Steele, Richard, 1672-1729

Richard Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1671, to Richard Steele and Elinor Sheyles Symes. Both of his parents died before he turned six years old and he was primarily raised by his aunt and uncle: Lady Katherine Mildmay and Henry Gascoigne. He attended Charterhouse School where he met Joseph Addison, with whom he would have a long friendship until they disagreed with the Peerage Bill of 1719. He married Margaret Stretch in 1705, but she died a year later. At her funeral, he met his second wife, Mary Scurlock and they married in 1707. Their only surviving daughter, Elizabeth, married John Trevor, 3rd Baron Trevor. He was considered a literary genius and political mover. Some of his most well-known works include: The Christian Hero (1701,) The Lying Lover (1703,) The Tender Husband (1705,) and under his pseudonym, Isaac Bickerstaff, he published the best of his columns from “The Tatler,” a public journal that he published three days a week, the book: Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer (1709.) Richard Steele died on September 1, 1729 and was buried in Carmathen at St Peter’s Church, Wales.