Life
Dorothy was born on 17 February 1755, probably at Woodford, Essex. She was the youngest of five children of Thomas Kilner (1719–1804), public servant and landowner, and his wife, Frances, née Ayscough (1718–1768). The family moved to Maryland Point, then in Essex, in 1759. She was greatly inspired by a friendship that began in childhood with Mary Ann Maze (Mary Ann Kilner, 1753–1831). This involved exchanging copious verse letters on religious and personal matters. When Maze married Dorothy's brother Thomas Kilner (1750–1812) in 1774, Dorothy moved into their house in Spitalfields, London and helped to bring up their five children. Both Dorothy and Mary Ann became prolific writers of books for children. The family moved to Margate in 1787 and to Dorothy's father's house at Maryland Point in 1789. Predeceased by most of her family, Dorothy became an invalid after a back injury in 1817, and her mind became unhinged in her later years, but she was looked after by her niece Frances and her grand-niece Maria. She died on 5 February 1836 and was buried in West Ham.
Read more about this topic: Dorothy Kilner
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“At birth man is offered only one choice—the choice of his death. But if this choice is governed by distaste for his own existence, his life will never have been more than meaningless.”
—Jean-Pierre Melville (1917–1973)
“My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thine enemies’ nor fear to lose it,
Thy safety being motive.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“His life itself passes deeper in nature than the studies of the naturalist penetrate; himself a subject for the naturalist. The latter raises the moss and bark gently with his knife in search of insects; the former lays open logs to their core with his axe, and moss and bark fly far and wide. He gets his living by barking trees. Such a man has some right to fish, and I love to see nature carried out in him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)