Hester and Henry Thrale
Henry Thrale by Sir Joshua Reynolds
The most celebrated Thrales were Hester and Henry, by virtue of their close relationship and friendship with Samuel Johnson. After the year of his first introduction by Arthur Murphy (Henry's oldest and dearest friend), in January 1765, Dr. Samuel Johnson was an honoured guest and a cherished friend. Johnson had his own apartment at both Thrale's Streatham Park estate and Southwark Brewery House.
They were wealthy and enjoyed a coterie of servants, maids and valets. Johnson affectionately referred to his friend Henry Thrale, as "my dear Master". The year of the beginning of the friendship was the year in which Johnson, fifty-six years old, obtained his degree of LL.D. from Dublin, and - though he never called himself Doctor - was thenceforth called Doctor by all his friends.
Henry Thrale
Henry Thrale was the son of the rich brewer Ralph Thrale (1698 - 1758) and Mary Thrale née Dabbins, Dobbins or Dobbinson. He was born in Southwark at the Alehouse, Harrow Corner adjacent to the Anchor Brewery. His birth date was between 1724 and 1729. His epitaph shows 1724. However, he entered University College, Oxford on 4 June 1744 giving his age as fifteen. If correct, this would make his birth year 1728 or 1729.
As a child Henry was sent to stay with his grand relations at Stowe.
Henry was educated at Eton and University College, Oxford. His tutors were Joseph Wood and Henry Hobson. He matriculated on 4 June 1744 and left Oxford in December 1745.
Map of Henry Thrale's birthplace at Harrow Corner, Southwark.
As a young man, he travelled on the European continent with Lord William Henry Lyttleton Westcote (1724-1808), the expenses of both being met the generous £1,000 annual allowance that Henry received from his father.
According to James Boswell, Henry was tall, well-proportioned and stately in appearance. He was deeply religious and a good sportsman.
Henry Thrale had several prestigious homes, most well known of which is his country house Streatham Park. He also kept a pack of hounds and hunting box near Croydon.
He was ambitious, had a taste for gambling, and was an occasional visitor to Carlisle House in Soho Square - Teresa Cornelys’ lavish assemblies, masquerades and concerts for the rich.
During the spring of 1763 Henry was held up by a highwayman, Samuel Beaton, whilst in his coach. He was robbed of 13 Guineas, his watch and silver shoe buckles. Beaton was hanged 3 months later on Kennington Common for this crime.
Samuel Johnson’s verse on Henry’s nephew Sir John Lade.
His brewing career
A more ingenuous frame of mind no man possessed. His education at Oxford gave him the habits of a gentleman; his amiable temper recommended his conversation, and the goodness of his heart made him a sincere friend.
— Arthur Murphy on Henry Thrale
Henry’s father was the owner of the Anchor Brewhouse, Southwark. His obituary in a popular contemporary magazine described Ralph as "the greatest brewer in England". He brewed ‘Thrale’s Intire Porter’ which was well known as delicious ‘from the frozen regions of Russia to the burning sands of Bengal and Sumatra’. Ralph died in April 1758 and was buried in the Thrale family vault at St Leonard's Church, Streatham. Henry Thrale then became the owner of the Anchor Brewhouse.
In 1764 Henry bought The Castle public house and in 1772 Thrale almost went bankrupt due to a scheme for brewing beer without malt or hops. He had debts of £130,000 (£13 million today). Hester Thrale raised money from her mother and friends to clear the debt in nine years. From this point on she took an active role in managing the Thrale Brewery and her estate in Wales.
Parliamentary career
Henry first stood for Paliament in the spring of 1754 in Abingdon, but was beaten by John Morton. In 1760 and 1761 he considered standing but withdrew when victory seemed unlikely.
On 16 September 1765, one of the incumbent MPs for Southwark, Alexander Hume, died. This time Henry succeeded in replacing him and was elected as Member of Parliament for Southwark on 23 December 1765. He later became an Alderman and a Sheriff of London . Henry was MP for Southwark for 15 years until his defeat in 1780.
More on Henry Thrale’s parliamentary career »
Hester Thrale
Hester Lynch Thrale by Richard Cosway
Hester Lynch Salusbury, was born between 4 and 5pm on 16 January 1741 in Bodvel, Caernarvenshire, Wales - although she mistakenly celebrated her birthday in later years on 27 January. Hester was baptised at Llanere church, Wales on 10 February 1741. Her father was John Salusbury Governor of Nova Scotia (from 1749). Her mother was Hester Maria Cotton.
Hester was the 8th great granddaughter of King Henry VII (1457-1509) on both sides on her family line. Aged six, she became a favourite of the Duke and Duchess of Leeds after being introduced to them by her Uncle, Sir Thomas Salusbury Kt 1708-1773.
She was only 4 feet, 11 inches tall, with an animated face, touched with rouge, which she continued to use when she found that it had spoilt her complexion. She was clever, vivacious, independent, with a sensitive - if not a tender - nature. Her handwriting was delicate. It is said that Hester - aged 14 - was the lady in William Hogarth's painting The Lady's Last Stake, and was given by Hogarth a monkey's paw mounted in a base of silver as a reward.
Hester was a clever lively girl. She went to school in Queen Square [Probably Queens Square, London]. Hester Thrale had skill in languages, read Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. Before she was fifteen she had written papers in the ‘St James's Chronicle'. She read literature, could quote aptly, and put knowledge as well as playful life into her conversation. She was also a good horsewoman. Hester is best know for her letters, and also wrote prose and verse.
Around this time Hester and her mother lived alternately at Offley Place and 24 Dean Street, London.
Later in her life at the age of 65, she started started to learn Hebrew from Reverend John Roberts to "divert Ennui & pass the Summer Months away:". Edward Mangin also attributes her as having a knowledge of Greek. Hester was on the management committee of the St. Stephen's Ladies' Charity School for Training Girls.
Herbert Lawrences song dedicated to Hester Thrale
Their courtship
In late 1761 or early 1762 Henry was invited to Offley Place by Judge Sir Thomas Salusbury (Hester's uncle) and was introduced to Hester. Sir Thomas proposed their marriage when her father, John Salusbury, was away in Ireland with George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, President of the Board of Trade. This was agreed by Hester's mother, Hester Maria Salusbury Cotton, after Sir Thomas promised to make a settlement of five thousand pounds (equivalent to about half a million pounds sterling today) in favour of Hester should they be wed.
Hester Lynch Thrale by Henry Hoppner Meyer, published by T. Cadell & W. Davies, after John Jackson, published 21 December 1811
Although Hester thought Henry to be “nearly the handsomest man in England”, she did not want to marry him. Hester appealed to her father upon his return. John Salusbury had no intention of marrying his daughter to Henry Thrale, whose father and grandfather had lived in the cottage that now being used his younger brother, Sir Thomas Salusbury, as a dog kennel.
John Salusbury quarrelled with his brother Sir Thomas and took his wife and daughter to London.
On 18 December 1762 John Salusbury died suddenly. He left the North Wales Bach-y-graig estate to his wife, and five thousand pounds to Hester. Hester later suggested that his death was hastened by irritation at her proposed marriage and Sir Thomas's intention to remarry, as this ultimately resulted in Hester being disinherited from Offley Place.
After Salusbury’s death, Henry Thrale wrote to Hester and her mother, on 28 June 1763 asking to call on them both. They accepted and he proposed marriage. On 9 October 1763, Henry Thrale met with Sir Thomas Salusbury and they agreed Hester Lynch Salusbury’s dowry.
Their marriage and family
Hester and Queeney Thrale 1777-8 by Joshua Reynolds. Click on image to enlarge.
On 11th October 1763, Henry and Hester were wed by Thelwall Salusbury at St. Anne's Chapel, Soho, London aged 35-39 and 22 respectively. The 1763 marriage list in Gentleman’s Magazine announced…
“Henry Thrale of Southwark, Esq;—to Miss Salusbury, niece to Sir Thomas Salusbury”
Henry was a solid respectable man who was kindly towards Hester. Hester once said that Henry Thrale only married her because other ladies to whom he proposed had refused to live in the Borough. Hester complained that she was not allowed to ride or to manage the household, and was driven to amuse herself with literature and her children.
Together they had 12 children, most of which died in childhood, and those that lived to maturity were distant and gradually estranged from Hester after her second marriage.
Boswell quotes Samuel Johnson as saying of Henry Thrale…
“ I know no man… who is more master of his wife and family than Thrale. If he but holds up a finger, he is obeyed.”
Hester Lynch Thrale 1777-8 by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Click on image to enlarge.
In June 1777 Hester wrote the following account of Henry Thrale's traits in Thraliana…
“As this is Thraliana—in good Time—I will now write Mr Thrale's Character in it: it is not because I am in good or ill Humour with him or he with me, for we are not capricious People, but have I believe the same Opinion of each other at all Places and Times.
Mr Thrale's Person is manly, his Countenance agreeable, his Eyes steady and of the deepest Blue: his Look neither soft nor severe, neither sprightly nor gloomy, but thoughtful and Intelligent: his Address is neither caressive nor repulsive, but unaffectedly civil and decorous; and his Manner more completely free from every kind of Trick or Particularity than I ever saw any person's—he is a Man wholly as I think out of the Power of Mimickry. He loves Money & is diligent to obtain it; but he loves Liberality too, & is willing enough both to give generously & spend fashionably. His Passions either are not strong, or else he keeps them under such Command that they seldom disturb his Tranquillity or his Friends, & it must I think be something more than common which can affect him strongly either with Hope, Fear Anger Love or Joy. His regard for his Father's Memory is remarkably great, and he has been a most exemplary Brother; though when the house of his favourite Sister was on Fire, & we were alarmed with the Account of it in the Night, I well remember that he never rose, but bidding the Servant who called us, go to her Assistance; quietly turned about & slept to his usual hour. I must give another Trait of his Tranquillity on a different Occasion; he had built great Casks holding 1000 Hogsheads each, & was much pleased with their Profit & Appearance—One Day however he came down to Streatham as usual to dinner & after hearing & talking of a hundred trifles—but I forgot says he to tell you how one of my great Casks is burst & all the Beer run out.
Mr Thrale's Sobriety, & the Decency of his Conversation being wholly free from all Oaths Ribaldry and Profaneness make him a Man exceedingly comfortable to live with, while the easiness of his Temper and slowness to take Offence add greatly to his Value as a domestic Man: Yet I think his Servants do not much love him, and I am not sure that his Children feel much Affection for him: low People almost all indeed agree to abhorr him, as he has none of that officious & cordial Manner which is universally required by them—nor any Skill to dissemble his dislike of their Coarseness—with Regard to his Wife, tho' little tender of her Person, he is very partial to her Understanding,—but he is obliging to nobody; & confers a Favour less pleasingly than many a Man refuses to confer one. This appears to me to be as just a Character as can be given of the Man with whom I have now lived thirteen Years, and tho' he is extremely reserved and uncommunicative, yet one must know something of him after so long Acquaintance. Johnson has a very great Degree of Kindness & Esteem for him, & says if he would talk more, his Manner would be very completely that of a perfect Gentleman.”
Their friend Mr Pepys composed verses to commemorate their 13th wedding anniversary in 1777.
Hester Thrale
In 1779, Hester who had also lost several children, was unhappy in the thought that she had ceased to be appreciated by her husband. She became jealous of his regard for Sophy Streatfeild of Chiddingsone (1754-1835), a rich widow's daughter. In January, 1779, she wrote in Thraliana…
“Mr. Thrale has fallen in love, really and seriously, with Sophy Streatfield; but there is no wonder in that; she is very pretty, very gentle, soft, and insinuating; hangs about him, dances round him, cries when she parts from him, squeezes his hand slily, and with her sweet eyes full of tears looks so fondly in his face - and all for love of me, as she pretends, that I can hardly sometimes help laughing in her face. A man must not be a man but an it to resist such artillery.”
Nearly the handsomest man in England.
— Hester Thrale on Henry Thrale
Queeney in a letter to Fanny Burney in 1813 wrote that she believed that Hester hated Henry. Whilst there was no great passion, they loved and respected each other. Hester wrote that their match was …
mere Prudence and common good Liking, without the smallest pretensions to Passion on either side.
On the date of her wedding anniversary with Henry, in the first year of her widdowhood, 11 October 1787, Hester wrote in Thraliana…
“Why do the people say I never loved my first husband? 'tos a very unjust conjecture. This day on which 24 years ago I was married to him never returns without bringing with it many a tender Remembrance: though 'twas on that Evening when we retired together that I was first alone with Mr. Thrale for five minutes in my whole life. Ours was a match of mere Prudence; and common good Liking, without the smallest Pretensions to passion on either Side: I knew no more of him than any other Gentleman who came to the House, nor did he ever profess other Attachment to me, than such as Esteem of my Character, & Convenience from my Fortune produced. I really had never past five whole Minutes Tête a Tête with him in my life till the Evening of our Wedding Day,—& he himself has said so a Thousand Times. yet God who gave us to each other, knows I did love him dearly; & what honour I can ever do to his Memory shall be done, for he was very generous to me”
The next day, 12 October 1781, Hester Thrale wrote in Thraliana …
“ Yesterday was my Wedding Day; it was a melancholy thing to me to pass it without the Husband of my Youth.”
and …
“ Long Tedious Years may neither moan
Sad—deserted and alone;
May neither long condemn'd to stay
Wait the second Bridal Day!!!”
Samuel Johnson and the Streatham coiterie
Samuel Johnson by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Ten years after his single-handed production of his epoch making English dictionary, Samuel Johnson was introduced on to the Thrales on the 9th or 10th of January 1765. In 1766, following a very severe bout of depression, Johnson spent most of the summer recuperating with the Thrales at their Streatham country house.
Johnson's regard for the Thrale's was very real, and it was heartily returned. Of Hester, Johnson wrote…
Her colloquial wit was a fountain of perpetual flow.
Johnson also wrote about Hester Thrale on the occasion of her thirty-fifth birthday and he later wrote a Latin Ode to Hester Thrale.
After this became a part of the Thrale household and Streatham Park became a country retreat for a wide intellectual circle. Johnson was the lion-in-chief. There was Dr. Johnson's apartment always at his disposal; and a tidy wig kept for his special use, because his own was apt to be singed up the middle by close contact with the candle, which he put, being short-sighted, between his eyes and a book.
In August 1777 Mrs Elizabeth Montagu wrote…
“On Wednesday I dined at Streatham … We had a most elegant dinner, and the best of all feasts, sense and wit and good humour. Mrs Thrale is a woman of very superior understanding, and very respectable as a Wife, a Mother, a friend and a Mistress of a Family … Mr Thrale has a fruit garden and a kitchen garden that may vie with the Hesperian Gardens for fruit and flowers”.
Thrale built a library containing books purchased on Johnson's recommendation, and portraits of his notable friends by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds's portraits of the key visitors for Henry Thrale were produced over a period of about ten years, beginning with the novelist and playwright, Oliver Goldsmith, and concluding in 1781 with the composer and music historian, Charles Bumey. In addition to the twelve bust-length male portraits Reynolds also painted a double portrait of Henry Thrale's wife and eldest daughter, which was designed to hang over the library's chimneypiece.
The west-facing library, had a bow-front and three large windows, and formed part of a two-storey extension to Streatham Park, which included a guest room for Johnson above the library. The library became the focal point of the Thrales's social life. Mrs. Thrale had a taste for literary guests and literary guests had on their part, a taste for the good dinners. James Boswell described …
The witty and the eminent who assembled in numerous companies.
The novelist and diarist Fanny Burney, a close friend of Mrs Thrale and daughter of Charles Bumey, nicknamed Henry Thrale's collection the 'Streatham Worthies' - a reference to the celebrated 'Temple of British Worthies' at Stowe. When she was admitted to the circle her beloved Samuel Crisp wrote …
Where will you find such another set? Oh, Fanny, set this down as the happiest period of your life.
James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Hester Thrale and Oliver Goldsmith in a supper box at a concert. From Thomas Rowlandson’s 1784 drawing ’Vauxhall Gardens’
Some years later in a letter to Sir Robert Chambers, Johnson wrote…
“ One great abatement of all miseries was the attention of Mr. Thrale, which from our first acquaintance was never intermitted.”
Their travels
In 1774, the Thrales went with Samuel Johnson on a tour of Wales.
France 1775
In September 1775 Hester, Henry, Queeney Thrale (Hester and Henry’s eldest child) together with Samuel Johnson and Joseph Baretti went to Paris. On the 27th they narrowly escaped serious injury during a coaching accident.
On 19th October the party were admitted to the Court of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette at Fontainebleau, and enjoyed dinner and an evening at the theatre with them.
Henry Thrale's ill health
Hester Lynch Thrale
On 1 April 1777 Henry's death was falsely reported in the newspapers, and threw James Boswell into "a state of very uneasy uncertainty".
In the second week of June 1779 (Thraliana, states 11 June on page 389, Dr Johnson's Own Dear Master states 8 June on page 192) , Henry Thrale's visited his youngest sister Susannah in London. The visit was to comfort her after the death of her husband, Arnold Nesbitt MP for Cricklade, and hear the will, of which Henry was an executor. Here Henry suffered his first stroke. Hester later speculated that this was brought on by the shock of hearing about Nesbitt's insolvency which had potentially calamitous implications for Thrale.
On 19 or 21 February 1780 (Thraliana, states Monday 21 February on page 432, Dr Johnson's Own Dear Master states Saturday 19 February on page 212), Henry had a second stroke, and received the contemporary medical treatment of ‘bleeding'. He was delirious for five days, only speaking again when receiving a visit from Sophy Streatfeild.
The strokes were largely caused by Henry's voracious appetite for large indulgent meals, accompanied by large quantities of ale.
In April 1780, the Thrale's took up residence at 14 South Parade, Bath. In May 1780, a general election was imminent. Britain was at war with France and Spain, things were going badly in America. Henry decided to fight the election despite his inability to travel to London to campaign. Johnson and Hester Thrale travelled to London and campaigned on Henry's behalf.
On 13 August 1780 Hester wrote in Thraliana…
“ My Master is got into most riotous Spirits somehow; he will go here & there, & has a hundred Projects in his Head, so gay, so wild; I wish no harm may come on’t”.
Soon afterwards on 29 August 1780 she wrote…
“Mr Thrale would go to Mitchel Grove the Seat of Sir John Shelley; I did not half like the Expedition, but Pepys bled him first 13 ounces, & gave some rough Medcines too—We just pulled up in Time the Dr says, or here would have been another Stroke”
Samuel Johnson by Sir Joshua Reynolds
On Sunday 10th September 1780, Henry has minor a third stroke whilst canvassing - ultimately unsuccessfully - constituents at St. George's church.
Henry Thrale's death
Henry Thrale died on 4 April 1781 between 5am - 6am, with his wife and Samuel Johnson by his side. Johnson said of this…
“ I felt almost the flutter of his pulse, and looked for the last time upon a face that for fifteen years had never been turned upon me but with respect and benignity.”
and …
“ I am not without my part of the calamity. No death since that of my wife has ever oppressed me like this.” … “My part of the loss hangs upon me. I have lost a friend of boundless kindness at an age when it is very unlikely that I should find another.”
Henry's good friend, Arthur Murphy, wrote …
“ …a more ingenuous frame of mind no man possessed. His education at Oxford gave him the habits of a gentleman; his amiable temper recommended his conversation, and the goodness of his heart made him a sincere friend.”
Hester Lynch Thrale 1786 engraving by T Holloway after the Robert Edge Pine painting
The poet James Beattie, wrote …
“ he was a most respectable character; intelligent, modest, communicative and friendly.”
In his biography of Johnson, James Boswell mentions Henry Thrale’s worthy principles, sound scholarship, business acumen, general intelligence and polished manners. He also added his impressive looks, dignified bearing and generosity towards his wife in his allowance to her for entertaining those guests of her own choosing.
A week after Henry's death, Boswell wrote his disrespectful Ode by Dr. Samuel Johnson to Mrs. Thrale upon their Supposed Approaching Nuptials.
Henry was buried in the crypt of St. Leonards Church, Streatham. Henry's epitaph was written by Samuel Johnson. In line with the fashion of the day, friends of Henry Thrale, including Samuel Johnson, were given mourning ring in fish skin case.
Dr Johnson at Cave's the Publisher, by Henry Wallis (1830-1916)
Henry Thrale's will
The executors of Henry Thrale's will were Samuel Johnson, cousin Henry Smith, Joseph Crutchley, John Cator and Hester Thrale.
The Anchor Brewhouse along with The Castle, was quickly sold to a member of the Quaker family of David Barclay (1728-1809) owner of Barclay's Bank, who took Thrale's old manager, John Perkins (1730-1812), into partnership. They became Barclay, Perkins and Company. The sale figure was 135,000 pounds (£ GBP 13,500,000 or $USD 22,500,000 today). This was all left in trust for Thrale's five daughters who are said to have been left £20,000 each (£2,000,000 today). From other assets Hester was left the interest from £50,000 for life and the contents of Streatham (including all Joshua Reynolds paintings) for life.
Samuel Johnson - an executor of the will, when challenged about the value of the property by the wary bankers, famously replied…
“We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”
In October 1781 Samuel Johnson said goodbye for the last time to Thrale's family.
After Henry's death Hester received a proposals of marriage from:
- the brewer Samuel Whitbread MP (1720-1796);
- Baronet Sir Richard Musgrave of Tourin, Irish MP for Lismore (1757-1818) in November 1782; and,
- Mr Swale in May 1782.
End of the Johnson era
On 1 January 1782 Hester Thrale wrote in Thraliana…
“Travelling with Mr Johnson I cannot bear, & leaving him behind he could not bear; so his Life or Death must determine the Execution or laying aside my Schemes:—I wish it were within Reason to hope he could live four Years.”
On 1 February 1782 after the loss of her husband and growing concerned about the health of Samuel Johnson wrote …
“ Here is Mr Johnson very ill. What shall we do for him? If I lose hime, I am more than undone—friend, father, guardian, confidant! God give me health and patience What shall I do?”
Johnson was not in love with Hester Thrale, although he had an intelligible feeling of jealousy towards anyone who threatened to distract her allegiance. This of course came to a head when Hester married Piozzi and during July 1784, Samuel Johnson and Hester Thrale exchanged parting letters.
On 28 November - shortly before his death on 13 December 1784 - Fanny Burney asked Johnson if he every heard from Hester. Johnson replied…
“No, nor write to her. I drive her quite out of my mind. If I meet with one of her letters, I burn it instantly. I have burnt all I can find. I never speak of her and I desire never to hear of her anymore. I drive her, as I said, wholly from my mind.”
After Johnson's death the newspapers treated her harshly. They called her an amorous widow, and Piozzi - who was Queeney's music master - a fortune-hunter.
Hester and Gabriel Piozzi
Gabriel Piozzi 1793 by George Dance
Hester Thrale had first met Gabriel Mario Piozzi (1740-1809) at a party hosted by Dr. Charles Burney in 1777. Mrs. Thrale had entered in her "Thraliana" under July, 1780, being then at Brighton …
“ I have picked up Piozzi here, the great Italian singer. He is amazingly like my father. He shall teach Hester [Queeney]”
On 2 July 1784 Hester wrote in Thraliana…
“The happiest Day of my whole Life I think—Yes, quite the happiest; my Piozzi came home Yesterday & dined with me: but my Spirits were too much agitated, my Heart too much dilated, I was too painfully happy then, my Sensations are more quiet to day, & my Felicity less tumultuous. I have spent the Night as I ought in Prayer & Than[k]sgiving—Could I have slept I had not deserved such Blessings. May the Almighty but preserve them to me! He lodges at our old House on the South Parade: his Companion Mecci is a faithless treacherous Fellow—but no matter! Tis all over now.”
Hester Lynch Piozzi 1785 by unknown artist
On 23 July 1784, aged forty-four, Hester married Gabriel Piozzi in London by Padre Richard Smith the Catholic chaplain to the Spanish Ambassador. There is confusion as to whether the ceremony took place at the Spanish or French embassy chapel. Two days later they were married by a Protestant clergyman in Bath.
Following the wedding Hester was cut off by most friends and relations, except the late Henry's dearest friend Arthur Murphy. To marry a foreigner and a Roman Catholic was unacceptable in society at that time. Queeney refused to recognise the new father, and shut herself up in a house at Brighton with a nurse, Tib or Tibson. The two younger sisters, who were at school, lived afterwards with Queeney (aged just 20). Only the fourth daughter, the youngest, went with her mother and her mother's new husband to Italy. When many old friends remained aloof, Mrs. Hester Piozzi drew around her a new artistic circle, including the actress Sarah Siddons (1755-1831).
There was no contact between Hester and Johnson from July 1784 when they exchanged parting letters shortly before her marriage, until Johnson’s death on 13 December 1784. The resulting estrangement saddened his last months of life.
Aside from the terrible rheumatic pain suffered by Gabriel Piozzi, they both lived in happiness until Piozzi's death from gout at Brynbella on 26 March 1809.
More on Gabriel Piozzi and his marriage with Hester »
Hester’s writings
Hester Lynch Piozzi 1793 by George Dance
Hester was a prolific writer of verses. However books came later.
Mrs. Piozzi in Italy at Florence was playing at literature with the poetasters of The Florence Miscellany and The British Album which were published in November 1785 when she was working at the Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson. Her book of anecdotes was written in Florence in October, 1785, and published in March 1786. This thrust her into open rivalry with James Boswell, who also penned a biographical book of Johnson. Mrs Elizabeth Montagu said of Hester's book…
“Your Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson my dear Madam are very different to Mr. Boswells. Yours do honour to the subject, the Wrter & harm to no one;"”
Although less accurate in some details than Boswell's, her account show the more human and affectionate side of Johnson's nature.
On 10 March 1787 Hester and Gabriel Piozzi returned to England. The breach with Boswell was further widened in March 1788 her two-volume edition of Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. was published by Cadell. The first edition consisted of 2,000 copies, for which Boswell says that she received £500.
Hester Lynch Piozzi at Bath aged 77 in 1818 by Roche
In August 1788, Hester and Gabriel travelled to Exmouth, where they composed an Occasional Prologue for the local theatre.
After the success of Anecdotes and Letters, Hester began work on a new two-volume book Observations and reflections made in the course of a Journey through France, Italy and Germany. This was published by Cadell and Strahan in June 1789.
In April 1794 Hester published her book The British Synonymy, or an Attempt to Regulate the Choice of words in Familiar Conversation to mixed reviews. On 2 January 1795 Hester wrote in Thraliana …
“Denbigh: My Synonymes have been review'd at last—the Critics are all civil for ought I see, & nearly just, except when they say that Johnson left some Fragments of A Work upon Synonymy—of which God knows I never heard till now one Syllable, nor had he and in all the time we lived together, any Conversation upon the Subject.”
1801 saw the last of her major literary works, called Retrospection or a Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations and their Consequences which the last Eighteen Hundred Years have presented to the view of mankind. The book was not a success, and received little attention.
Hester's last - and unpublished - work was Lydford Redivivus or A Granddame's Garrulity prepared in 1815. This was a compilation of 'the names of men and women and their derivations'.
Hester Thrale's full bibliography »
Hester’s eightieth birthday & final year
Hester Lynch Piozzi at her 80th birthday party. Engraved by Thomson after Hopwood.
Hester celebrated her eightieth birthday on 27 January, 1820 by throwing a concert, ball and supper for seven to eight hundred people and led off the dancing at the ball with her adopted son for partner.
Tom Moore, who breakfasted with her after she was turned eighty, speaks of her as still a…
When nearly eighty Hester took a great fancy to a young actor William Augustus Conway and it is reported, but not confirmed, that she proposed to marry him."wonderful old lady," with all the quickness and intelligence of a gay young woman:"faces of other times seemed to crowd over her as she sat—the Johnsons, Reynoldses, &c."
Criticism
In 1789 a poor quality satire 'The Sentimental Mother, A Comedy in Five Acts; The Legacy of an old Friend and His Last Moral Lesson to Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale, now Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi'. was published by Baretti in the European Magazine.
Sayers also produced an etching (now in the Lysons collection in South Kensington, London) called 'Johnson's Ghost', in which the Doctor, addresses Mrs Piozzi thus:
“ When Streatham spread its pleasant board,
I opened learnng's valued hoard,
And as I feasted, prosed.
Good things I said, good things I eat,
I gave you knowledge for your meat,
And thought th' account was closed.If obligations I still owed,
You sold each item to the crowd,
I suffered by the tale.
For God's sake, Madam, let me rest,
No longer vex your quondam guest:
I'll pay you for your ale. ”
Hester’s death
Later in 1820 Hester took residence in Royal York Crescent, Clifton, Bristol. Clifton was the home of her friend Penelope Sophia Weston (1752-1827), wife of William Pennington. For a short while after this she took temporary residence in Regents Terrace, Penzance whilst repairs were made to her house in Clifton. On her journey of return to Clifton in March 1821, she fell and hurt her leg in Exeter.
Just before she died, she wrote to Madame Fanny D'Arblay 1752-1840 (née Burney). In it she says…
“You would not know poor Streatham Park, I have been forced to dismantle and forsake it; the expenses of the present time treble those of the moments you remember; and since giving up my Welsh estate my income is greatly diminished. I fancy this will be my last residence in the world, meaning Clifton, not Sion Row, where I only live until my house in the Crescent is ready for me ... The village of Streatham is full of rich inhabitants, the common much the worse for being spotted about with houses.”
Hester was ill for ten days, At her side were her daughters Lady Keith (Queeney), Sophia Hoare, and Susan Thrale. On hearing of her daughters arrival, she said…
“Ah! now I can die in state!”
When her doctor - Sir George Gibbs - arrived she was too weak to speak and traced the shape of a coffin with her fingers in the air. Hester died in Clifton on 2 May 1821.
She was, in truth, a most wonderful character for talents and eccentricity, for wit, genius, generosity, spirit and powers of entertainment.
— Madame d’Arblay on Hester Thrale
Hester has many obituaries, including those by Madame d’Arblay, Sir James Fellowes, Edward Mangin and The Dictionary of National Biography. Long after the death of both Hester Thrale and Samuel Johnson, William Ernest Henly alluded to their relationship in his Double ballade of life and fate.
Her will dated 29 March 1816 was read by Sir James Fellowes in the presence of Lady Keith, Sophia Hoare, and Susan Thrale. Her other daughter, Cecilia Mostyn was absent. Almost everything was left to Sir John Salusbury Piozzi Salusbury.
She was buried on 16 May 1821 near Brynbella in the churchyard of Corpus Christi Church Tremeirchion. A plaque inside the church is inscribed…
“Dr. Johnson's Mrs. Thrale. Witty, Vivacious and Charming, in an age of Genius She held ever a foremost Place”
