Her father, John Salusbury, was irascible, imprudent, and unsettled, and partly as a result, her parents' marriage was a stormy one. Hester learned early to use her intellectual abilities and talents to please both her father and a succession of rich relations on whom her family was dependent. With some guidance from her mother, Hester Maria Cotton Salusbury, and her aunt Lady Anna Maria Salusbury, she read widely on her own; tutors later provided formal instruction. She later depicted herself in her early teens as continually contributing pseudonymous letters as well as poems to newspapers. She recalled that a political essay, an eclogue, and a translated French fable had been especially praised, but all of her youthful intellectual endeavors and literary pursuits elicited lavish admiration from her own small circle. Her upbringing led her to view herself as a particularly talented woman with unusual intelligence and literary prowess.
More than her talents, her prospects as a potential heiress with wealthy connections attracted various suitors. The powerful combination of her mother and her rich uncle Sir Thomas Salusbury insured the ultimate success of Henry Thrale, a handsome if somewhat phlegmatic businessman with a substantial fortune from the family brewery.
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