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Born in Cockermouth, third child of Ann and John Wordsworth
Death of her mother in March: DW moved away from father and brothers to live with her second cousin Elizabeth Threlkeld and ET’s extended family in Halifax, Yorkshire until May 1787. Attendance and religious education at Unitarian Northgate End Chapel in Halifax.
Required to move from Halifax to her grandparent’s house at Penrith. Renews contact w her brothers Richard, William, John and Christopher.
Moves w her uncle William Cookson and his wife Dorothy to live at Forncett, Norfolk, where William Wilberforce, friend of her uncle, allows Dorothy funding for her to give to charity.
DW keeps her Alfoxden journal (Jan-May 1798) and is the subject of WW Tintern Abbey. Arriving in Germany w WW and CR and writes her Hamburg journal. Spends coldest winter of the century in Goslar until Feb 1799, where William begins The Prelude.
On 20 Dec DW and WW move into Dove Cottage, Grasmere.
After visit w WW to Annette and Caroline Vallon at Calais, DW and WW travel to Gallow Hill, Yorkshire, for the marriage on 4 Oct 1802 of WW to Mary Hutchinson DW not present at wedding and they return to Grasmere
DW devoted aunt to WW and Mary’s children born 1803-1310. 6 week Tour of the Scottish Highlands w WW and CR. (Her Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland eventually completed in 1805/6.) completes Grasmere journal
Helps write out a copy of WW’s poems for CR to take to Malta. Short tour with WW into the Duddon Valley
Death on 5 Feb of her brother John. Writes a short journal that is later extensively revised by WW and forms part of his Information for the tourist in the Guide to the Lakes, 1822. DW composes three stanzas “To my niece Dorothy, a sleepless baby” that were published by WW in his Poems (1815) as “The Cottager to her infant by a female friend”. Towards end of the year memorializes an autumn holiday in her Excursion on the Banks of Ullswater, November, 1805.
First poems written for, or abt, WW’s young children.; 1806: DW poem “An address to a child in a high wind” included as by a “Female Friend of the author” in WW Poems (1815); 1807: DW poem “The Mother’s Return” third and final poem in WW Poems (1815)
Ascent of Scafell Pike w Mary Barker, written up as An Excursion up Scawfell Pike, 7 October, 1818 for her friend WIlliam Johnson, makes a second version revised by him and introduced as an ‘extract from a letter to a friend’ published in the Guide to the Lakes, 1822. D’s authorship not revealed.
Continental tour w family party, including a traverse of the Alps reversing the direction of WW’s walking tour of 1790/1?: Journal of a Tour on the Continent.
Works at the tour of continent journal meant for friends and the children
Tour of the Scottish Highlands and Edinburgh with Joanna Hutchinson result in DW’s Journal of my Second Tour in Scotland, 1822 revises 1803 recollections of the scottish tour but not published until 1874.
Rydal journals, some record of daily events, often fragmentary in texture (gaps until 1833) but including the extended Isle of Man sequence. Stays with various friends and family during this period, visiting and helping take care of housework.
Restarts her poetry-writing on a visit to the Hutchinsons in the Wye Valley.
Summer visit to Joanna Hutchinson in the Isle of Man: Journal of a Tour in the Isle of Man, 1828.
DW becomes ill at Whitwick (April) and Mary W comes to nurse her. D returns to Halifax staying her “aunt” rawson. Back at Rydal DW has periods of great pain but goes out to the “family phaeton” or is pulled in small carriage along the new terrace in the garden by James Dixon, the WW’s gardener and handyman.
Composes more poems later published in WW Poems (1836) and WW‘s collection of 1842 and now the “female friend“ is identified as “D.W.“ This was fifth and last of DW‘s poems to be published in her lifetime.
DW sick again, self-educated Cockermouth artist, Samuel Crosthwaite, comes to paint WW and paints DW too (sept)
Death of Sarah Hutchinson, an event thought by WW to have given DW’s mind a shock from which it never recovered. DW in decline
Though suffering from a degenerative illness characterized by dementia-like symptoms, still writes poetry until at least 1840 She is cared for lovingly by WW and Mary and the household at Rydal.
Death of WW in April
Jan 25: death of DW: “our dear sister” wrote Mary W to her brother Thomas’s widow, “was released after her gradual but fitful sinking and some few hours of peaceful and anxious waiting.”
First publication of the Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, ed. by William Knight.
