Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer

Mary Elizabeth Latimer (née Wormeley; July 26, 1822 – January 4, 1904) was an English-American writer, both of original works and translations.

Early life

Mary Elizabeth Wormeley was born on July 26, 1822, in London, the daughter of Admiral Ralph Randolph Wormeley (1785–1852) and Caroline (née Preble) Wormeley (1799–1872). Her father, a native of Virginia, was an Admiral of the British navy, and preceding his death, resided in Boston, Massachusetts. Among her siblings was Ariana Randolph Wormeley, who married the American lawyer and banker Daniel Sargent Curtis, and the nurse and author Katherine Prescott Wormeley.

Her paternal grandfather was James Wormeley, great-grandfather was John Randolph, attorney general for the Colony of Virginia and her grand-uncle was Edmund Randolph, the first Attorney General of the United States. Her mother was a niece of Commodore Edward Preble, U.S. Navy.

Her sisters were Katharine Prescott Wormeley, the translator, and Ariana Randolph Wormeley Curtis (1834–1922), a writer who published the comedy entitled The Coming Woman, or the Spirit of '76 in 1870, which has been acted in public and private both in the United States and in Europe. Ariana was married to prominent banker and patron of the arts, Daniel Sargent Curtis (1825–1908).

Education and career

She was educated by tutors and at a school in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Early travels also helped educate her. She spent the winter of 1842 in Boston as the guest of the family of George Ticknor, and in that environment received much encouragement of her interest in literature.