Elizabeth Thomas

Who was Elizabeth Thomas?

Elizabeth Thomas [née Wolferstan], novelist and poet, is an ambiguous figure. Details of her early life are missing, and her authorship of some works attributed to her is contested.

She was born in Devon to Mary and Edward Wolferstan. In or around 1795 she married the Reverend Thomas Thomas, vicar of Tidenham, Gloucestershire since 1801. She died of bronchitis at the age of 84 in Devon.

Her religious verse received mixed reviews, as did her novel, Purity of Heart, "a virulent, polemical novel addressed to the anonymous author of Glenarvon, the 1816 succès de scandale," presumed to be Lady Caroline Lamb. She has also been identified as "Mrs Bridget Bluemantle", author of nine Minerva Press novels from 1806 to 1818, though this identification remains problematic. She also used the pseudonym of "Mrs Martha Homely".