Susanna Gunning

Susanna Gunning, novelist, was buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey on 5th September 1800 aged 60. She seems never to have had an inscribed gravestone. It is not clear why she was buried at the Abbey. The burial service was taken by Mr [William] Agutter, chaplain of the Asylum for Female Orphans, by permission of the Dean.

Her life

She was born in 1739/40 a daughter of the Reverend James Minifie, and published novels with her sister Margaret, and then under her own name including Anecdotes of the Delborough family and Memoirs of Mary. On 8th August 1768 she married John Gunning, son of John, of Castle Coote in Ireland, who served in the American War of Independence and became Lt. General (he died in Naples in 1797). He was the brother of society beauties Maria and Elizabeth Gunning who married into the aristocracy.

Their only child Elizabeth (1769-1823) married Major J. Plunkett in 1803 and had several children. She also became a novelist and her works include The Packet, and The Man of Fashion... . Due to a scandal involving forged letters about a supposed marriage engagement John turned Susanna and Elizabeth out of his house and they went to France while the gossip died down. However on his death bed the General relented and left his estate to them. 

Susanna died in Down Street, London.

Further reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for mother and daughter.

Her will is at the National Archives, Kew.