Mrs. (Rachel) Hunter

Born in London around 1754, Rachel Hunter later married an English merchant and lived in Lisbon for about ten years. After her husband died, she returned to England with limited means and turned to writing to support herself.

She became known as Mrs. Hunter of Norwich, publishing novels and moral tales in the early 1800s. Among the works linked with her are Letitia; or, The Castle without a Spectre, The History of the Grubthorpe Family, and Letters from Mrs Palmerstone to her Daughter, books remembered for mixing entertainment with clear lessons about conduct and character.

Hunter died in 1813. Though not as widely read now as some of her contemporaries, she remains part of the rich tradition of women novelists writing in the years around Jane Austen, especially those who used fiction as both storytelling and moral instruction.