Biography

Born into the chief landowning family of Connemara

Connemara

Connemara is a district in the west of Ireland consisting of a broad peninsula between Killary Harbour and Kilkieran Bay in the west of County Galway.-Overview:...

, the Martins of Ballynahinch

Ballynahinch

Ballynahinch is the name of a number of towns in Ireland:*Ballynahinch, County Down, a town in Northern Ireland*Ballynahinch, County Armagh, a townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland*Ballynahinch, County Galway in the Republic of Ireland...

 Castle, a branch of the Martyn

Martyn

Martyn, or Martin is the surname of one of The Tribes of Galway, Ireland.-Family history:The Martyn family were one of a group of fourteen families of mixed Irish, English, Welsh, French and Norman descent who became the premier merchant and political families in the town of Galway during the late...

 Tribe of Galway

Galway

Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...

. Her parents were Thomas Barnwall Martin

Thomas Barnwall Martin

Thomas Barnwall Martin was an Irish landowner and politician.Martin was the eldest surviving son of Richard Martin, humanitarian and Member of Parliament for Galway County, by his first wife...

 and Julia Kirwin; her grandfather was Richard Martin (M.P.) (1754-1834).

Her first novel, St. Etienne, a tale of the Vendean War, was published in 1845.

Educated at home and by herself, she was fluent in Irish, English, French and a number of other languages. According to Maria Edgeworth

Maria Edgeworth

Maria Edgeworth was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe...

, who had met her during her tour of Connemara in 1833, she was courted in 1834 by Count Adolphe de Werdinsky, whom she had met in London earlier that year; upon her refusal of marriage, he feigned a suicide attempt at Ballynahinch. In 1847, she married Colonel Arthur Gonne Bell, her cousin, who took the name of Martin on marriage, by Royal Licence. In the same year, her father died of famine fever contracted while visiting his tenents in the Clifden

Clifden

Clifden is a town on the coast of County Galway, Ireland and being Connemara's largest town, it is often referred to as "the Capital of Connemara". It is located on the Owenglen River where it flows into Clifden Bay...

 workhouse

Workhouse

In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...

.

Famine

On the death of her father, she inherited a heavily encumbered estate of 200000 acres (809.4 km²). In the following two years her remaining fortune was destroyed in the potato famine as she attempted to alleviate its effects on her tenants. Penniless, she emigrated with her husband to Belgium where she contributed to a number of periodicals, notably Encyclopaedie Des Gens Du Monde.

USA and death

In 1850, her autobiographical novel

Autobiographical novel

An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fiction elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction...

, Julia Howard was published and in the same year she and her husband sailed for America, but she died ten days after arriving in New York following a premature confinement on board ship. The baby did not survive and her husband returned to England where he was killed in a railway accident in 1883.

Select bibliography

• St. Etienne, a romance, 1845.
• Julia Howard. A Romance, London, Richard Bentley, 1850.
• Deeds, not Words; or, the Flemings of Dundalk. A domestic tale, London, G. Routledge, 1857.

See also

• Peter Martin (STP)
  Peter Martin (STP)
  Peter Martin , Master of Sacred Theology , died 1645.Martin was born in the town of Galway, Ireland, and by 1615 had already been a student at St. Patrick's College, Lisbon. He joined the Dominican Order and was in that year studying at Salamanca By 1622 he had returned to Ireland where he enjoyed...
  
  
• Francis Martin
  Francis Martin
  -Biography:He was born in Galway during the occupation of the town by the Cromwellian army, his family been one of the Tribes of Galway. He was educated in one of the secret schools in the city. In 1673 he began his studies for the priesthood in Louvain with the Augustinian order. Ordained there in...
  
  
• Harriet Letitia Martin
  Harriet Letitia Martin
  Harriet Letitia Martin was an Irish novelist. She was born in London in 1801, and died in Dublin in 1891.Martin was the daughter of the novelist and stage-critic Harriet Evans Martin, and Richard Martin MP, a prominent member of the Martyn family of Galway. She spent the first years of her life in...
  
  
• Richard Martin (M.P.)
• Rychard Martin
  Rychard Martin
  -Biography:Martin was related to Wylliam Martin, under whom he served as bailiff for the term 1519-20. He served the first of three terms as Mayor for 1526-27. In 1535 he was again Mayor, been re-elected the following years....
  
  
• Thomas Barnwall Martin
  Thomas Barnwall Martin
  Thomas Barnwall Martin was an Irish landowner and politician.Martin was the eldest surviving son of Richard Martin, humanitarian and Member of Parliament for Galway County, by his first wife...
  
  
• Violet Florence Martin
  Violet Florence Martin
  Violet Florence Martin was an Irish author who co-wrote a series of novels with cousin Edith Somerville under the pen name of Martin Ross in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.- Early life :...
  
  
• Wylliam Martin
  Wylliam Martin
  Wylliam Martin, fl. 1504-1547, 34th Mayor of Galway.Martin was a member of one of The Tribes of Galway, and had first served as a town bailiff for the term 1504-1505. He enjoyed two terms as Mayor, 1519–1520, and 1525-1526...
  
  
• Adrian James Martyn
• Andrew H. Martyn
  Andrew H. Martyn
  Andrew H. Martyn, Irish priest and member of the Repeal Association, 1785-1847.-Biography:Martyn was the son of Henry Martyn , and was born in Eyre Square in 1785. He claimed descent from the Martyn family, one of The Tribes of Galway. He began studying at Maynooth in October 1804, been ordained in...
  
  
• Edward Martyn
  Edward Martyn
  Edward Martyn was an Irish political and cultural activist and playwright.-Early life:Martyn was the eldest son of John Martyn of Tullira and Annie Mary Josephine Smyth of Masonbrook, Loughrea, both in County Galway. He succeeded his father upon John's death in 1860...
  
  
• Mary Gabriel Martyn
  Mary Gabriel Martyn
  Maria Gabriel Martyn, Abbess of the Poor Clares of Galway, born 1604, died 1672.-Background:Born Helen Martyn, she was a member of one of The Tribes of Galway, the merchant families who ruled Galway from the late medieval to the early modern era...
  
  
• Oliver Óge Martyn
• Richard Óge Martyn
• Thomas Óge Martyn
  Thomas Óge Martyn
  -Early life:Martyn was a merchant of Galway and a member of the Martyn family, one of the Tribes of Galway. He was the son of former Mayor of Galway, Wylliam Martin.-West Bridge and Mills:...
  
  
• William Óge Martyn
  William Oge Martyn
  -Early life:Also known as William Óge Martyn fitz Thomas, was a son of Thomas Óge Martyn and Evelina Lynch of Galway. Bailiff of Galway in 1566 to 1567, he was kidnapped by the Earl of Thomond in January 1570 but was free in time to participate at the battle of Shrule in April of the same year...
  
  

External links

• http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/MaryLaetitiaBellMartin.php