Mary Walker

Lady Mary Hamilton or Lady Mary Walker (née Leslie; 8 May 1736 – 29 February 1821) was a Scottish novelist of the 18th century. She was the youngest daughter of Alexander Leslie, 5th Earl of Leven and the mother of James Walker, a Rear admiral in the British Royal Navy. Her works included discussions of philosophy, education and art. Advanced in thinking for the time period, she was a strong advocate of education for women. Her most successful novel, Munster Village (1778), centres on a utopian garden city populated with fallen women and females escaping disastrous marriages. Jane Austen may have been influenced by her writings, taking the same names as some of Lady Mary's characters. Family and personal life Lady Mary Leslie was born at Melville House, Fife, Scotland on 8 May 1736, the youngest daughter of Alexander Leslie, fifth earl of Leven and Melville, by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of David Monypenny.