Anne Hunter

Anne Hunter (nee Home) (1742-1821) was a minor English poet, and the wife of the celebrated surgeon [John Hunter]]. She is mainly remembered now for the texts to at least nine of Joseph Haydn's 14 songs in English. Their relationship during Haydn's stay is ambiguous, though at the time she was a widow. Songs by Haydn on her texts include: The Mermaid's Song, Fidelity, Pleasing Pain, and The Spirit's Song.

Life
Hunter was the eldest daughter of surgeon Robert Boyne Home of Greenlaw Castle, Berwickshire, and sister of Sir Everard Home.

She married John Hunter in July 1771. She had four children, of whom two, (a son and a daughter, Lady Campbell) survived her.

Before her marriage she had gained some note as a lyrical poetess, her "Flower of the Forest" appearing in The Lark, an Edinburgh periodical, in 1765. Her social literary parties were among the most enjoyable of her time, though not always to her husband's taste. Elizabeth Carter and Mary Delany were her attached friends, and Haydn set a number of her songs to music, including "My Mother bids me bind my Hair," originally written to an air of Pleydell's.

On her husband's death in 1793, Mrs. Hunter was left ill provided for, and for some time she was indebted for a maintenance partly to the queen's bounty and to the generosity of Dr. Maxwell Garthshore, and partly to the sale of her husband's furniture, library, and curiosities (Ottley, Life of Hunter, pp. 137–9). Her son-in-law, Sir James Campbell of Inverneill provided her with a small annuity.

She lived in retirement in London till her death on 7 Jan. 1821.

Writing
Her poems (12mo, London, 1802; 2nd edition, 1803) show no depth of thought, but have a natural feeling and simplicity of expression, which make many of them worth reading (see British Critic, October 1802, xx. 409-13). Her "Sports of the Genii," written in 1797 to a set of graceful drawings by Miss Susan Macdonald (d. 1803), eldest daughter of Lord-chief-baron Macdonald, display in addition humour and fancy.

Recognition
In 1799 Parliament voted to give her ₤15,000 for the Hunterian museum, which finally placed Mrs. Hunter in fair circumstances.

Publications

 * Poems (as Mrs. John Hunter). 1802.
 * The Sports of the Genii (as Mrs. John Hunter). 1804.