Arabella Hunt

Arabella Hunt (27 February 1662 – 26 December 1705) was an English soprano and lutenist who was celebrated for the beauty of her singing voice.

Early life Arabella Hunt was born in London on 27 February 1662 to Richard and Elizabeth Hunt. She sang at court and is recorded to have performed a part in the court masque "Calisto, or the Chaste Nymph" by John Crowne in 1675. In 1678 or 1679, her father died, and as the only surviving child (two siblings died in childhood), she inherited a house at Upton in Buckinghamshire.

Marriage On 12 September 1680 Hunt married James Howard at St Marylebone Parish Church, and the couple moved into her mother's house at the Haymarket. However, after six months of living together Hunt left her husband, and instituted a case against him at the consistory court in London, seeking to annul the marriage on the grounds that Howard was not in fact a man, but was actually a woman called Amy Poulter (née Gomeldon). Moreover, at the time of their marriage, Poulter was already married to a man called Arthur Poulter, who had only died recently. Hunt further claimed that her 'husband' was an hermaphrodite, but when Howard/Poulter was examined by five midwives appointed as the jury in the case it was found that she was a biologically ordinary woman.

Hunt's voice was said by a contemporary to be like the pipe of a bullfinch; she was also credited with an "exquisite hand on the lute". She was admired and respected by the best wits of the time; John Blow and Purcell wrote difficult music for her; John Hughes, the poet, was her friend; William Congreve wrote a long irregular ode on "Mrs. Arabella Hunt singing", and after her death penned an epigram under a portrait of her sitting on a bank singing. The painting was by Godfrey Kneller. There are mezzotints by Smith (1706) and Charles Grignion the Elder; and Hawkins gives a vignette in his History. In an ode, On the Excellency of Mrs Hunt's Voice, and Manner of Singing, composed in 1700, John Blow declared that "she reigns alone, is Queen of Musick by the People's choice".

Death Hunt died, aged 43, at home in London on 26 December 1705.