ABSTRACT
Ann Candler (1740–1814) was the daughter of a Suffolk glover. Her mother died when she was 11 and her father struggled financially. When she wrote a poem to a local clergyman to express her thanks for the charity he bestowed upon her at Christmas, Candler’s writing impressed him. He promoted her work among local philanthropists, and she credited him with opening up the contacts that later assisted her in exiting the workhouse. Her brief autobiography detailed her husband’s enlistment as a soldier in the 1780s and his subsequent abandonment of her. The resulting penury forced her to seek relief at the Tattingstone Workhouse. Patrons working on her behalf generated a list of roughly 500 subscribers to a small book of Candler’s poetry. This was the only time her poetry appeared in print, and it gave her the funds to leave the workhouse. The following text comprised the preface to this 68-page book of her poetry.
