Author: Hart, Mary Kerr
Biography:
HART, Mary Kerr (1791-1869: ancestry.co.uk)
Although she lived much of her life in poverty, she was the daughter of William John Kerr, 5th Marquess of Lothian, and Elizabeth Parker—with whom Kerr had formed a liaison following the death of his wife in 1780. She was born on 15 Jan. 1791 and baptised as Mary Kerr on 19 Jan. 1791 at St. Anne's, Soho, London. As told in Hart’s memoir in Heath Blossoms, her mother died at Farnham, Surrey, in 1793, leaving infant daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. Kerr took in the children, raised them, and bequeathed stock to them in his will. After Mary's marriage to Hart (first name possibly Isaac), Kerr added a codicil leaving an annuity of £50 to Elizabeth and £1000 outright to Mary. This sum proved inadequate when Mr. Hart was found to be both bankrupt and insane. (He may have been the Isaac Hart, "late of Southampton," who was listed as bankrupt in 1818.) An 1842 application to the RLF, dated 8 FEb. 1842 from Southampton, indicates that she was financially responsible for her husband and at least one of her two sons. She seems to have published nothing after 1835, and the RLF rejected her application on the grounds of insufficient evidence of authorship. She is probably the Mary Kerr Hart who died on 13 Feb. 1869 at Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, and was buried at All Saints on 17 Feb. 1869, aged 78. (ancestry.co.uk 28 Feb 2020, 15 Jan. 2025; RLF file 1047; NCCO; historyofparliamentonline.org; National Archives UK PROB-11-1565-119; Salisbury and Winchester Journal 28 Dec. 1818) SR