Henrietta Battier

Who was Henrietta Battier?

Henrietta Battier [née Fleming] was an Irish poet, satirist, and actress. She married the son of a Dublin banker and had at least four children. While on a visit to London in 1783–4, she approached Samuel Johnson to request his advice about publishing a manuscript collection of poems; Johnson was encouraging and helped her to build a subscription list: he reportedly said to her, "Don't be disheartened my Child, I have been often glad of a Subscription myself." His death in 1784, however, delayed Battier's plans and The protected fugitives was not published until 1791. While she was in London she acted the role of Lady Rachel Russell in Thomas Stratford's tragedy on the death of Lord Russell, at the Drury Lane Theatre. Thereafter both she and her husband became seriously ill, and a son died, in 1789, possibly predeceased by his sister. Back in Dublin, as "Patt. Pindar," she published a series of pointed political lampoons beginning with The Kirwanade: "magnificently controlled vituperation in vigorous, colloquial heroic couplets." Her subsequent satires argued for reform, religious tolerance, and Irish freedom.