WHITE, [Harriet]. Verses: Sacred and Miscellaneous. By ‘Harriet’. [AUTHOR’S OWN COPY GIFTED TO HER DAUGHTER]

London: Hope and Co., 1853. Crown octavo. pp. [6], iv, 224. Contemporary full morocco, covers framed by a dog- tooth roll, double gilt fillets, floral roll and blind-stamped roll, ‘HARRIET’ in gilt on upper cover. Spine divided into five panels by four gilt raised bands, title and author in gilt direct in the second, the remainder tooled in gilt to a centre-and-corner design; board edges and turn-ins gilt; cream endpaper; red and gold endbands. Harriet White’s copy with her armorial bookplate on front pastedown and her signature on front endpaper, dated December, 1859. Later inscription to Margaret P. Lawless, on her fiftieth birthday from her mother, Harriet Lawless. Loosely inserted are some contemporary newspaper clippings of reviews. Wear to extremities and light rubbing to upper joint. A very nice copy.
COPAC with 3 locations only. O’Donoghue p. 478. Not in NLI.
Henrietta Mary Anne (HARRIET) elder daughter of Benjamin Newport White, and Catherine
Elizabeth his wife, was born at Conahy in the County of Kilkenny, in 1822. She was a sister to John
Davis White. Harriet published this volume of poems, titled “Verses, Sacred and Miscellaneous,” in
1853. They would appear to have been written between April, 1845 and August 1853 as each poem is
dated.
She married Edmund Lawless, Esq., Surgeon, R.N. on the 1st January, 1855, in Cashel Cathedral. He
served for some years on the West Indian and North American Stations. During the Crimean War the
ill fated HMS Tiger ran aground in fog near Odessa. When HMS Niger and HMS Vesuvius attempted
to assist, she was bombarded by Russians firing from the cliffs and surrendered; Captain Giffard and
three others died while 24 officers, including Assistant Surgeon Edmund Lawless, and 201 seamen,
were taken prisoner. He was a Russian prisoner for six months. He died in 1879 and is buried in St.
James’s Churchyard, Dublin.