A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Brunton, Mary
BRUNTON, MARY,
Authoress of "Self-Control" and "Discipline," two novels of superior merit, was born on the 1st of November, 1778. She was a native of Burrey, in Orkney, a small island of about five hundred inhabitants, destitute of tree or shrub. Her father was Colonel Balfour, of Elwick, and her mother was niece of Field-marshal Lord Ligonier, in whose house she had resided before her marriage. Mary was carefully educated, and taught French and Italian by her mother. She was also sent to Edinburgh; but when she was sixteen her mother died, and the whole care of the family devolved on her. At the age of twenty she married the Rev. Mr. Brunton, minister of Bolton, in Haddingtonshire. In 1803, Mr. Brunton was called to Edinburgh, and there his wife had an opportunity of meeting literary persons, and of cultivating her mind. "Self-Control," her first novel, was published anonymously in 1811. The first edition was sold in a month, and a second and third called for. Her next work was "Discipline," a novel of the religious class, to which "Self-Control" belonged. She died in 1818, leaving an unfinished novel called "Emeline," afterwards published with a memoir of the authoress, by her husband.
Her private character was in harmony with her writings; she taught all within the circle of her influence, by her amiable deportment, how beautiful are the characteristics of the true christian lady, as she now teaches the readers of her excellent works the theory of the loveliness of virtue.