Author: Ann Elizabeth Sykes
Author: Ann Elizabeth Sykes (1810–1878)
Alternate Name(s): Broadley (maiden name)
Biography: Ann Elizabeth Sykes was born on 3 July 1810 in Sculcoates, Yorkshire, the eldest daughter of wealthy merchant and landowner John Broadley and his wife Ann Elizabeth (née Osbourne). She grew up with a life of privilege: the family lived at the South Ella estate where her father maintained a large private library to fuel his interests in local history and horticulture. Unfortunately, her father became an alcoholic which hastened his death in 1833. Sykes was able to live comfortably off her inheritance. Relatively late in life, in 1853, she married the retired naval officer Joseph Sykes of Raywell as his second wife. The marriage was short-lived since her husband died in 1857 after a short illness. In her widowhood, she lived with her two unmarried sisters Henrietta and Charlotte in Grasmere and turned her hand to fiction, writing two anonymous novels. She died of cancer on 1 May 1878 in Grasmere. Note: author identifed by an inscription in a copy of her first novel held in a private collection.
References: British Census (1841, 1851, 1861, 1871); Francis Davies, "South Ella Hall, Anlaby" (https://u3asites.org.uk/files/a/awake/docs/southellahallpart2.pdf); English Lakes Visitor (4 May 1878); Hull Advertiser (9 May 1857); Stamford Mercury (25 March 1853)
Fiction Titles:
- The Mountain Refuge: or, Sure Help in Time of Need. A Tale of the Vaudois in the Sixteenth Century. 1 vol. London: Seeley, 1862.
- The Schoolmistress of Herondale: or, Sketeches of Life among the Hills. 1 vol. London: Seeley, 1866.