Career
Her father is said to have assumed the surname of Wilson about 1801. She began her career at the age of fifteen, becoming the mistress of William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven, 7th Baron Craven. Among her other lovers with whom she had business arrangements was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who commented "publish, and be damned" when informed of her plans to write her memoirs.
Her decision to publish was partly based on the broken promises of her lovers to provide her with an income in her older age.
The memoirs are still in print. Her sisters Amy, Fanny and Sophia also became courtesans.
Sophia married respectably into the aristocracy, when she wed Lord Berwick at age 17. Harriette Wilson appears in the Jane Austen mystery novel, Jane and the Barque of Frailty, by Stephanie Barron.
(Harriette and Jane Austen were contemporaries)
Harriette Wilson"s memoirs Publish and Be Damn"d: The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson was adapted for the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 series Classic Serial by Ellen Dryden and broadcast in June 2012.