Charlotte Louisa Hawkins Dempster

Charlotte Louisa Hawkins Dempster (1835–1913) was a Scottish novelist, essayist and author, noted also as a collector of folklore, especially in the Highland county of Sutherland. She spent much of her life in France.

Literature and folklore Charlotte Louisa Hawkins was born 10 April 1835 at Forfar in Scotland. Her name was later styled Charlotte Dempster. She was educated at home by masters in various subjects, but spent her late teens in Paris. She became involved in controversy over the role and importance of the 17th-century Dorothy Osborne, after reviewing Edward Abbott Parry's edition of her correspondence for the same journal in 1888. She accused Parry of having a "gushy and self-conscious style" and unnecessarily interfering with the text.

Dempster became a member of the Folklore Society, publishing articles in its journal, reading papers before the Second International Folk Congress, and serving the folklore committee assembled for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

An autobiography edited by Alice Knox was published in 1920. It had been completed in the year before her death in 1913.

Demster became a member of the Folklore Society, publishing articles in its journal and reading papers before the Second International Folk-Congress, and serving the folklore committee assembled for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.