Hester Maria Thrale (Queeney)
First-born, Hester Maria was born in Southwark on 17th September 1764. She was Christened at St Saviour’s Church (now Southwark Cathedral) by Rev James Evans 24 September 1764. She was named after her grandmother Hester Maria Salusbury Cotton.
Queeney aged 20 months by Zoffany circa 1770
Her godparents were grandmother Hester Maria Salusbury Cotton, aunt Susanna Thrale Nesbitt and 5 year old cousin Sir John Lade.
Nicknamed Queeney, Hester Maria was described as smart and shy but cold and proud. Sometimes she was affectionately called ‘Nig', ‘Niggy', ‘Tit' or ‘Hetty’. Dr Samuel Johnson affectionately called her 'Sweeting' and gave her a cabinet for the storage of curios. In October 1794 her Mother notes in Thraliana that Queeney is now being called 'Birdey'.
As a child she was immensely tutored. At age four, Queeney was already studying the dramatic structures in the Iliad. She studied Italian. She is also characterised as being a little prodigy. Her mother's entries in her diary indicate that they did not get along and that Queeney bore little affection for her mother. Both Queeney and Hester were dear close friends with Fanny Burney.
“Doctor Johnson has undertaken to teach my eldest Daughter Latin and has actually undertaken & begun his Work. Fanny Burney, Authour of Evelina is to learn with her of the same Master— Mr Thrale [Queeney's father Henry] says it is better to teach each of them than a Thousand pounds added to their Fortune. Dear Creatures! How earnestly do I wish them Success! they love one another and will improve by studying together—what a Master they have too! Happy Rogues!—”
Cabinet given to Queeney by Dr Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson was devoted to Queeney and referred to her in a 1771 letter as "Sweet, dear, pretty, little Miss". Johnson followed Queeney's life with affectionate interest and anxious concern. In July 1779 Hester wrote in Thraliana…
Queeney produced a mock-solemn covenant, headed “Streatham December the 8th at night, 1774”, signed by Hester with her full name and her seal, and witnessed by “Sam. Johnson, LL.D.” and “Hester Lynch Thrale”, in which she promises to work for two full hours at her Italian every day as Mr. Baretti shall instruct her. “And I promise further, that, whether I am in good humour or out of humour, I will be in earnest and very attentive to my lesson, as if I were in the very best humour, nor will I look about me with a vacant and weary countenance, so that the said Mr. Baretti (alias Taskmaster) shall have no reason, no, not the least shadow of a reason to complain of my disattention, unwillin[gn]ness, and reluctance.” Baretti left Streatham a month later.
On Queeney's 16th birthday in 1780, her mother wrote in Thraliana …
“It is this day given me by God to see my first born offspring, my dear Hester,—sixteen Years old— virtuous in Heart, prudent in Behaviour, pleasing in Person, & accomplished in Knowledge. What more would I have! & yet I often catch myself complaining.—Oh God forgive my foolish repining Spirit; and give me Grace to be thankful for, & to enjoy the Blessings I do not deserve. We always have a Dance on her Birthday for the Servants, and they shall have it this Year too—in spite of past Sorrows. Mr Johnson’s Birthday is the next day to hers, & we keep them together, &. fill the Summer House with Food, Fiddles &c, today being Sunday, the Balls must be tomorrow & Tuesday. Sure nothing will ever happen that will keep me from rejoycing on the 17: & 18 : of September, the Birthdays of my Daughter & my Friend.,—.”
On Queeney's 17th birthday in 1781, her mother wrote in Thraliana …
“Oh Lord accept my grateful and Heartfelt Thanks for having lived to see her attain this proximity to Womanhood, & permanent Duration. She is however still delicate in her Health I think, & mightily tormanted with Worms.”
Queeney is virtuous in Heart, prudent in Behaviour, pleasing in Person, & accomplished in Knowledge
— Hester Lynch Thrale
She is known to have studied Hebrew from around 1798. On 21 June 1805, she wrote to her mother that she would never to have dared to learn Hebrew if she had not been told that 'the Illeterate and Itinerant Preachers of Methodism up & down, all study Hebrew, to torment the clergy'.
On 1 January 1782 her mother wrote in Thraliana …
“I was reading something of Swift one Day & commending him as a Writer—I cannot endure Swift replied my eldest Daughter. . every thing of his seems to be Froth I think, and that Froth is dirty.
She is a prudent Child indeed, I would wish to consult her on every occasion: so much sound Judgment, so little Vanity, such proper Notions of this World, & such Aspiration after a better have I yet never seen in a Creature of her Age: The Marquis of Caermarthen son to the present Duke of Leeds, & elder Brother to. I this Cuckoldly Marquis1, appeared to me to be the Person most resembling her for Perfections of Body & Mind:—beautiful, pious, wise and well accomplished was the late Lord Caermarthen.
Hester is however deficient enough in the petite morale: not caressing, not even attentively polite; never appearing pleased either with herself or Companions, She will not I fancy be a sought-for Character.”
1 = Francis Osborne, later 5th Duke of Leeds. He divorced his wife, Amelia D’Arcy, Baroness Conyers, in 1779.
In 1794 Queeney wrote the verses Plant, plant the tree.
Queeney Thrale 1781 by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Queeney first met Viscount Admiral George Keith of Elphinstone in 1796, and they were much later married on 10 January 1808. Queeney was 44 at the time. They lived in Tulliallan Mansion, and had a London home at 110 Piccadilly. Keith is said to have made more in prize-money than any other naval officer. Queeney was Keith's second wife. They had one child, a daughter the Hon. Georgina Augusta Henrietta Keith.
In 1832, together with her other sisters, she founded the Thrale Almshouses.
Queeney lived the longest of the children, to age 92, dying on 31 March 1857 at her Picadilly home in London.
She was buried in the Keith family mausoleum in Scotland.
Hester and Queeney Thrale 1777-8 by Joshua Reynolds. Click on image to enlarge.
Coincidentally, Hester Lynch Thrale wrote of Elphinstone in her Thraliana in November 1796, when she wrote "Our capture of the whole Dutch Fleet at once without firing a Gun is a great event indeed". At the time she did not know that her future son-in-law Admiral George Keith Elphinstone was responsible for trapping the Dutch Fleet in Saldanha Bay on 19 August 1796. Again she wrote on 7 October 1804 "Good News! great News! we have got at the French & drubb'd them heartily:". Again the victory was Lord Keith's, this time over the French fleet in Boulogne harbour between 2 and 3 October 1804.
On 17 September 1803, Hester Lynch Thrale wrote …
“Here is Miss Thrale's Birthday come round again, the weather beautiful, & I hope my heart grateful for having lived to see my eldest child 39 years old—& just now not unkind at all—She has written once or twice this year, & in the last Letters some Compassion was exprss'd fo Mr Piozzi's Sufferings—They are indeed very great—Well! God bless her, & him.”
Georgina was married twice. Firstly, to the Hon. Augustus John Villiers, son of the Earl of Jersey, and secondly to Lord William Godolphin Osborne, brother of the eighth Duke of Leeds. Georgina was the last direct descendant of Henry Thrale as she died childless in 1892.
Queeney was subject of Beryl Bainbridge’s excellent 2000 book, According to Queeney.
