Fragments in Prose and Verse with Some Account of Her Life and Character. (Two Volumes.) [with early Western Australian settler signatures]

Two volumes, octavo, published 1809 (vol. I) and 1810 (vol. II). Both volumes bound in full leather, with original leather spines relaid, all edges marbled, pp xii, 274; xiv, 242. Author portrait frontis plate vol. I. Scattered foxing throughout. Vol. II damp-stained pp i - xvii, and to the rear board, fishing to endpapers. Some markings to boards. A number of previous owners' signatures front endpapers (see description below). Good condition. Elizabeth Smith (1776 - 1806) was a scholar, writer, and translator. The second volume of this work is her translation of "Memoirs of Frederick and Margaret Klopstock". Much of the present interest of the books is the chain of previous owners' signatures, which descend from the first Western Australian settlers through a number of well-known settler families. The signatures are repeated in both volumes: Elizabeth Walcott, dated in 1817; Brockman, dated in 1837 [an Elizabeth Walcott married a Brockman in 1837); Mrs H. Hamersley, dated in 1900; Mrs Maxwell, 1960; Mrs Burt, 1994. In Vol. II there is also a pencilled note after Brockman: Annie - C.D.V. Foss / Marion - Hugh H. An uncommon set, of interest as the work of an unusual woman that was handed down the female line of early Western Australian settler families.…