Robert
Baillie, and the family of Baillie of Jerviswood, so celebrated for its
Christian patriotism. The mother of Joanna likewise belonged to an
honourable house: she was a descendant of the Hunters of Hunterston; and
her two brothers attained a wide reputation in the world of science--Dr
William Hunter being an eminent physician, and Mr John Hunter the
greatest anatomist of his age. Joanna--a twin, the other child being
still-born--was the youngest of a family of three children. Her only
brother was Dr Matthew Baillie, highly distinguished in the medical
world. Agnes, her sister, who was eldest of the family, remained
unmarried, and continued to live with her under the same roof.

In the year 1768, Dr Baillie was transferred from the parochial charge
of Bothwell to the office of collegiate minister of Hamilton,--a town
situate, like his former parish, on the banks of the Clyde. He was
subsequently elected Professor of Divinity in the University of
Glasgow. After his death, which took place in 1778, his daughters both
continued, along with their widowed mother, to live at Long Calderwood,
in the vicinity of Hamilton, until 1784, when they all accepted an
invitation to reside with Dr Matthew Baillie, who had entered on his
medical career in London, and had become possessor of a house in Great
Windmill Street, built by his now deceased uncle, Dr Hunter.

Though evincing no peculiar promptitude in the acquisition of learning,
Joanna had, at the very outset of life, exhibited remarkable talent in
rhyme-making. She composed verses before she could read, and, before she
could have fancied a theatre, formed dialogues for dramatic
representations, which she carried on with her companions. But she did
not early seek distinction as an author. At the somewhat mature age of
twenty-eight, after she had gone to London, she first published, and
that anonymously, a volume of miscellaneous poems, which did not excite
any particular attention. In 1798, she published, though anonymously at
first, "A Series of Plays: in which it is attempted to delineate the
stronger Passions of the Mind, each Passion being the subject of a
Tragedy and a Comedy." In a lengthened preliminary dissertation, she
discoursed regarding the drama in all its relations, maintaining the
ascendency of simple nature over every species of adornment and
decoration. "Let one simple trait of the human heart, one expression of
passion, genuine and true to nature," she wr