Jane Cocking Glover was an English-born American socialite who was also, at one time, active as a poet.
Life
Glover was born Jane Cocking to William and Ann Cocking in Lincolnshire. The family, which included her sister Ann, lived at Holbeach Marsh. Just before turning 16, Jane began submitting poetry to The Lady's Magazine; six of her contributions, a pair of acrostics and an elegy among them, appeared in the poetry section of that April's magazine. Later issues contain such pieces as a response to a poem by James Murray Lacey, cataloguing the many loves of his life; other poems appeared in the October edition. At some point during 1805 the Cocking sisters began preparations to move to the United States; in June the Magazine printed two poems by "Belinda" wishing them well on the trip. That same month, Jane wrote a pair of farewell poems from London; on September 12th, her sister married William Blanchard, and a few weeks later the sisters, their parents, and Blanchard left for the United States. Upon arrival they settled in Washington, D.C.. Cocking married, on August 19th 1814 at Christ Church, Washington Parish,, a prominent Maryland attorney. With him she had three children; the 1820 census records that they also owned two slaves - an 1820 document notes the manumission of a 41-year old female slave, Fanny, " she being able to obtain a living for herself". Glover died in 1827, and Jane would go on to outlive all three of her children; daughter Adeline died at 9 months, while her son William died at 21 and Richard at 29. At her death Jane was interred in the family plot at Washington's Oak Hill Cemetery. Whether or not she continued her literary career after emigration is unknown. A portrait of Glover by Pietro Bonanni was painted in 1821, and later became part of the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. At that museum's dissolution in 2014 the painting was accessioned by the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, where it currently resides. Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a family friend, made a number of sketches of the Glover family; only two of these, both of Charles Glover, survive.
