Author: Hale, Martha
Biography:
HALE, Martha, formerly RIGBY (1728-1803: ancestry.com)
She was baptised at St. Mary's, Stoke Newington, on 15 Mar. 1728, the youngest of three children of Ann (Perry) and Richard Rigby of Mistley Hall, Essex. Her father died in 1730 and her mother in 1741. On 27 Sept. 1750 she married Bernard Hale (1725-98) at Lexden, Essex. He was at that time an army officer, later commander of a regiment of foot, promoted to major-general in 1772 and to general in 1793; in 1773 he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. They lived in London and enjoyed London society. Of three children, one son died young; his younger brother took the name Rigby as a condition of an inheritance from his maternal uncle. The extensive subscription list of Hale's only collection of poems is headed by the Prince of Wales, three royal dukes and duchesses, two archbishops, and the Margravine of Anspach. Of the poems themselves, published for the benefit of an impoverished family, her preface declares that they were "chiefly written in the thoughtless years of youth, and never with the design of making them public." She died in London on 16 June 1803. (ancstry.com 22 Dec. 2021; findmypast.com 22 Dec. 2021; Orlando; "Hale, Sir Bernard [1677-1729]," ODNB 22 Dec. 2021)
Other Names:
- Mrs. [Martha] Hale