1850). James was a surveyor and engineer and was hired by the Welsh entrepreneur

William Madocks William Alexander Madocks (17 June 1773 – 15 September 1828) was a British politician and landowner who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Boston in Lincolnshire from 1802 to 1820, and then for Chippenham in Wiltshire from ...

(1773–1826) to assist him with his grand land and town development plans.Singer, Rita. "Introduction" in Louisa Matilda Spooner (1860/2025). ''Country Landlords''. Her older brother Charles Easton Spooner (1818–1889) was the first of her siblings to be born in Wales. By the time the sixth Spooner child, Amelia (1824–1922), arrived, lodgings in Maentwrog became inevitably cramped and the family moved to Plas Tan yr Allt, William Madocks’ spacious former home in

Tremadog Tremadog (formerly Tremadoc) is a village in the Community (Wales), community of Porthmadog, in Gwynedd, north west Wales; about north of Porthmadog town centre. It was a urban planning, planned settlement, founded by William Madocks, who boug ...

. Louisa never married and always stayed close to her family throughout her adult life. After her mother’s death in 1850, her father re-married in the same year, taking Eliza James for his wife. By 1860, Louisa had moved in with her older brother, Charles, and his four children at Bron-y-Garth, Porthmadog, following the death of his wife, Mary. Apart from managing the household and helping him raise his children, little is known of Louisa outside her living arrangements with her brother and her writing activities. She died in

Porthmadog Porthmadog (), originally Portmadoc until 1972 and known locally as "Port", is a coastal town and community (Wales), community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, Wales, and the historic counties of Wales, historic county of Caernarfonshire. It li ...

on 5 December 1886 and was buried in the same grave as her parents in the churchyard of St Cynhaearn’s, Ynyscynhaearn. Following her death, Charles financed the installation of a stained-glass window to her memory in St John’s Church, Porthmadog, which is still in place today.

Works

Her works include: *''Gladys of Harlech'' (1858) *''Country Landlords'' (1860) *''The Welsh Heiress: A Novel'' (1868) In her novels, she focused largely on topics relating to Wales and from a Welsh perspective. In ''Gladys of Harlech'', Spooner used the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses to discuss Welshness in its relation to the English crown. In ''Country Landlords'', she discussed landownership and republicanism in the nineteenth century, while ''The Welsh Heiress'' engages with the impact of alcoholism on farming communities. All of her novels are set vaguely in

Merionethshire Merionethshire, or Merioneth ( or '), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was located in the North West Wales, north-west of Wales. Name 'Merioneth' is a ...

, the area where she spent the majority of her life. ''Country Landlords'' prominently features a Black servant, Yarico. The name originates in historic accounts of an enslaved native woman from the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

and its subsequent use in

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

literature. Towards the end of her life, she published a serialised short story, ‘Amos Dura: or “The Faithful Friend”’, in the conservative, religious magazine ''Golden Hours'' (1884).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spooner, Louisa M. 1820s births 1886 deaths 19th-century Welsh novelists Welsh women novelists 19th-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers