Mary Alcock (née Cumberland, c. 1742 – 1798) was an English poet, essayist, and philanthropist. She was part of Lady Anne Miller's literary circle in Bath.
Her husband's mental health seems to have been fragile and the marriage was probably unhappy. She nursed her parents through long illnesses until their deaths and cared for her seven nieces after the death of her sister, Elizabeth Hughes, in 1770. A widow by the early 1780s, she moved to Bath, Somerset, where she was part of the literary circle of Anne Miller (1741–1781) and took part in her poetry contests.[2] She participated in various charitable activities.
There are two pieces in her published works that critique the popular sentimental novel as "hobgoblin nonsense": "The Scribbler," and "A Receipt[3] for Writing a Novel."[4]
Never robust, she died at the age of fifty-seven in Northamptonshire. Her niece Joanna Hughes edited her collected works after her death: some 183 pages of poems and essays. The collection received little critical interest, although subscribers included leading cultural and literary figures such as Charles Burney, Elizabeth Carter, William Cowper, Hannah More, and some members of the royal family.
^Folger Collective on Early Women Critics, Women critics 1660-1820: an anthology (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 161—164) ("A Receipt for Writing a Novel" is reproduced in this text and can be found at the Internet Archive)
Ellis, Markman. "Alcock , Mary (1741?–1798)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 19 Jan. 2007.
Lonsdale, Roger, ed.『Mary Alcock (née Cumberland).』Eighteenth century women poets: an Oxford anthology. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1989; rpt. 1990, pp. 461—468. (Internet Archive)
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