Maria Regina Roche

Roche, Regina Maria, presumably an Irishwoman, born in 1765, was a distinguished novelist. Allibone notes sixteen works written by her between 1793 and perhaps 1823. Her latter years were spent in retirement at her residence on the Mall, in Waterford, where she died 17th May 1845. The Gentleman's Magazine speaks of Miss Roche as "the author of The Children of the Abbey and other novels which delighted our elders half a century ago... Many young hearts, now old, must remember the effect upon them of her graceful and touching compositions; and imaginations once excited by her skill will yet acknowledge her loss with a melancholy feeling of regret, that the bright should thus have faded in the overwhelming darkness of fast-flitting years."

Sources

146. Gentleman's Magazine. London, 1731-1868.
Gilbert, John T., see Nos. 110, 335.

16. Authors, Dictionary of British and American: S. Austin Allibone. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1859-'71.