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Eliza Parsons
Eliza Parsons (née Phelp) (1739 – 5 February 1811) was an English Gothic novelist. Her most famous novels in this genre are ''The Castle of Wolfenbach'' (1793) and ''The Mysterious Warning'' (1796) – two of the seven Gothic titles recommended as reading by a character in Jane Austen's novel ''Northanger Abbey''.
==Life==
Many speculations have been made regarding the life of Eliza Parsons, but most researchers agree she was born in 1739. Parsons's baptismal certificate is dated 4 April 1739.〔Morton, K. (2003): New Biographical Material on Eliza Parsons. ''Notes & Queries'', 50 (2), 223–4. Retrieved from Humanities International Complete database.〕 Eliza was born in Plymouth, England as the only daughter of John Phelp, a wine merchant, and his wife Roberta Phelp.〔Varma, Devendra P. ''Introduction to The Mysterious Warning''. London: Folio Press, 1968.〕 She spent her childhood in a prosperous household and became well educated for a young woman in the 18th century. At about 21 years old, Eliza married a turpentine distiller, James Parsons, from the nearby town of Stonehouse, on 24 March 1760.〔Morton, K. (2003).〕 Together they had three sons and five daughters. About 1778–79, the family moved to a suburb in London, when Parsons's turpentine business saw a decline as an indirect result of the American War of Independence.〔Hoeveler, Diane. ''Introduction to The Castle of Wolfenbach''. Kansas City, Valancourt Books, 2007.〕 Mr Parsons invested his remaining money in reviving his dwindling turpentine trade,〔Varma, ''Introduction''〕 and for about three years, the family's standard of living returned to the pre-American Revolution level. In 1782, however, a devastating fire broke out in one of the warehouses, spread quickly, and destroyed everything Mr Parsons owned. He then took a position in the Lord Chamberlain's office.
Several months before the warehouse fire, the Parsons's eldest son had died in Jamaica, immediately after his promotion to captain of the Royal Marines. Domestic bereavement coupled with the reverses in his business fortunes compounded with deteriorating health and he suffered a paralysing stroke.〔Varma, ''Introduction''.〕 He lived for three more years until he suffered a second, fatal stroke in 1797. Eliza's second oldest son also died in the military. In 1803, one of her daughters died, and in 1804 so did her youngest son.〔Parsons, E. (2007): ''The Castle of Wolfenbach''. Hoeveler, D.L. (ed.) Kansas City, MO: Valancourt.〕
Left alone with a family to provide for, Eliza began to write novels to support them. Over a career extending from 1790 to 1807, she wrote 19 novels and one play, contained in a total of 60 volumes. Still, she was perpetually short of money. Between 1793 and 1803 she received 45 guineas from the Royal Literary Fund and also worked at the Royal Wardrobe.〔Blain, Virginia and Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, ed. ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present''. Yale University Press, 1990 p. 835.〕 She died on 5 February 1811 at the age of 72 in Leytonstone in Essex, being survived by four married daughters.〔Varma, ''Introduction''.〕
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