Career
Kerr"s father died in 1796, leaving her as his heir. Kerr (then Apreece) was a rich widow who had traveled in Europe and she moved to Edinburgh where she established herself at the center of Scottish literary society. lieutenant was said that she had inspired the character of Corinne who was the protagonist in Anne Louise Germaine de Staël"s 1807 novel.
She had met Germaine de Staël but that influence is more reliably assigned to Diodata Saluzzo Roero.
She turned down a proposal to become the wife of the elder Professor John Playfair and instead accepted the proposal of the, then, celebrity scientist Sir Humphry Davy. The new couple traveled to Paris, Florence and then Rome accompanied by Michael Faraday.
They returned to England when Napoleon escaped from Elba. They continued to travel in Europe, but increasingly they traveled separately as they had a difficult relationship.
Davy died in Park Street in London in 1855.