Author: Battier, Henrietta
Biography:
BATTIER, Henrietta (fl 1783-99)
pseudonyms Patrick Pindar, Pat. Pindar, Patt. Pindar; Pat. T. Pindar
No birth, marriage, or death records have been located for Henrietta Battier and what little is known must be gleaned from her books—particularly the dedication and preface to The Protected Fugitives—and a contemporary account by Thomas Moore (q.v.) whose verse she encouraged. She was Irish and seems to have lived most of her life in Dublin with the exception of several years spent in London in about 1783-85. From The Protected Fugitives we know that she appealed successfully to Samuel Johnson (q.v.) for help with subscriptions to her book, and that she acted as Lady Russell at Drury Lane in Thomas Stratford’s (q.v.) tragedy Lord Russell. We also learn that her first child, Mary, died in infancy at a time when Battier was “unhusbanded, and alone” and that she subsequently had two more daughters and a son, Gaspard, who died on 3 Sept. 1789. A husband is mentioned briefly in the book’s dedication to the Rev. D. Paul, prebendary of St. Patrick’s, Dublin; Paul helped the family on their return from London when both parents and Gaspard were seriously ill. Battier never mentions her husband’s death but she seems to have struggled financially and lived alone at 17 Fade Street, Dublin, and later at nearby 60 Stephen Street. According to Moore in 1794 she was part of a group that formed a “kingdom” of Dalkey (south of Dublin) to parody forms of royalty and, as Henrietta, Countess of Laurel, she was named poet-laureate. Her last known work, An Address to the Subject of the Projected Union (1799), grew out of this project. The dates 1751-1813 usually given for Battier probably originated with O’Donoghue who describes her as the daughter of John Fleming of Staholmock, County Meath, who married Major John Gaspard Battier (d 1817) at Carnarvon, Wales, in Nov. 1768. That is an error: the “Miss Fleming” who married Battier at Carnarvon on 5 Nov. 1789 (not 1768) was Rose and she died after childbirth in Aug. 1792. Given the name of Battier’s son, Gaspard, it is possible that she had some connection to Major Battier’s Dublin Huguenot family but its precise nature is unknown on present information. Major Battier’s father was also named John Gaspard Battier (1712-94); his wife was Mary and they had several sons and daughters. One daughter was named Henrietta (d 1842) but she could not have been the author. Battier also wrote an 8 page poem [An] Irregular Ode To Edward Byrne, Esq. of Mullinahack (Dublin, 1797). A more doubtful attribution is The Mousiad (1787); its preface is dated 1787 from Ipswich but there is no known connection to Battier. (ancestry.co.uk 25 Mar. 2026; Kentish Gazette 6 Nov. 1789; ODNB 9 Jan. 2021; DIB 9 Jan. 2021; O’Donoghue; Orlando; The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore [1856]) SR