Brereton left her husband Thomas, who squandered away his vast inherited fortune. Apparently, Brereton generally eschewed publication of her work. As the DNB explains, the 'Account' in her posthumous volume of poetry minimizes her literary career (?writing was her darling entertainment, and was to her a relaxation from her cares?; ?Account?, xii), and emphasizes instead her role as wife, mother, widow, and Christian. The DNB argues that Brereton "represents a transitional moment in women's writing in the eighteenth century, a moment at which being a published writer while retaining respectability was becoming a real possibility." The preface material thus places Brereton emphatically in the milieu of domestic/coterie MS circulation.