Lifespan: 1769-1823
Nationality: English
Types of Work: Novels
Style: relies heavily on the use of dialogue in her novels
Bio:
Elizabeth Gunning was born to General John Gunning and novelist Susannah (Minfie) Gunning in 1769.
Elizabeth was renowned for her beauty and accomplishments, and found herself involved in a scandal as a result of her flirtations. She encouraged the attentions of two powerful suitors, her cousin, the Marquis of Lorne, and the Marquis of Blandford, who was the favorite of her parents. Her father wrote to Marquis in 1791 to ascertain his intentions of marriage, and received a letter stating that the Marquis had changed his mind in regards to taking Elizabeth as his wife. The letter was later discovered to have been a forgery. When a Mrs. Bowen (who it is assumed was a family friend or relation) forwarded some letters to General Gunning in which Elizabeth declared her passion for her cousin, Lord Lorne, and not Blandford, Gunning attributed the forgerd letter to his daughter and, enraged at her perceived deceit, turned her out of his house. Her mother soon followed, and the two took shelter with the Duchess of Bedford.
Shortly after she was cast from her father's doors, her mother, Susannah published a "Letter addressed to his grace the Duke of Argyll" (who was her brother-in-law) in which she declared that the letters that had been sent to General Gunning were an infamous forgery fabricated by Mrs. Bowen herself and her husband, Captain Essex Bowen. After seeking legal redress in vain, Captain Bowen published "A Statement of Facts in answer to Mrs. Gunning's Letter". The feud between the Gunnings and Bowens became fodder for society satire and gossip, and eventually became known as the "Gunningiad".
Meahnwhile, General Gunning was accused of having an affair with a married woman, and a jury ordered him to pay the lady's husband 5,000l in damages. The two later fled to Naples, where, it is said, he altered his will the day before his death in response to a letter he had received from his daughter. He left her and his wife 8,000l and his estate in Ireland.
Elizabeth's cousin was fellow novelist Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury, the daughter of her uncle, the Duke of Argyll and her her father's younger sister, Elizabeth Gunning.
Elizabeth never married the Marquis of Lorne, but, instead, married Major James Plunkett of Kinnaird in 1803. She died on 20 July 1823 in Melford House, Suffolk following a prolonged illness.
In addition to translating several French novels, Elizabeth also wrote many of her own, though they were labeled as "not easily distinguishable from her mother's".
Novels:
The Packet (1794)
Lord Fitzhenry (1794(
The Foresters (1796)
The Orphans of Snowdon (1797)
The Gipsey Coutness (1799)
The Village Library (1802)
The Farmer's Boy (1802)
Family Stories: or, Evenings at my Grandmother's (1802)
A Sequel to Family Stories (1802)
The Exile of Erin (1808)
The Man of Fashion: a Tale of Modern Times (1815)