A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Chapone, (Mrs.)
CHAPONE, (MRS.) died at Hadley, in Middlesex, 1801, aged 75.
The account of this lady given by her friend, Mrs. Barbauld, contains little historical information. Her most popular work was Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, addressed to a young lady; published in 1779, which received a warm and just eulogium, as the most unexceptionable treatise that can be put into the hands of youth: as excellent in its moral principles; wise in the rules of conduct laid down; and, in the style, equal to our best writers.
Mrs. Chapone's maiden name was Mulso, that of a respectable family in Northamptonshire. She was left a widow early, in narrow circumstances. Her manners were elegant, and she had a fine voice and taste for music. The story of Fidelia, in the Adventurer, was written by her, and a poem, prefixed to her friend, Mrs. Carter's Translation of Epictetus. She published also a volume of Miscellanies, consisting of poems and plays. The loss of her niece, to whom the Letters on the Mind were addressed, and of a dear brother, injured the health of Mrs. Chapone, and made her, some time before her death, withdraw herself from society.