Susannah Gunning (1740–1800)

Susannah Gunning, née Minifie, was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. James Minifie, a clergyman of Fairwater in Somerset, England. She had an older sister, Margaret Minifie, with whom she published two novels: The History of Lady Frances S. and Lady Caroline S. (1763) and The Picture (1766). In 1768, Susannah married Captain John Gunning, an officer in the British Army, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolution. He later rose to become General Gunning. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Gunning, later Plunkett, who also was a novelist. According to Janet Todd (British Women Writers, 1989) Susannah went on to write 11 independent novels, six of them epistolary, and one long poem (Virginius and Virginia). She also wrote a pamphlet addressed to the Duke of Argyll, her brother-in-law, in defense of her daughter in the public scandal that occurred over the latter's potential marriage.