Background
She was the only daughter of Joseph Highmore, the painter, and illustrator of "Pamela", was born in 1725, probably in London, either in the city or Lincoln"s Inn Fields. Her mother, Susanna Highmore, was also a poet.
She was the only daughter of Joseph Highmore, the painter, and illustrator of "Pamela", was born in 1725, probably in London, either in the city or Lincoln"s Inn Fields. Her mother, Susanna Highmore, was also a poet.
Much care went into the daughter"s education and she came to be proficient in Latin, Spanish, French and Italian. She was one of a party to whom Richardson read his Sir Charles Grandison. And she made a sketch of the scene, which forms the frontispiece to volume ii. of Mistress
Barbauld"s Correspondence of Samuel Richardson.
In 1773, she furnished a frontispiece to volume i. of her husband"s Letters by John Hughes. She also wrote a few poems in the Poetical Calendar, and in 1782 some of her poems appeared in Nichols"s Select Collection.
In January 1786, she was left a widow, with one child, a daughter, and took up her residence in the Precincts, Canterbury. In 1808, her portrait of Mistress
Chapone was transferred from her "Grandison" frontispiece to the second edition of Mistress
Chapone"s Posthumous Works.