Margaret Collier (1719 – 1794) was an English correspondent of Samuel Richardson.

Life

Collier was born in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

in 1719. Her parents were Margaret and Arthur Collier. Her father had acquired the

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

Steeple Langford Steeple Langford is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, northwest of Wilton, Wiltshire, Wilton. It has also been called Great Langford or Langford Magna. The village lies on the north bank o ...

in 1704. Her father blamed their financial difficulties on his wife.) Her family had then moved to Salisbury where

Jane Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...

and Margaret were born. Her father sold the reversion of the Langford

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, ...

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

before he died in 1732. She has nowhere to live but she was given a home by Henry Fielding who let her become a companion to his daughter and then his second wife, Mary Daniel. Margaret's sister, Jane, had already collaborated on a book with Henry's sister Sarah Fielding. She went with Henry Fielding's party when he went to Lisbon to find a cure for his maladies in 1754 on the ''Queen of Portugal''. Fielding completed his book ''A Journey to Lisbon'' some weeks before he died in Lisbon in October of that year. It was said that Margaret had a talent for catching a likeness of someone and she had cut a silhouette of Fielding that was later used as was a basis for William Hogarth's "Taunton" portrait of him. In 1755 she went to live on the Isle of Wight where she would read the novels of Samuel Richardson to a couple she know. She read them both Clarissa, which she had read three times before, and Richardson's novel ''Sir Charles Grandison''. Collier gained a reputation as a fan of Richardson after she wrote letters to him telling him of her exploits. Collier died in

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came af ...

in 1794.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Margaret 1719 births 1794 deaths People from Salisbury 18th-century English women writers 18th-century English writers 18th-century British letter writers