Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunter, Rachel

618470Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 28 — Hunter, Rachel1891Thomas Seccombe (1866-1923)

HUNTER, RACHEL (1754–1813), novelist, born in London about 1754, married an English merchant resident in Lisbon, but after ten years of married life her husband died, and Mrs. Hunter returned to England. She took up her abode in Norwich in either 1794 or 1795, and devoted herself henceforth to literary pursuits. She died at Norwich in 1813. She wrote a series of childish novels, characterised by a 'strictly moral tendency.' The chief of these were: 1. 'Letitia, or the Castle without a Spectre,' 1801, 12mo. 2. 'History of the Grubthorpe Family,' 1802, 12mo. 3. 'Letters from Mrs. Palmerstone to her Daughter, inculcating Morality by Entertaining Narratives,' 1803, 12mo. 4. 'The Unexpected Legacy,' 1804, 12mo. 5. 'The Sports of the Genii,' 1805, 4to. 6. 'Lady Maclain, the Victim of Villany,' 1806, 12mo. 7. 'Family Annals, or Worldly Wisdom,' 1807, 12mo. 8. 'The Schoolmistress, a Moral Tale,' 1810.

[Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, p. 168; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Larousse's Dictionnaire Encyc.; Biog. Universelle.]

T. S.