Author: Hunter, Anne
Biography:
HUNTER, Anne formerly Home (1742-1821: ODNB)
She was probably born at Waterford, Ireland, to Robert Home and Mary (Hutchinson) Home; the family was living in Ireland when her father served as surgeon to a regiment of foot. Findagrave gives a birth date of 13 Mar. 1742 but no record has yet been located. When Anne was about sixteen, the family moved first to Scotland and then to London where on 22 July 1771 at St. James's, Piccadilly, she married the surgeon John Hunter. Her parents were witnesses at the wedding. Of their four children, two died in infancy and, in later life, she became estranged from her only surviving son, John Banks Hunter. Her publishing career began with poems and songs being issued in periodicals and collections, and she was acquainted with other notable women writers of the day including Joanna Baillie (q.v.). She met Joseph Haydn when he was in London; he set some of her songs to music. She was left impoverished by her husband’s 1793 death, but provision was made for her by the intercession of the queen, the sale of John Hunter’s collections, and a government allocation of funds to establish the Hunterian museum (which still exists, in the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields). She died at London on 7 Jan. 1821 and is buried in St Marylebone church. (ODNB 5 Mar. 2019; ancestry.co.uk 12 Aug. 2025; C. Grigson, The Life and Poems of Anne Hunter [2009]) SR
Other Names:
- Mrs. John Hunter
- [Anne Home Hunter]