Harriet Downing

Harriet Bourne Downing Oliver (1778 – 18 March 1845) was a British poet and novelist.

Life Harriet Bourne was baptized at All Hallows' Church, Tottenham on 12 August 1778. She was the daughter of John Bourne and Frances Shuttleworth. In 1803 she married George William Downing, a vintner who wrote stage comedies and pamphlets on parliamentary reform. They had five children.

George Downing died around 1820 on a trip to the Cape of Good Hope. In 1829, she married her second husband, Charles Martin Oliver, a merchant. John Quincy Adams recorded seeing the portrait in his diary, in Washington, DC in December 1833.

Harriet Downing died of a stroke on 18 March 1845 in Chipping Norton.

Two dramatic poems followed: The Bride of Sicily (1830) and Satan In Love (1840). The heroine of each converts a Moor and Satan, respectively. She also contributed to publications including Forget-Me-Not and Bentley's Miscellany. Remembrances of a Monthly Nurse, 1852.