Charlotte Dacre (1782–1825)

Charlotte Dacre was the pseudonym of Charlotte Byrne, née King, the daughter of John or Jonathan King (born Jacob Rey), a Jewish banker and writer in London. She began her literary career in 1802 publishing poems in The Morning Post newspaper under the pseudonym "Rosa Matilda." In 1815, she married the owner and editor of the paper, Nicholas Byrne, with whom she had already had three children. Charlotte wrote Gothic novels, a relatively new genre at that time, with her sister Sophia and on her own, as well as sentimental poetry collected into several volumes. Her most famous work was a lurid novel called Zofloya or The Moor (1806), full of murder and deception. Charlotte also was known in the field of popular music as a lyricist.