Madan-Maitland family
Three generations of a poetical family, beginning with the poet Judith Cowper Madan and her husband Colonel Martin Madan, and including the couple’s two daughters, Penelope Madan Maitland and Maria Madan Cowper, as well as their brothers Martin and Spencer, and Maitland’s daughters Penelope Judith Maitland (later Cope) and Charlotte Maitland. The extended family also included the poetical Ashley Cowper (Judith Cowper Madan’s brother) and the very popular William Cowper (Judith’s nephew).
Judith Cowper Madan and her children Penelope Maitland and Martin Madan were based in London; the family possessed slave-owning plantations on Nevis and St Kitts in the West Indies.
Bodleian Ms.Eng.Poet. c.51, while not a miscellaneous verse manuscript and therefore not included in this database, is also related to the Madan-Maitland family.
- Regions: London, Middlesex
- Middlesex
Ashley Cowper
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Clerk of the Parliaments; brother of Judith Cowper Madan; compiler of a manuscript verse miscellany of original verses on women and public affairs.
Maria Madan Cowper
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Daughter of Judith Cowper Madan and Colonel Martin Madan.
William Cowper
- 1731
- 1800
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Poet and letter-writer; his nature poems were particularly popular with miscellany compilers.
Martin Madan
- 1700
- 1756
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Husband of Judith Cowper Madan and thus the patriarch of the poetical Madan-Maitland family.
Judith Cowper Madan
- 1702
- 1781
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Gentlewoman and poet; matriarch of the poetical Madan-Maitland family; her poems “Written by a youthful Lady in a young Gentleman's Coke upon Littleton,” and “Abelard to Eloisa” were popular with miscellany compilers.
Martin Madan
- 1725
- 1790
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Church of England clergyman, poet, and advocate of polygamy; son of Judith Cowper Madan.
Spencer Madan
- 1729
- 1813
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Bishop of Peterborough and poet; son of Judith Cowper Madan.
Charlotte Maitland
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
A poet and Penelope Madan Maitland’s daughter; a third-generation member of the Madan-Maitland family coterie.
Penelope Judith Maitland
- 1759
- c1846
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Penelope Madan Maitland’s daughter and granddaughter of Judith Cowper Madan. Known as a poet within her family network.
Penelope Madan Maitland
| Coteries | Madan-Maitland family |
|---|
Judith Cowper Madan’s daughter; married to General Alexander Maitland, Colonel of the 49th Regiment; mother of Penelope Judith Maitland. Occasional writer and Methodist.
British Library Add. MS 28102
| Title | Untitled |
|---|---|
| Period | 1731-1760 , 1761-1790 |
| Archive | British Library |
Ashley Cowper, ca. 1757–1780.
Indications of retrospective copying into this collection, and perhaps even later annotation.
19 poems.
All occasional original poetry, often involving women or public affairs.
Folger MS M.a.15
| Title | Untitled |
|---|---|
| Period | 1761-1790 |
| Archive | Folger Shakespeare Library |
Associated with Penelope Judith Maitland, daughter of Col. Maitland
30 poems.
Attention to aesthetic features; themes of friendship, sentimental love, poverty, despair and hope.
| Period | Description | Manuscripts | Coteries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1701-1730 | some or all of the miscellany's compilation period falls within this timespan |
45 | 3 |
| 1761-1790 | some or all of the miscellany's compilation period falls within this timespan |
83 | 7 |
| 1791-1820 | some or all of the miscellany's compilation period falls within this timespan |
77 | 7 |
| 1731-1760 | Some or all of the miscellany's compilation period falls within this timespan |
63 | 7 |