Jump to content

Harriett Hesketh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by GrahamHardy (talk | contribs) at 13:07, 25 October 2016 (removed Category:People from Hertfordshire (before 1965); added Category:People from East Hertfordshire (district) using HotCat). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Harriett Hesketh
Born1733
Died5 January 1807
NationalityBritish

Harriett Hesketh or Harriett Cowper (1733 – 5 January 1807) is known for her correspondence with William Cowper.

Life

Harriett Cowper was baptised in Hertingfordbury, Herefordshire on 12 July 1733. She was one of three daughters of Ashley Cowper.

She was a cousin of the poet William Cowper who had an unhappy romance with her sister Theodora. William had a long correspondence with Harriet, even though there was a 19-year gap where at Harriett's insistence they did not communicate. Harriett eventually broke the silence with a letter of congratulation to Cowper when his second book of poetry was published. This correspondence was the basis for Cowper's biography.[2]

Hesketh died in Clifton in Bristol in 1807.

References

  1. ^ Harriet Hesketh, Francis Coates, Bonhams
  2. ^ James William Kelly, ‘Hesketh , Harriet, Lady Hesketh (bap. 1733, d. 1807)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 24 Jan 2015