Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By Critical and Biographical NoticeJane Turell (17081735)
M
Jane Colman, when a girl of eleven, made some feeble efforts in verse, and as her father frequently wrote to her in rhymes suited to her capacity, and encouraged her to peruse the English poets, she became ready in composition, and often employed her hours of recreation in writing humorous essays, which displayed ingenuity and quickness of comprehension. On entering her nineteenth year she was married to the Rev. Mr Turell of Medford. She had then read and digested all the works on Divinity, History and Philosophy to which she could gain access, and was familiarly acquainted with the modern literature of a lighter kind. She died in 1735, at the age of twenty-seven, having faithfully fulfilled those duties which shed the brightest lustre upon woman’s name—the duties of the friend, the daughter, the mother, and the wife.
Her poems are collected in a pamphlet, published by her husband immediately after her death.