On This Day 2 May 1821, 200 years ago Hester Thrale Piozzi died. Lived at "Streatham Park". A diarist, author and patron of the arts
Hester Lynch Salusbury(1741–1821), writer, was born on 16 January 1741 at Bodfel Hall, near Pwllheli, Caernarvonshire, the only child of Hester Maria, née Cotton (1707–1773), and John Salusbury (1707–1762) of Bachegraig, Flintshire.
Married the wealthy brewer Henry Thrale. Shut away from the world, she lived, as Johnson later remarked, like Thrale's kept mistress. Her study was a solace and a retreat from the nursery, and her writing supplied both an intellectual and an emotional outlet.
Hester had literary ambitions. She would go on to write a popular history book that failed to win over critics of the day but is now considered a radical pre-cursor to feminism, and she was a consummate memoirist, letter-writer and diarist.
Following the death of Henry she married the Italian musician Gabriel Mario Piozzi (1740–1809). Having 'married the first Time to please my Mother', she came close to avoiding marriage to please her daughter, but ultimately she determined to brave society's prejudice against an Italian, Roman Catholic singer husband.
(Michael J. Franklin and Emma Claire Sweeney)
A painting of Hester Thrale in 1771 by John Singleton Copley [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Hester Lynch Salusbury(1741–1821), writer, was born on 16 January 1741 at Bodfel Hall, near Pwllheli, Caernarvonshire, the only child of Hester Maria, née Cotton (1707–1773), and John Salusbury (1707–1762) of Bachegraig, Flintshire.
Married the wealthy brewer Henry Thrale. Shut away from the world, she lived, as Johnson later remarked, like Thrale's kept mistress. Her study was a solace and a retreat from the nursery, and her writing supplied both an intellectual and an emotional outlet.
Hester had literary ambitions. She would go on to write a popular history book that failed to win over critics of the day but is now considered a radical pre-cursor to feminism, and she was a consummate memoirist, letter-writer and diarist.
Following the death of Henry she married the Italian musician Gabriel Mario Piozzi (1740–1809). Having 'married the first Time to please my Mother', she came close to avoiding marriage to please her daughter, but ultimately she determined to brave society's prejudice against an Italian, Roman Catholic singer husband.
(Michael J. Franklin and Emma Claire Sweeney)
A painting of Hester Thrale in 1771 by John Singleton Copley [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
