The year 1740 is notable for a number of events. George II celebrated thirteen years as King of Great Britain, Hogarth was busy creating portraits and satirical depictions of eighteenth century life and the song 'Rule Britannia' was first performed at Cliveden House that summer. And while all this unravelled, a fifteen-year old girl sat frantically writing at her desk in the small but bustling town of Reading, in Berkshire.
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| Photo by https://stockcake.com, Public Domain |
Born in 1725, Mary Latter was the daughter of a lawyer and his wife, also named Mary, who lived in Henley-on-Thames. On the death of her father she and her mother moved to Reading, living 'not very far from the market-place'. Mary loved to write, and created poetry but also satire, writing descriptions of some of the characters she knew from her daily interactions in the town in 1740. In 1759 she published The Miscellaneous Works, in prose and verse, of Mrs Mary Latter, of Reading, Berks, in three parts. Dedicated to Mrs Loveday of Caversham, it was a collection of letters and poetry. Now 29, Mary found that writing did not make her rich. She described herself as 'immersed in business and in debt... sometimes justly fearing dungeons and distress'.
She formed a number of local alliances with fellow writers, and eventually attracted the notice of Covent Garden theatre-owner, Mr Rich. Having seen a tragedy that she wrote called The Siege of Jerusalem, he encouraged her in around 1761 to experience more of the theatre in the hope that it would improve her writing. She worked on a script that they hoped would be produced in theatres the following year. Mary hoped that Mr Rich, invested in her career as a writer and with his industry connections, might secure the path to success that she had been working so hard to achieve.
Sadly, Mr Rich died in the same year, and her play was roundly rejected by his successors. She turned back to Reading, where the play was acted in front of an audience in 1768, although Mary was apparently not credited as its author during the performance. She published an essay called Stagecraft in 1762, and in 1771 another named Pro and Con, or the Opinionists. She died in Reading at her home, on 28 March 1777, and was buried in the churchyard of St Laurence, close to where she had lived for three decades. She chose to be buried near to her mother, who had died in January 1748.
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| St Laurence's Church, site of Mary's burial |
Mary Latter is not often acknowledged in histories of Reading, but she was an important figure of the eighteenth-century town. She was ambitious, an early female writer finding her place just decades after the death of another woman writer, Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, often considered a pioneer in women's writing. She secured partnerships and friendships with those who could introduce her to others, increasing her prospects and networking with established theatre-owners in Covent Garden. This was the centre of the theatre, as well as the coffee-houses of Georgian society. It is likely that Mary attended these centres of creative fertility as scientists, poets, artists and political thinkers shared and spread ideas over bowls of hot, black coffee during her time visiting Mr Rich in London.
Despite having some financial difficulties Mary continued to write, showing tenacity and resilience, especially when, as is claimed by Charles Coates writing in 1802, she was not named publicly as its author. Her story reveals the difficulties and challenges experienced by early women writers but also demonstrates their courage and resolve in following a career that society did not generally applaud them for at the time.
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Source:
Charles Coates, The History and Antiquities of Reading. Reading, 1802.
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