Arabella Hunt (1662-1705) was celebrated for her beauty and her musical talents during her lifetime. Her contemporaries remarked that her soprano voice had the “reed of a bullfinch” and inspired various composers, including Henry Purcell (1659-1695) and Dr. John Blow (1649-1708).
She spent most of her life at St. James’s Palace as a singer and lutist, entertaining five monarchs. She debuted her singing at court at age thirteen when she performed in the court masque, “Calisto, or the Chaste Nymph.” She was employed at St. James’s Palace as a singing tutor to Princesses Mary (1662-1694) and Anne (1665-1714). When Mary became Queen, she provided Arabella with a yearly pension of £100.
Sometime around 1678 and 1679, Arabella’s father passed away. As an only child, she inherited from him a house in Upton, Buckinghamshire. This inheritance bolstered her financial stability, lending her quite a bit of independence.
Arabella Hunt took on many female lovers, including famous courtiers like Aphra Behn (1640-1689) and Nell Gwyn (1650-1687). She was also briefly married to a woman named Amy Poulter who styled herself as James Howard, dressing and living as a man.
James had courted Arabella for half a year before marrying. They lived together in Haymarket for six months before Arabella moved to get the marriage annulled on the grounds that James was a hermaphrodite already married to an Arthur Poulter, who had recently passed away.
James claimed to have married Arabella as part of an elaborate prank, but sources show that he courted her, seriously, months before their marriage dressed as both a man and a woman. By all indications, Arabella wasn’t so naïve, and James wasn’t a mischievous trickster. Still, five midwives examined James and declared that he was “a perfect woman in all parts.”
Their marriage was annulled on December 15, 1682 on the legal basis that a marriage between two women was not valid. Arabella returned to St. James’s Palace and resumed tutoring the Princesses Mary and Anne in singing. Amy Poulter, or the self-stylized James Howard, died shortly after the scandal, possibly by suicide.
Arabella never married again, much preferring to have sexual and romantic love affairs with other women. She remained a celebrated figure throughout her life until she died in 1705 with Anne as Queen. She was forty-three. She inspired composers, playwrights, and musicians. She had sonnets, odes, and songs written to her beauty and talents, including the poem “On Mrs. Arabella Hunt Singing” by William Congreve (1670-1729) and the song “Ode on the Death of Arabella Hunt” by Johann Sigismund Kusser (1660-1727). Her life was also used as an example for those creating political conversation around marriage between the same gender.
References
Arabella Hunt – Lesbian Icon by Tyne O’Connell, on the historian’s personal website
Arabella Hunt / St Marylebone Parish Church on History Pin
LGBT+ ROYAL HISTORIES on Historic Royal Palaces
THE MASQUE OF CALLISTO: QUEEN MARY, QUEEN ANNE, ARABELLA HUNT AND LOVE BETWEEN WOMEN AT THE STUART COURT on Historic Royal Palaces
Ode on the Death of Arabella Hunt J Kusser, YouTube Video of Kusser’s song, performed by Hanna Marti and Lukas Henning
On Mrs. Arabella Hunt Singing / William Congreve, Poem by William Congreve
The Wild and Wacky Queer Women of 17th Century Europe by Heather Rose Jones, The Lesbian Review
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