Life
1864-1902 [née McNeill]; b. Co. Antrim, eldest dg. Edmund McNeill
of Craigdunn, Co. Antrim, Dep. Lieut. Co. Antrim; m. Rev. Walter Hobhouse,
1887; Irish speaking, and a Unionist; spoke out against Home Rule, 1887-88;
poetry and novels, including An Unknown Quantity (1898), a love-story
set in London sub-titled ‘a sad tale of modern life’; Warp
and Weft (1899), dealing with linen-manufacture and Presbyterian society,
featuring Esther MacVeagh, the wife of a duplicious businessman, whose
noble conduct leads to his reform; wrote religious poetry, published posthumously
for friends. IF SUTH ATT OCIL
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Works
An Unknown Quantity: A Sad Story of Modern Life (London: Downey
& Co. 1898); Warp and Weft: A Story of the North of Ireland
(London: Skeffington & Son 1899); Speculum animae (Priv. 1902),[
n.pp.].
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References
John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Harlow: Longmans 1988); cites BL 2.
Ann Owens Weekes, ed., Attic Guide to Published Works of Irish Women Literary Writers (Kentucky UP 1990); styles her a Unionist; lists An Unknown Quantity, A Tale (London: Downey & Co. 1898) [here Donney], also a novel, Warp and Weft, A Story of the North of Ireland (London: Skeffington 1899).
Belfast Public Library holds Warp and Weft (1899).
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