Florence L. Barclay - The Rosary: The Bestseller of 1910

Florence Louisa Charlesworth was born on 2nd December 1862 in Limpsfield, Surrey, England, one of three sisters. In 1881, Florence married the Rev. Charles W. Barclay and they honeymooned in the Holy Land, where, in Shechem, they reportedly discovered Jacob’s Well, which according to the Gospel of St John, Jesus met the woman of Samaria (John 4-5).

The couple settled in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire, where she fulfilled the necessary duties of being a rector’s wife. The couple had eight children.

Florence encountered a bout of ill-health that left her bed-ridden in her early forties. To while away the time she began to write again (she had previously published under a pen name in 1891 but then stopped). From this new beginning came the novel ‘The Wheels of Time’. Her next novel, ‘The Rosary’, a story of undying love, was published in 1909 to acclamation and massive sales. It was translated into eight languages and was the best-selling novel of 1910. It was also used as the basis for five motion pictures.

Florence eventually wrote eleven books in all, including one that was non-fiction.

Florence Louisa Barclay died on 10th March 1921 at the age of fifty-eight.