Author: Hey, Rebecca
Biography:
HEY, Rebecca, formerly ROBERTS (1797-1867: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born in Leeds and baptised at St. Peter on 21 April 1797, the third daughter of Thomas Roberts, a merchant, and his wife Esther Lucy. She married on 13 Nov. 1821, at St. Peter, Leeds, William Hey, the son of a Leeds surgeon, William Hey (1772-1844) and the grandson of the famous Leeds surgeon, William Hey (1736-1819). He was also a surgeon and later became one of the original 300 Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843. They do not appear to have had any children but her elder sister, Lucy, lived in their household from at least 1841 (and probably much earlier since their mother died in 1824 and their father in 1826) until her death in 1874. They lived at Albion Place, Leeds, but as William Hey grew in fame and wealth, moved to a mansion and estate at Gledhow Wood on the outskirts of Leeds. Rebecca Hey died on 28 Jan. 1867 at Gledhow Wood and was buried at St. John the Baptist, Adel, on 1 Feb. She appears to have been independently wealthy, leaving just under £6000 in her will. Her sister Lucy left just under £4000. This may have come partly from the sale of Thomas Roberts’ house in Park Square. These were considerable sums at the time but were modest compared to the £40,000 her husband left in 1875. She published two volumes of verse with coloured plates, The Moral of Flowers (1833) and The Spirit of the Woods (1837) but most copies have been broken up as the plates proved more popular than the poetry. Her Recollections of the Lakes (1841) contains interesting topographical poems and a second section on religious subjects. Her final publication, Holy Places, and Other Poems (1859), reflected the shift in her attention towards religion and she planned to give any profits to Special Missions in India. (ancestry.co.uk 1 Nov. 2020; findmypast.co.uk 1 Nov. 2020; Newsam 213-14; Leeds Mercury 17 Nov. 1821; London Evening Standard 31 Jan. 1867; Leeds Times 15 May 1875) AA
Other Names:
- Mrs. William Hey