Thrale, Hester Lynch, later Mrs. Piozzi [key], 1741–1821, Englishwoman, noted for her intimate friendship with Samuel Johnson. Daughter of John Salusbury, she married (1763) Henry Thrale, a wealthy brewer, whose home at Streatham became a gathering place for writers and artists and a second home to Johnson from 1765 until 1780. Mrs. Thrale's second marriage in 1784 to Gabriel Piozzi, an Italian music master, caused an enormous scandal and estranged her from Johnson and from English society. She and Piozzi moved to Italy and after Johnson's death she published Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson (1786) and his correspondence with her (1788).
See her diary, Thraliana (ed. by K. C. Balderston, 1942); biography by I. McIntyre (2008).
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