Susan Edmonstone Ferrier
Scottish novelist
Susan Edmonstone Ferrier (7 September 1782 – 5 November 1854) was a Scottish novelist. Her novels, giving vivid accounts of Scottish life and presenting sharp views on women's education, remained popular throughout the 19th century.
Life
Susan Ferrier was the youngest daughter of Helen Coutts (1741–1797) (daughter of Robert Coutts, a farmer near Montrose) and James Ferrier (1744–1829), Writer to the Signet and one of the principal clerks of the Court of Session, in which office he was a colleague of Sir Walter Scott. Her father came from Linlithgow. She was probably born at Lady Stair's Close, Edinburgh, as the ninth of ten surviving children. The family moved in 1784 to 11 (now 25) George Street in the New Town.
Ferrier was privately educated. Through her family she came to know many notable Edinburgh people, including Scott and the novelist Henry Mackenzie. In 1797 her father took her to Inveraray, home of his client and patron John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll. She became a friend of the family, especially of a granddaughter, Charlotte Clavering (died 1869), with whom she corresponded.
“Susan Edmonstone Ferrier” enters the record as scottish novelist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Susan, Edmonstone and Ferrier can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Susan Edmonstone Ferrier” 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.