A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Chapone, Hester
CHAPONE, HESTER,
Was the daughter of a Mr. Mulso, of Twywell, in Northamptonshire, and was born at that place in 1727. When only nine years old, she is said to have written a romance. Her mother, who seems to have been jealous of her daughter's talents, endeavoured to obstruct her studies. Hester Mulso, nevertheless, succeeded in making herself mistress of Italian and French. The story of "Fidelia," in the Adventurer, an "Ode to Peace," and some verses prefixed to her friend Miss Carter's Epictetus, were among her earliest printed efforts. In 1760 she married Mr. Chapone, who died in less than ten months afterwards. In 1770 she accompanied Mrs. Montague on a tour in Scotland; in 1773 she published her "Letters on the Improvement of the Mind," and in 1775 her "Miscellanies in Prose and Verse." After having lived tranquilly for many years, in the society of her devoted friends, her latter days were clouded by the loss of those friends and nearly all her relations; she was also a sufferer from impaired intellect and bodily debility. She died at Hadley, near Barnet, December 25th., 1801. Her verses were elegant, and her prose writings pure in style, and fraught with good sense and sound morality. With neither beauty, rank, nor fortune, this excellent lady, nevertheless, secured to herself the love and esteem of all with whom she became acquainted, and also the general admiration of those who read her works.