Fanny Umphelby (1788 – 9 April 1852) was a British author who wrote a popular primer known by the shortened title The Child's Guide to Knowledge, ... by a Lady.
Umphelby was born in Knowles's Court, Doctor's Commons, in the Parish of St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street in the City of London.
Being a collection of useful and familiar questions, on every day subjects adapted for young children, and arranged in the easiest and plainest language,[3] with the modest attribution "by a Lady", but was later retitled to The Child's Guide to Knowledge; Being a Collection of Useful and Familiar Questions and Answers on Every-day Subjects, Adapted for Young Persons, and Arranged in the Most Simple and Easy Language.
An edition from 1830 with her sister, the wife of Robert Ward, often being credited for early editions of the work, although by 1900 the Dictionary of National Biography was prepared to positively assert that Umphelby was the sole original author.
[6] The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (1984) suggests that The Child's Guide to Knowledge, ... by a Lady was modelled on William Pinnock's Catechisms and Richmal Mangnall's Miscellaneous Questions for the Use of Young People.