Elizabeth Cobbold, née Knipe, was born in London in 1767. Her first volume of poems appeared in 1783 in a sheaf dedicated to English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the first of two novels appeared in 1791 around the death of her first husband, William Clarke. From 1814 she lived with her second husband, Ipswitch brewer Johns Cobbold, and their twenty-two children and stepchildren in Holywells, London. Her literary output comprised around three hundred poems and two novels. She also published under the pseudonym Carolina Petty Pasty. Cobbold was the editor of other Georgian women writers, including poet Anne Candler.

Her first Valentine took the form of a poem for her first husband, written early in their marriage. Cut Valentines, selected by friends at an annual Valentine's Day party, were first cut in 1806 and published in 1813/14. Their recipients include early entomologist Laetitia Jermyn. The cuttings show a keen attention to the natural world, with well made animals, insects, and nature scenes; Cobbold was herself an early woman naturalist, collecting fossils from the Red Crag Formation on the grounds of Holywells Park. Cobbold died on October 17 1824.

The tradition of writing and giving Valentines flourished during the reign of George II, when in 1797 a British publisher issued The Young Man's Valentine Writer," containing sentimental stock verses for the "young lover unable to compose his own."

Sources:

Poems by Mrs. Cobbold with a Memoir of the Author

https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/catalog/bib_9074003

Elizabeth Cobbold, Georgian Polymath

https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/catalog/bib_9737233

Valentine's Day at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day