Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Woodrooffe, Anne

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1060160Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 62 — Woodrooffe, Anne1900Elizabeth Lee

WOODROOFFE, Mrs. ANNE (1766–1830), author, only child of John Cox of Harwich, was born on 14 July 1766. On 27 July 1803 she married at Streatham Nathaniel George Woodrooffe (1766–1851), who was vicar of Somerford Keynes, Wiltshire, from 1803. The Woodrooffe family was of some antiquity, being descended from Thomas Woodrooffe (rector of Chartham, Kent, 1646 to 1660), of the house of Woodroffe of Hope in Derbyshire (cf. Woodrooffe, Pedigree of Woodrooffe, 1878). Mrs. Woodrooffe devoted herself to teaching, in which she attained great excellence. In 1821 she issued at Cirencester ‘Cottage Dialogues’ (8vo; 2nd edit. 1856), which was written with a view to entertaining and improving the lower classes by a delineation of characters and scenes in rural life. Her most important book, ‘Shades of Character’ (Bath, 1824, 3 vols. 4to), was ‘designed to promote the formation of the female character on the basis of Christian principle,’ and is a system of education for girls set forth in the form of dialogues with a slight thread of story running through them. The fourth edition is dated 1841, and there was a seventh in 1855. The book shows insight into human nature.

Mrs. Woodrooffe died on 24 March 1830, and was buried at Somerford Keynes. She left one daughter—Emma Martha, born on 30 May 1807, who married, on 5 Feb. 1852, Thomas Wood (d. 19 Dec. 1865).

Other works by Mrs. Woodrooffe are: 1. ‘The History of Michael Kemp,’ Bath, 1819, 12mo; 9th ed. 1855. 2. ‘Michael the Married Man,’ a sequel to the last, London, 1827, 12mo; 2nd ed. 1855. 3. ‘First Prayer in Verse,’ new ed. 1855.

[Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Bath and Cheltenham Gazette, 30 March 1830; Gent. Mag. 1852, i. 102. In the Brit. Mus. Cat. most of Mrs. Woodrooffe's works are assigned in error to ‘Sarah’ Woodrooffe.]

E. L.