The Perpetual Curate

Margaret Oliphant Oliphant (nee Margaret Oliphant Wilson) (1828-1897), Scottish novelist and historical writer, daughter of Francis Wilson, was born at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian. As a girl she constantly occupied herself with literary experiments, and in 1849 published her first novel Passages in the Life of Mrs Margaret Maitland. This she followed up in 1851 with Caleb Field. In May 1852 she married her cousin, Frank Wilson Oliphant. He had very delicate health. For the sake of his health they moved in January 1859 to Florence, and thence to Rome, where Frank Oliphant died. His wife, left almost entirely without resources, returned to England and took up the burden of supporting her three children by her own literary activity. In the course of her long struggle with circumstances, Mrs Oliphant produced more than 120 separate works, including novels, books of travel and description, histories and volumes of literary criticism. These works include A Beleaguered City (1880); The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences; The Open Door, and the Portrait (1881); A Little Pilgrim (1882); Old Lady Mary (1884); and Jeanne d'Arc: Her Life and Death (1896).