Augusta was the daughter of
Vice-admiral George Davies (1800–1876) and Julia Hume (1803–1897), the fourth daughter of Joseph Hume of Somerset House. She spent her younger years on board the ship, the Griper
, her father, as
lieutenant of the
coast guard at that time, held command. After her father's appointment to the rank of
commander in 1842, Webster resided for six years in
Banff Castle in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Later, following a short time in
Penzance, Cornwall, in 1851 Webster resettled in
Cambridge, as her father became the
chief constable of
Cambridgeshire. She self-studied
Greek,
Italian and
Spanish at home, taking a particular interest in
Greek drama, and went on to study at the
Cambridge School of Art. During a brief residence in
Paris and
Geneva, she acquired a 'full knowledge' of the
French language. In 1863, she married Thomas Webster, a
fellow and
lecturer in Law at
Trinity College, Cambridge. They had a daughter, Augusta Georgiana, who married
Reverend George Theobald Bourke, a younger son of the
Joseph Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo. Much of Webster's writing explored the condition of women, and she was a strong advocate of women's right to vote, working for the London branch of the National Committee for
Women's Suffrage. She was the first female writer to hold elective office, having been elected to the
London School Board in 1879 and 1885. In 1885 she travelled to Italy in an attempt to improve her failing health. She died on 5 September 1894, aged 57. During her lifetime her writing was acclaimed and she was considered by some the successor to
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. After her death, however, her reputation quickly declined. Since the mid-1990s she has gained increasing critical attention from scholars such as
Isobel Armstrong,
Angela Leighton, and Christine Sutphin. Her best-known poems include three long dramatic monologues spoken by women:
A Castaway,
Circe, and
The Happiest Girl In The World, as well as a posthumously published
Sonnet Sequence,
Mother and Daughter, of which her only child, Augusta, is its subject. She died on 5 September 1894 and was buried on the western side of
Highgate Cemetery. Her grave (plot no.8187), which is situated above the cuttings catacombs, has suffered badly from tree roots. ==Literary works==