Kitty Fisher - Immortalised in Art, Diaries and Letters

Immortalised in Art, Diaries and Letters

Nathaniel Hone painted her in 1765, at the height of her popularity. His famous painting, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, shows her with a kitten ('kitty'), which is trying to get at a goldfish in a bowl ('fisher'). Reflected in the bowl are the faces of a crowd of people, looking through a window.

Besides sitting multiple times for Sir Joshua Reynolds, she was painted by Philip Mercier, James Northcote, and Richard Purcell, among others.

Apart from the letters of Giustiniana Wynne, she is mentioned in the diaries and letters of people as varied as Madame D'Arblay and Horace Walpole.

In 1766, she married John Norris, son of the M.P. for Rye and grandson of Admiral Sir John Norris. She came to live at her husband's family house, Hemsted (now the premises of the prestigious English public school, Benenden School). She settled into the role of mistress of Hemsted, building up Norris's fortune, and was liked by the local folk, especially as she was generous to the poor. She died only four months after her marriage, some sources say from the effects of lead-based cosmetics, some from smallpox, in 1767. Her last wish was to be buried in Benenden churchyard dressed in her best ball gown.

She is immortalized in the nursery rhyme, Lucy Locket:

"Lucy Locket lost her pocket,

Kitty Fisher found it;

But ne'er a penny was there in't

Except the binding round it."

Music publisher Peter Thompson also published a country dance bearing her name in Volume 2 of Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances (Publ. 1764).

A fictionalized version of Kitty Fisher appeared in the 1991 Channel Four historic musical fantasy Ghosts of Oxford Street, played by Kirsty MacColl.