# Ann Rolfe

Ann Rolfe (c1789–1850) was an English author and poet.

## Early life

She was born Ann Button (or Batton) about 1789, either in Surrey or possibly in Suffolk. Not much is known for certain about her early life.

## Author

Her poems were first published by subscription in 1824 as Miscellaneous Poems for a Winter's Evening. In the preface she notes that some poems were from "a very early period of life". The others were much later and written for her two sons. One of her poems is about South Green Cottage, Essex, and another is about Wanstead House, which is now in the London Borough of Redbridge but was then in Essex. She also thanks her friends in Essex who subscribed to the publishing of the work. Many poems are personal, such as 'A Lady's Distress on her Son's going to India' about her son leaving for India and another is 'Addressed to my two Children at the Tomb of their Father, in 1822'.
She went on to write two novels with settings in East Anglia: Choice and No Choice (1825) and The Will; or, Twenty-one Years (1828).
In the 1830s she contributed poetry to The Ladies' Pocket Magazine and Time's Telescope; or, A Complete Guide to the Almanack. Other poems included 'Stanzas on the Tomb Stone in Ditton Church Yard', 'Old Friends', 'On the Anniversary of the Death of Sidney Waller Plumb' (1834), 'An Elegy on the death of John Thomas Sutton' and 'Lines to M.G.P. at Madras in the East Indies' (1835). Her poems were also published in local newspapers. 'Lines, on receiving the Bury Post' was published in 1839, giving her address as Selby House Farm. In 1842 she published 'Our friends who are gone', and in 1843 'My dead son'. She also contributed longer pieces, such as the Gothic novella Roderick, or the Magic Tower, a Tale of Former Times (1832).
She published in 1847 The Oath of Allegiance: A tale of the times of Philip the second, described as "the best historical romance that has been published in a long time. The style is terse and vigorous, but eloquent and pleasing; and the characters are drawn with graphic accuracy."

## Personal life

She married Philip Plumb (c1737–1817), a schoolmaster and widower, in Bury St Edmunds, on 2 June 1810. He died on 30 April 1817 in Bury St Edmunds.
They had two sons.
- Montague Grosvenor Plumb, (1812–1875) was recorded as marrying in Madras, India, in 1833 to Miss Cox.
- Sydney Waller Plumb, who was born on 10 July 1813, and baptised on 28 July at St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds. He died 18 February 1831 in Kingston upon Thames.
She married, for a second time, Edward Rolfe (c 1789, Saxham, Suffolk) of the Cock Inn, Clare on 24 February 1818 in St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds. She gives her address as Selby House, Ham Common, from 1835. In 1841 they were running the Ham Street School with both boys and girls as pupils.
She died on 4 August 1850 at Selby House and was buried at All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames, on 12 August. The obituary records that "she left a husband and son with numerous friends and pupils to lament her loss."
In 1851 Edward was still running a girls' school at Selby House with 11 pupils, one teacher and a servant.

## Books

1824. Miscellaneous Poems for a Winter's Evening, Colchester: J Chaplin
1825. Choice and No Choice, or the First of May. London: T H Cock. 2 vol.
1828. The Will; or, Twenty-one Years, 1 vol. Saxmundham (Printed and sold by L Brightly)
1847. The Oath of Allegiance: A Tale of the Times of Philip the Second. 2 vol. London: Saunders and Otley