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Anne Jane Cupples

Early Life
Anne Jane Cupples (4 Jan 1839 - 14 Nov 1896) was the second daughter and third of seven children of Archibald Douglas of Morton, and and his wife, Caroline Montague Douglas, nee Scott. She was born at 34 Gilmore Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1859, when she was 19 years old, her father died at the age of 55 years, and her widowed mother continued as planned to New Zealand, where she established a small school at Pelichet Bay, near Dunedin. Anne Jane remained in Scotland, along with a brother, who later travelled to New Zeland

Marriage
Anne Jane, aged 19 years, married George Cupples, a respected literary figure and breeder of Scotch deerhounds, aged 36 years, on 18 May 1958.

Writing
Mrs Cupples' first book to be published appears to be "Unexpected Pleasures or, Left Alone in the Holidays", published by W.P. Nimmo, Edinburgh in 1868. This book was published when Ann Jane was twenty-nine years old, ten years since the Cupples were married, and she may have realised that she was not going to have children. She may have been looking for a productive means of filling in her time by writing for other people's children.

1869 saw the publication of her full‑length novel for boys, "Norrie Seton or, Driven to Sea", again published by W. P. Nimmo, Edinburgh. Nimmos brought out a new edition in 1896. This book appears to have been inspired by her husband's unhappy teenage years on a sailing ship on the trade route between Britain and India. She is also the author of "Bill Marlin's Tales of the Sea" (1867) or (1860), "Tappy's chicks and other links between nature and human nature" (1872), "The children's voyage, or a trip in the Water Fairey" (1873), "Fables: illustrated stories from real life" (2 series, 1874-5) and about 45 other books. From 1869 onwards, twenty six of her books were published by T. Nelson & Sons of London, including "Alice Leighton; or, A Good Name is rather to be chosen than riches", "Carryś Rose or, The Magic of Kindness" and "Hugh Wellwoodś Sucess or, Where Thereś a Will Thereś a Way".

Correspondence with Charles Darwin
In a letter dated 28 Nov 1870, Anne Jane Cupples wrote to Charles Darwin to seek his help in securing a government pension for her husband.

Social work
She founded a schoolerected by public subscription, for the training of orphan girls and boys from Glasgow, situated on Duchray Water, Aberfoyle. She was also a member of the committee of the Edinburgh YWCA.

Later Life
On 17 October 1891, George Cupples died aged 69 years, and three years later Mrs Cupples decided to join her sisters in New Zealand. She sailed from Plymouth in RMS ´Gothic´ for Port Chalmers, arriving there on 14 November 1894. She spent the next four years living with her unmarried sisters, Margaret and Caroline Douglas who lived at Mosgiel, near Dunedin. Anne Jane published his life's findings on dogs in a lavish illustrated book of over three hundred pages called "Scotch Deer hounds and their Masters".