Jane Emily Herbert

Jane Emily Herbert (1821 – 26 May 1882) was an Irish poet who, in her time, was hailed as the legitimate successor, in the female line, to the laurel vacant since the death of Felicia Hemans in 1835.

Jane Emily Herbert was born to parents Henry Monckton Herbert and Elizabeth Jane Barlow. In 1839 her father kept a school in Arklow, County Wicklow, as evidenced by an article that appeared in The Freeman's Journal of 8 November 1839, while her mother and some of her siblings attended to the farm of about 50 acres. The article states the family moved in a respectable station in society. Her mother, Elizabeth Jane, was a sister of Arthur Craven Barlow, Esq., of Saunders Court & Mt Anna in Wexford, and Thomas William Barlow, Esq.,(as evidenced by the dedication in The Bride of Imael which reads: "To my widowed mother and her brothers Arthur Craven Barlow and Thomas William Barlow Esq., of Dublin"). Both were prominent in society, the latter being for many years the solicitor for the Board of Ordnance in Ireland, and both married into the Jeffares family of Wexford. Following the death of Arthur's first wife, Susannah, about one year after their marriage, he married Dorothy Cooper, daughter of John Cooper of Birchgrove, Wexford. Their children immigrated to New Zealand, while most of Thomas William and Ann Jeffare's children immigrated to Australia.

Her earliest published work Poetical Recollections of Irish History in 1842, which she wrote at age only 22, was hailed by many of which the following are samples:

Of her work The Bride of Imael; or Irish Love and Saxon Beauty, the Dublin Evening Mail of 28 January 1848, quotes Benjamin Disraeli thus, "A beautiful volume, in which I found grace and fancy, a melodious ear, and the healthy interest of a National subject."

The following are samples of further quotes pertaining to this particular work:

On 24 July 1853, in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette the following article was recorded:

"We are happy to be able to state that Miss Herbert the clever authoress of The Bride of Imael, and one of whose productions we published a few weeks since, is nearly restored to health. She has been staying a short time on a visit to her brother the Rev. T. W. Herbert, in St. Thomas, where she was taken dangerously ill, and left this (Friday) morning for Bristol."

Ione's Dream, and other poems was published in 1853 and positively reviewed in the Dublin University Magazine and others. The following quotes from some of the literary critics of the day appeared in the Dublin Evening Mail of 5 August 1853:

Ione's Dream was also a part of David Scott Mitchell's personal collection. He was founder and benefactor of The Mitchell Library, Sydney.

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