Martha Harley
British Gothic novelist

Martha Harley (later Hugill; fl. 1786—1798) was the successful author of six Gothic novels.
Life
Little is known of Harley's life other than that she published half a dozen popular novels and lived at least part of her life in London. Judging by her publishing history, she was born "Harley" and changed her name to "Hugill" at some point between 1794 and 1797, presumably through marriage.
Work
Harley's first novel, St. Bernard's priory (1786), was printed privately, published anonymously, and sold by subscription. Her five subsequent novels were all handled by professional publishers and garnered her a degree of commercial success. Her second and third novels were also published anonymously, "by the author of &". Her fourth and fifth novels, Juliana Ormeston and The prince of Leon, were published under the name "Mrs. Harley," and her final novel, Isidora of Gallicia, as "Mrs.
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This entry incorporates text from “Martha Harley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.