Mary Hamilton (2) (1736–1821)

Lady Mary Hamilton, née Leslie, also known as Lady Mary Walker, was born in Scotland to an aristocratic family. Her parents were Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, and his wife Elizabeth Monypenny. In 1762, she married James Walker, a physician with whom she had several children though the union was unhappy. In the 1770s, her husband moved alone to Jamaica for a position as a prison physician. Lady Mary began writing to support herself and her children.
Her first novel, Letters from the Duchesse de Crui, was published in 1777, along with her second, Memoirs of the Marchioness de Louvoi. Her most successful novel, Munster Village, was issued in 1778. Her views on marriage and equality were advanced for her time period, and she was a strong advocate of women's education. By 1782, Lady Mary had formed a long-term relationship with George Robinson Hamilton, the owner of a sugar plantation in the West Indies. She took his name, and they lived together in Lille, France. The couple had at least two daughters together. George Hamilton died in 1797, leaving his estate in trust for the benefit of Lady Mary.
She moved to Amiens, where she was very close to the writer Sir Herbert Croft and they shared a home as friends. She published a novel in French, La famille du duc de Popoli (The Duc de Popoli) in 1810.

Despite her extensive holdings in the West Indies, she received little or no income from them and the household was poor. Croft died in 1816 and Lady Mary went back to the UK to live with her widowed daughter Sophia Alderson near London.