Mary Brunton

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MB , whose early-nineteenth-century writing career was cut short by her early death, was a highly intelligent, moralistic novelist, who also left journals, prayers, and some letters.
Stipple head-and-shoulders engraving of Mary Brunton by Henry Meyer after William John Thomson, 1833. She is wearing a dress with a low, square, lace-trimmed neckline and puffed, short sleeves, a shawl over one arm, and a string of pearls. Dark curls frame her face.

Milestones

1 November 1778

Mary Balfour (later MB ) was born on Burra, one of the Orkney Islands.
Her birthplace is often wrongly given as Barra, which is in the Outer Hebrides; there are also a Burra and a Burray in Shetland. Burra is the old spelling of Burray, one of the smaller Orkneys.
Menzies, June. Conversation about the Orkney Islands with Isobel Grundy.
Brunton, Alexander, and Mary Brunton. “Memoir”. Emmeline, Manners and Miller; John Murray.
vi
Brunton, Alexander, and Mary Brunton. “Memoir”. Emmeline, Manners and Miller; John Murray.
vi

Probably January 1811

MB published at Edinburgh and London her first, anonymous novel, Self-Control; she dated her dedication of it to Joanna Baillie this month.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
2: 341

29 December 1818

MB died of puerperal fever, a few days after bearing her stillborn son.
Grant, Anne. Memoir and Correspondence of Mrs. Grant of Laggan. Editor Grant, John Peter, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
2: 222

March 1819

MB 's widower published a posthumous volume: a life of her and some fragments (primarily the unfinished novel Emmeline) and travel diaries, prayers, and letters (with intelligent criticism of contemporary fiction).
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
2: 476-7
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

Biography

Birth and Mixed Heritage

1 November 1778

Mary Balfour (later MB ) was born on Burra, one of the Orkney Islands.
Her birthplace is often wrongly given as Barra, which is in the Outer Hebrides; there are also a Burra and a Burray in Shetland. Burra is the old spelling of Burray, one of the smaller Orkneys.
Menzies, June. Conversation about the Orkney Islands with Isobel Grundy.
Brunton, Alexander, and Mary Brunton. “Memoir”. Emmeline, Manners and Miller; John Murray.
vi
Brunton, Alexander, and Mary Brunton. “Memoir”. Emmeline, Manners and Miller; John Murray.
vi

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