Elizabeth Thomas (3) (1675–1731)

Elizabeth Thomas was born in London, the only child of Emmanuel Thomas, a lawyer, and his much-younger wife Elizabeth Osborne. Her father died when she was a baby, leaving Elizabeth and her mother in financial straits. She was educated at home, learned French and Latin, and read widely. By her mid-20s, she had become a poet and a member of a distinguished artistic and literary circle that included Lady Mary Chudleigh, Mary Astell, Judith Drake, Elizabeth Elstob, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, John Norris, and the painter Sarah Hoadly. She sent two of her poems to John Dryden, who conferred on her the poetic nickname "Corinna." Her first known publication was the elegy "To the Memory of the Truly Honoured John Dryden, Esq.", published anonymously in the collection Luctus Britannici in 1700. She was engaged for 16 years to Richard Gwinnett, a gentleman, who died before they could be married. During their long engagement they maintained an extensive correspondence, much of which was later published in Pylades and Corinna (1731–1732) and The Honourable Lovers (1732). Elizabeth Thomas experimented with a wide range of literary forms including lyrics, panegyrics, pastorals, polemics, religious meditations, and satires. Much of her poetry dealt with women's issues, particularly women's right to education. Although she published works throughout the 1720s, she became destitute and was jailed for debt in the Fleet prison in 1727 for three years. She died within a year of her release in 1731, aged about 56.