Amelia Opie
By Roger Morgan
THERE is a small statue at the start of Opie Street in Norwich, but you will have to look up to see it. It shows Amelia Opie dressed in Quaker clothes, but who was she?
Amelia was born in 1769. the only child of James Alderson, a Norwich physician. Her mother died when she was only 15 and she became her father’s housekeeper. At this time she started writing dramas and poetry. She became associated with the controversial Godwin Circle and was friends with Sarah Siddons, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft ( the mother of Mary Shelley) She was politically influenced by the French Revolution and her father’s links to the Norwich reform movement.
In 1798, Amelia married the artist John Opie in Marylebone, London. He encouraged her to continue writing and she produced numerous novels and stories as well as her poems. Her most famous novel is probably ‘Adeline Mowbray’ (1804). John Opie unexpectedly died in 1807 and Amelia returned to her father’s house in Norwich. She also spent time in London, becoming friends with Sir Walter Scott and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
When in Norwich she renewed her long held friendship with Joseph John Gurney and his sisters. The Gurneys were a prominent Norwich Quaker family and she was admitted to the Society of Friends in August, 1825, two months before her father died. He was buried in the Gildencroft Quaker Cemetery in Norwich.
Amelia Opie dedicated the rest of her life to doing philanthropic deeds including visiting prisons, hospitals and workhouses for the poor. She promoted a refuge for reformed prostitutes and supported the Norwich Bible Society. She worked with Anna Gurney to form a Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in Norwich and was one of the few women to attend the World’s Anti-Slavery convention in 1840.
Amelia is thought to have caught a chill whilst visiting Cromer in 1852. She took to her bed and died in 1853. She was buried in her father’s grave at the Gildencroft Cemetery.
By Roger Morgan
THERE is a small statue at the start of Opie Street in Norwich, but you will have to look up to see it. It shows Amelia Opie dressed in Quaker clothes, but who was she?
Amelia was born in 1769. the only child of James Alderson, a Norwich physician. Her mother died when she was only 15 and she became her father’s housekeeper. At this time she started writing dramas and poetry. She became associated with the controversial Godwin Circle and was friends with Sarah Siddons, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft ( the mother of Mary Shelley) She was politically influenced by the French Revolution and her father’s links to the Norwich reform movement.
In 1798, Amelia married the artist John Opie in Marylebone, London. He encouraged her to continue writing and she produced numerous novels and stories as well as her poems. Her most famous novel is probably ‘Adeline Mowbray’ (1804). John Opie unexpectedly died in 1807 and Amelia returned to her father’s house in Norwich. She also spent time in London, becoming friends with Sir Walter Scott and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
When in Norwich she renewed her long held friendship with Joseph John Gurney and his sisters. The Gurneys were a prominent Norwich Quaker family and she was admitted to the Society of Friends in August, 1825, two months before her father died. He was buried in the Gildencroft Quaker Cemetery in Norwich.
Amelia Opie dedicated the rest of her life to doing philanthropic deeds including visiting prisons, hospitals and workhouses for the poor. She promoted a refuge for reformed prostitutes and supported the Norwich Bible Society. She worked with Anna Gurney to form a Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in Norwich and was one of the few women to attend the World’s Anti-Slavery convention in 1840.
Amelia is thought to have caught a chill whilst visiting Cromer in 1852. She took to her bed and died in 1853. She was buried in her father’s grave at the Gildencroft Cemetery.