Born: 28 August 1815, Ireland
Died: 7 November 1850
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Mrs Martin Bell
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Frances Clarke. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Martin, Mary Letitia (Mrs Martin Bell) (1815–50), novelist, was born 28 August 1815 at Ballinahinch Castle, Co. Galway, the only child of Thomas Barnewall Martin (1786–1847), landowner and MP for Galway (1832–47), and his wife Julia (née Kirwan) (d. 1858) of Dalgan Park, Co. Mayo. She was a granddaughter of Richard Martin and niece of Harriet Letitia Martin (1801–91), who published the novel The changeling: a tale of the year ’47 (1848). The Martins, an established Galway family of Anglo-Norman origin, reputedly inspired the novel The Martins of Cro’ Martin (1856) by Charles Lever.
Martin spent her childhood on the family estate in the west of Ireland, and was privately educated. When Maria Edgeworth visited Ballinahinch in February 1834, she commented that Martin had ‘more knowledge of books, both scientific and learned, than any female subject I ever saw or heard of at her age’ (Tour, 58). Martin’s scholarly interests included literature (particularly the poetry of Scott and Byron), metaphysics, French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and science. She also studied engineering with the renowned Scottish civil engineer Alexander Nimmo, then working in Connemara. Though intellectually accomplished, she seems to have been socially awkward, and Edgeworth found her aloof, opinionated, and humourless. In the spring of 1835 the Martins travelled to London, where Mary was presented at court and moved in fashionable society, including the literary circles of the Bulwers and the Sheridans. On their return the Martins visited Edgeworthstown, where Maria found Mary much improved, detecting ‘strength of character and nobleness of mind in being still herself and despising all the little Town jealousies and tracasseries of fine people and fashionable dissipation’ (82). Martin maintained a close connection with Edgeworthstown for many years, writing to Maria in 1838 that some of her articles, including ‘Ireland’, ‘Exchequer’, and ‘Richard Lovell Edgeworth’, had been accepted for publication in the ‘Encyclopedie’ (presumably the Encyclopédie des gens du monde).
In her youth Mary had been an ardent admirer of Napoleon, and her first novel, St Etienne. A romance of the first revolution (1845), was set in the Vendée region of France. For the next two years her energies were devoted to alleviating the terrible effects of the famine, thereby further embroiling her family estate in debt. Martin’s father, a generous and extravagant character, had broken the entail and heavily mortgaged his estate, while assuming liability for the debts of his father and grandfather. When he died, 23 April 1847, having contracted ‘famine fever’ while visiting his tenants in Clifden workhouse, the heavily encumbered estate passed to Mary, who nevertheless continued to spend large sums of money on providing food, clothing, and work for hundreds of her tenantry. Whether due to these efforts, or to her family position as heiress to the Martin estate, she was popularly christened ‘the princess of Connemara’. On 14 September 1847 she married Arthur Gonne Bell (d. 1883), of Brookhill, Co. Mayo, who assumed her name by royal licence (she later used his for publishing purposes). Unable to meet the repayments on her debts, she was sued by the Law Life Assurance Society in the encumbered estates court, which ordered the sale of her entire estate. Landless and penniless, she and her husband went to live in Fontaine L’Eveque, Belgium, where she returned to writing as a means of support. She is believed to have contributed to French periodicals, and in 1850 published a second novel, Julia Howard, set in Connemara and based on her own experiences. In the same year she and her husband emigrated to America where, after giving birth prematurely on ship, she died 7 November 1850 at the Union Place Hotel, New York, ten days after her arrival.