Author: Pye, Jael Henrietta
Biography:
PYE, Jael Henrietta formerly Mendez (1737?-1782: ODNB)
Baptized as Jael Henrietta Campbell in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, on 16 Jan. 1763, she was the daughter of Solomon Mendez (d 1762) and his wife, Sarah, of Red Lion Street, Holborn. Her uncle Moses Mendez, banker and poet, was the last person in the family to be a member of Bevis Marks synagogue. About two months after her father died, on 23 Feb 1762 she married barrister John Neil Campbell, son of Hugh Campbell of Milton Ernest (alt. Ernyst), Bedford. Their children were baptized at St Margaret’s, Westminster: Katherine Elizabeth and Neil in Apr. 1763, and Barry Charles in Sept 1764. Campbell evidently having died, on 4 Sept. 1766 at Gretna Green she married Robert Hampden Pye (1746-1815), ensign in the 1st regiment of foot guards, later lieutenant in the 23d regiment. Robert was a son of Henry Pye (q.v.) of Faringdon, Berks. The marriage at Gretna Green came about in odd circumstances: in Aug. 1766, a servant masquerading as Robert had the rector of St Michael, Bristol, Samuel Sayer, put up the Banns; he did so on Aug 17, 24, and 31. When on Aug. 31 Jael and the real Robert presented themselves, and Robert admitted he was a minor, the rector refused to perform the ceremony. Their only child, Aleyne Hampden Pye (1767-1833), became a major general in the British army. Her farce, The Capricious Lady (not published), produced by David Garrick, had a single performance, on 10 May 1771 at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. When she wrote to Garrick from France in the period 1774-78, she referred to him as “my valued and respected friend.” She was the author as well of A Short Account of the Principal Seats and Gardens in and about Richmond and Kew (1760) and, her only novel, Theodosius and Arabella, published posthumously, in 1786. A writer in MR declared Theodosius “poor and trifling.” The “one circumstance to recommend it,” he wrote, “is, that it is very short.” She was buried on 19 Nov. 1782 at St James, Westminster. (ODNB 21 May 2023; PROB 11/1573; GM [1766], 57; Stamford Mercury 11 Sept. 1766; Oxford Journal 20 Sept. 1766; C. Roth, Anglo-Jewish Letters, 1158-1917 [1938], 106; J. Todd, A Dictionary of British and American Women Writers, 1660-1800 [1984]) JC
Other Names:
- Mrs. Hampden Pye