Author: Gunning, Susannah
Biography:
GUNNING, Susannah, formerly MINIFIE (1739/40-1800: ODNB)
She was one of three surviving children born to the Rev. James Minifie (1707-68), a clergyman who became a prebendary at Wells Cathedral, and his wife Margaret Burnett (b 1707) who had married in Exeter, Devon, on 23 Oct. 1730. Susannah was baptised at West Monkton, Somerset, on 24 Feb. 1740 (the record, using the old style calendar, gives 1739). She published novels co-authored with her sister Margaret in the 1760s and others for which she was the sole author. On 8 Aug. 1768 she married John Gunning of Castle Coote, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, at St. Clement Danes, London. John Gunning served in the British military; his sisters were the famous society beauties Maria and Elizabeth Gunning. The Gunnings had one child, Elizabeth, who was born on 13 June 1769 in Edinburgh where John Gunning served as deputy adjutant general. In 1791 a scandal erupted involving Elizabeth who claimed to be engaged to the marquess of Blandford. The marquess and his parents denied the claim and John Gunning, believing the affair to be orchestrated by his wife, evicted both mother and daughter from their home in London. Susannah Gunning’s A Letter from Mrs. Gunning (1791) launched a pamphlet war over the matter and she retreated to France with Elizabeth where they both wrote novels to support themselves. It was during this period that Gunning wrote the poem listed in this database and it alludes to the scandal. John Gunning moved to Naples with a married woman by whom he had another daughter; he died there in 1797 and Susannah and Elizabeth, with the other daughter, inherited by the terms of his will, proved on 5 Jan. 1798. Susannah and Elizabeth had returned to London by the time of Gunning’s death from a painful illness at home on Down Street, Piccadilly, on 28 Aug. 1800. Her novel, Fashionable Involvements, was published in early 1800 and a posthumous novel, The Heir Apparent, was issued in 1802; it was based on her unfinished manuscript which was completed by Elizabeth Gunning. Susannah Gunning was buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey although there is no inscribed gravestone; the burial may have been allowed in recognition of her late father. (ODNB 7 Nov. 2024; CCEd 7 Nov. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 7 Nov. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 7 Nov. 2024; Susannah and Elizabeth Gunning, “Preface,” The Heir Apparent [1802]; EN1; EN2) SR
Other Names:
- Mrs. [Susannah] Gunning