- Born
- 7 August 1827
Peckham Park, Surrey, Australia - Died
- 22 October 1886
Prospect, South Australia, Australia - Alternative Names
- Congreve, Matilda Jane (Birth name)
- Evans, Matilda Jane (married name)
Summary
Franc was born Matilda Jane Congreve in London, migrating to Adelaide with her family in 1852. After both parents died, she opened a school in North Adelaide, and then another in Mt Barker, where she also published her first novel, Marion, or, The Light of Someone's Home (1859). She married a widowed Baptist minister with two young children in 1860 and had another two sons before her husband died in 1863. She went on to open several other schools in rural South Australia and Adelaide and wrote fourteen novels as well as articles and short stories. Her novels sold well and were published locally in serial and book form as well as in London by Sampson Low & Co. Many of her works had Christian and temperance themes.