She claimed to have read "the classics" at an early age and she published her first set of poetry at her own risk in 1826.

The publication made a loss and even although she was still a child in the eyes of the law she could have been sent to prison, albeit illegally.

She ignored poetry and wrote for periodicals including Family Herald, the Monthly Chronicle, the Metropolitan Magazine, People's Journal and the Literary Gazette.

She now knew from her own experiences of relying on her father and now her husband that reliance could lead to disappointment.

[1] Eventually her husband's precarious finances were solved by an inheritance, but her own peace failed to materialise as her favourite child, George Herbert Tinsley, died of Typhoid in 1877.