Discover the Best Books Written by Susan Ferrier

Susan Edmonstone Ferrier was a Scottish novelist. Her novels, giving vivid accounts of Scottish life and presenting sharp views on women's education, remained popular throughout the 19th century. Susan Ferrier was the youngest daughter of Helen Coutts (1741–1797) (daughter of Robert Coutts, a farmer near Montrose) and James Ferrier (1744–1829), Writer to the Signet and one of the principal clerks of the Court of Session. In that office, he was a colleague of Sir Walter Scott. 

Her father came from Linlithgow. She was probably born as the ninth of ten surviving children at Lady Stair's Close, Edinburgh. The family moved in 1784 to 11 (now 25) George Street in New Town. Ferrier was privately educated. She met many notable Edinburgh people through her family, including Scott and the novelist Henry Mackenzie. In 1797 her father took her 1797 to Inveraray, home of his client and patron John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll. 

She became a friend of the family, especially of a granddaughter, Charlotte Clavering (died 1869), with whom she corresponded. Clavering was initially involved in the writing of Ferrier's first novel, Marriage, although ultimately, her contribution was limited to the section entitled "The History of Mrs. Douglas." Some letters between Ferrier and Clavering appear in the front matter of a six-volume edition of the novels.

After her mother died, Ferrier kept house for her father, as her three older sisters were married. Like many well-to-do Edinburgh families, they took a house outside the city in the summer, East Morningside House. While there, she wrote The Inheritance. She still wished her work to appear anonymously, but her identity was widely known by then.

In 1811 Ferrier visited Scott at Ashiestiel Farm and House on the banks of the River Tweed, near Clovenfords in the Scottish Borders, and again in 1829 and 1831 at his new residence, Abbotsford House. They enjoyed each other's company, and he wrote of her: "This gifted personage besides having great talents has conversation the least exigeant of any author, female at least..., simple, full of humor, and exceedingly ready at repartee, and all this without the least affectation of the bluestocking." 

He mentioned her in the same sentence as Maria Edgeworth and Frances Burney in 1825. Ferrier's account of the visits eventually appeared posthumously in the magazine Temple Bar (1874). Ferrier's own tastes in the literature appear in her letters. She admired Jane Austen and Scott (though she had reservations about some works of his)but scorned John Galt and John Gibson Lockhart.

The last of several visits to London was paid in 1830 to see an oculist, when she stayed at the villa of Lord Casilis in Isleworth, the model for a house known as Woodlands in Destiny. Brought up in the Church of Scotland, Ferrier joined the Free Church after the Disruption of 1843. Her eye troubles contributed to making her reclusive in her old age. 

She died on 5 November 1854 at her brother's house, 38 Albany Street, Edinburgh, and was buried with her family in St Cuthbert's Churchyard. The grave lies on a main dividing wall immediately north of the church. Ferrier's eldest brother married the sister of John Wilson, who wrote under the pseudonym Christopher North.