PIOZZI (HESTER LYNCH THRALE)

Autograph letter signed ("H:L:Piozzi") to Doctor Thackeray, regarding a gift for Harriet Maria Pemberton, "Brunbella", 23 December 1813

Footnotes

'SHE MUST HAVE IT BY THE NEW YEARS DAY, OR ALL THE JOKE IS LOST': Hester Piozzi sends a birthday surprise to her future niece-in-law.

Hester Piozzi (1741–1821), diarist, poet, author, patron, friend of Dr Johnson and editor of his letters, writes in light-hearted vein to her friend and physician, Dr William Makepeace Thackeray of Chester (1770-1849), a cousin of the author. She writes from her country house, Brynbella, on the Bach y Graig estate in North Wales, which she built with her second husband Gabriel Mario Piozzi (1740–1809). Here she requests that Dr Thackeray ensures that a "plaything" is delivered to her future niece-in-law Harriet Maria Pemberton (1795-1831) of Ryton Grove, Shropshire in time for her birthday on January 1st. She is much exercised in this matter as several letters written at this time attest. A letter to Harriet on 15 December 1813 reveals that the plaything in question is, in fact, a moth which she has drawn ('I was fortunate in having so fine a Specimen to copy from') and which she sends to her on the 23rd: 'Your Moth... I fear is drawn, puckered as we Females call it, a little in one Place; but I would not unpick it for fear it should arrive too late for New Year's Day' (Ed. Bloom & Bloom, Piozzi Letters, 1811-1816, p.225, 227). The same day she anxiously writes to her adopted nephew John Salusbury Piozzi Salusbury (1793-1858) '...how will this Moth fly to her? I shall write to Doctor Thackeray and beg him to forward it – he a sad Forwarder I find, but no matter...' (Bloom, p.228), by the 29th she remarks that she still hasn't heard whether it had arrived but on 1st January she replies in relief to Harriet '...It is very flattering to me that you like your Moth: The Colours are completely different from those of the Butterfly...' (Bloom, p.232). Our letter to Doctor Thackeray is not published in the letters and therefore completes this sequence of events.

After her husband's death, Hester had '...channelled her considerable energies into the naturalization and education of John Salusbury Piozzi, her husband's nephew whom they had adopted in 1798. Determined to make him her heir and continue the Salusbury line...' (Michael J. Franklin, ODNB). Indeed, she had legally applied for him to bear the name Salusbury only a month before our letter. On his marriage to Harriet Pemberton on 7 November 1814 she made Brynbella and all her Welsh property over to him as a wedding gift and removed herself to Bath under reduced circumstances. However, it was soon evident he was not suited to the role of landowner and he ran the estates down, continually demanding money from her to pay his gambling debts, and her diaries and letters show how their relationship deteriorated over the subsequent years.