{{Short description|British writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Use British English|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox Writer | name = Agnes Wheeler | image = | imagesize = | caption = | pseudonym = "A.W." | birth_name = Agnes Cowherd/Coward | birth_date = bap. 1734 | birth_place = Lancashire | death_date = 1804 | death_place = Beetham | occupation = | nationality = British | website = | footnotes = }}

thumb|''The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom.''

'''Agnes Wheeler''' or '''Ann Coward''' (bap. 1734 – 1804) was a British writer on the Cumbrian dialect. She is known for one book published in 1790. ''The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom'' was an early attempt at recording the local dialect.<ref name="Wheeler1790">{{cite book|author=Ann Wheeler|title=The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By A. W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KJlbAAAAQAAJ|year=1790|publisher=James Ashburner}}</ref> There were four editions of the book. Her work was later used in ''Specimens of the Westmorland Dialect'' published by the Revd Thomas Clarke in 1887.<ref name=refhere>Roy Palmer, ‘Wheeler, Agnes (bap. 1734, d. 1804)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/45867, accessed 1 June 2017]</ref>

She was born near Cartmel and went to London for 18 years where she married a Captain Wheeler and worked as a housekeeper. She returned to Cumbria a widow where she wrote for the local press in plain English. She published her one book in dialect which initially had three dialogues but in later editions four. The conversations discuss a trip to London, the illness of George III, christenings, deaths, cockfights and other subjects including hairstyles and fashion.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cwherald.com/a/archive/the-westmorland-dialogues.389406.html|title=The Westmorland Dialogues|website=www.cwherald.com|language=en|access-date=2017-06-01|archive-date=14 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200214061743/https://www.cwherald.com/a/archive/the-westmorland-dialogues.389406.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Wheeler died in Beetham where she had lived with her brother William in the medieval Arnside Tower. She was buried on 4 November 1804.<ref name=refhere/>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== * ''The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By A. W.'' Kendal, 1790: [https://books.google.com/books?id=KJlbAAAAQAAJ Google] ** ''The Westmorland Dialect, in four familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By A. Wheeler.'' 2nd edition, London, 1802: [https://books.google.com/books?id=6xMLAAAAQAAJ Google] [https://archive.org/details/westmorlanddial00wheegoog Internet Archive] ** ''The Westmoreland Dialect in four familiar Dialogues, in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the provincial Idiom. By Mrs. Ann Wheeler. To which is added a copious Glossary of Westmoreland and Cumberland Words.'' A new edition, London, 1840: [https://books.google.com/books?id=WLUHAAAAQAAJ Google] * ''Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects. Dialogues, Poems, Songs, and Ballads, by various Writers, in the Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects, now first collected: with a copious Glossary of Words peculiar to those Counties.'' London, 1839: [https://books.google.com/books?id=trQIAAAAQAAJ Google] ([https://books.google.com/books?id=v48SAAAAIAAJ Google])

==External links== * {{commons category-inline}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Agnes}} Category:1730s births Category:1804 deaths Category:British women writers Category:18th-century British writers Category:18th-century English women writers Category:People from Cartmel

{{UK-writer-stub}}