Lunan

Submitted by edpope on

31.7.1794 mrs Luneham at Holcroft's (& Porson) / 7.12.1794 mrs Lunan at Holcroft's (& Porson) / 2.3.1795 Lunan at Mackintosh's (& Porson & Perry) / 17.8.1795 mrs Lunan at Holcroft's /  20.9.1795 Lunan at Holcroft's (& Porson & Perry) / 24.7.1796 M A Lunan at Holcroft's / 17.8.1796 meet mrs Lunan / 8.11.1797 M A Lunan at Holcroft's (& Perry) / 5.3.1802 miss Lunan at tea (& Perrys) / 19.10.1805 miss Bentley at Perry's / 21.10.1805 Perry femme & miss Bentley call / 15.6.1806 miss Bentley at Perry's / 7.6.1809 Lunan at Perry's (& mrs Bentley) / 13.10.1809 call on Bentley / 20.2.1817 miss Lunan at theatre (& Perry & Bentleys) / 27.3.1818 miss Bentley at Hazlit's / 3.4.1818 miss Bentley at Hazlit's / 13.6.1826 misses Bentley & Perry at theatre / later Bentleys were probably Richard Bentley DNB 1794-1871 as identified in GD website

See my article on Godwin and the Jenningses and the Reveleys, quoted below

The newspaper editor James Perry's sister Mary had married Andrew Lunan at Aberdeen in 1778 and they had two children baptised there, Andrew on 8.3.1779 and Mary on 7.5.1780. They moved to London in 1782 where he worked as a bookbinder but in 1787 he married Ann McPherson at Chelsea and had children by her. Mary obtained a divorce from him in Scotland in 1796, which unlike English divorces that hadn't gone through the House of Lords, allowed her to remarry. She dined at Holcroft's in July 1794 (as Mrs Luneham) when the guests were Mrs Reveley, Mr and Mrs Jennings, and her future husband Richard Porson, but her brother James Perry wasn't there. The Porsons didn't marry till November 1796 and she died in April 1797.

In December 1794 she dined at Holcroft's again (as Mrs Lunan) with the Thelwalls and the Foulkeses and Porson but no Perry. In March 1795 at Mackintosh's Godwin noted her (as plain Lunan) with Perry and Porson among others. (This seems unlikely to have been her ex-husband and is one of many examples of Godwin using a plain surname for a woman, as he did with Wollstonecraft from their first meeting.) In August 1795 she dined at Holcroft's (as Mrs Lunan) and again there in September with Porson and Perry (as plain Lunan), and Godwin met her in August 1796 (as Mrs Lunan). Her 16-year old daughter (as M A Lunan) dined at Holcroft's in August 1796 without her mother or her uncle Perry, and Godwin noted "M A Lunan" in 1797, "Lunan" in 1802, "miss Lunan" in 1809 and "Lunan" in 1817, each time with Perry. Marianne Lunan married Thomas Bentley of Frinsbury, Kent widower on 13.5.1803 at St Mary le Strand, witnesses Catherine Lunan, James Perry & Mary Ann Bentley. She appeared in Godwin's diary as Mrs Bentley in 1809 and Bentleys in 1817. She had two sisters, Annabella and Catherine, neither of whom married. In the 1841 census Thomas Bentley was a farmer age 70 at The Hermitage, Higham, Kent with Marianne Bentley age 55 and Mary Ann Bentley age 70, none of them born in Kent. Mary Ann Bentley died 1842, Thomas died 1844 and Marianne was buried 22.2.1845 at Brighton. Catherine Lunan died at Brighton 23.4.1848

Andrew Lunan was baptised 24.1.1762 at St Michael Aberdeen of Andrew Lunan & Catherine Hoddart. In 1784 Andrew Lunan of Stanhope St was a subscriber to James Cook's Voyage. Catherine daughter of Andrew and Mary Lunan was bapt 3.1785 St Clement Danes. Andrew Lunan was insured as a bookbinder in Shire Lane, St Clement Danes London SunFire 1786. He married Ann McPherson 21.10.1787 at St Luke Chelsea. On 7.8.1788 John son of Andrew Lunan deceased glazier of Aberdeen was apprenticed for 7 years to John William Galabin of 1, Ingram Court, Fenchurch St (who went bankrupt in 1791).  Another daughter Annabella of Andrew and Mary Lunan was baptised on 2.9.1791 at St Dunstan i t West. A daughter Ann of Andrew and Ann Lunan was baptised at St Dunstan i t West 9.1.1793, before his divorce from Mary Perry. In November 1795 when the London Corresponding Society advertised for signatures to petitions and money, Lunan at 18 Whitcomb St, Charing Cross was one of the addresses (Thale p325 note). On 14.3.1800 Ann Lunan aged about 42 years swore at the St Clement Danes settlement examinations that she had married her present husband ("who is at Jamaica") at St Luke Chelsea about 1787 and that he rented a house in Whitcomb St and they had two children living, Christianna aged about 9 and Charles aged about 4. They were admitted to the workhouse and discharged the next day. On 11.9.1794, 18.9.1794 and 3.10.1794 the General Committee of the London Corresponding Society met at Academy Court, Chancery Lane and on the last occasion were surprised by Upton and the Bow Street officers in connection with the "Popgun Plot". On spy Groves' next report the meeting place at Academy Court was called Lunan's and he reported that a note had been delivered to president (Samuel) Webb that Lunan was a traitor (Thale p223-229). This was probably not believed as his Whitcomb St address was used the following year (but it was probably soon after that he went to Jamaica).. Academy Court is not shown on my Horwood's map of London but it may have been in St Dunstan parish. In 1795 A. Lunan bookseller of Academy Court, Chancery Lane signed a petition from Thomas Doyle, under sentence of death in Newgate for stealing four silver spoons (Nat Arch HO 42/37/206)