Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/256

 published in 1854 and 1855, were entirely neglected.

On 15 April 1858 she married, in London, Alexander Hector (1810-1875), a man of enterprise and ability. Beginning life in the East India Company's navy, he joined Richard Lemon Lander [q. v.] in his exploration of the Niger, in 1832, and General Francis Rawdon Chesney [q. v.] in the exploration of the Euphrates and Tigris (1835-7). When Chesney's expedition broke up Hector settled at Bagdad, and was the first merchant in recent times to open up trade between Great Britain and the Persian Gulf. He assisted Sir Henry Layard [q. v.] in his Assyrian excavations, and excavated on his own account, the British Museum purchasing some of his finds. He returned to England with a large fortune in 1857, but after his marriage his health broke, and he died, having long been partially paralysed, in 1875.

During her husband's lifetime Mrs. Hector wrote little, owing to his dislike of the vocation for a woman. Nevertheless 'Which shall it be ?' came out in 1866, and before Hector's death she published her best known novel, the 'The Wooing o't.' It appeared as a serial in 'Temple Bar' during 1873, being re-issued in three volumes at the end of that year. She adopted as a pseudonym her husband's Christian name.

After Hector's death his widow, left with one son and three daughters, and with smaller means than she had anticipated, began to write in good earnest. Spending six years with her family in Germany and France and then three years at St. Andrews, she settled in London in 1885, and thenceforth rarely left it, busily occupied with novel-writing till her death.

In 1875 came out 'Ralph Wilton's Ward,' and 'Her Dearest Foe' in 1876. There followed forty-one novels, which enjoyed popularity among habitual readers of fiction both here and in America. Eleven passed into a second edition ; 'The Freres' (1882) was translated into Spanish, 'By Woman's Wit' (1886) into Danish, and 'Mona's Choice' (1887) into Pohsh. The fresh and vivacious style reflects the Irish temperament, and the tone is always wholesome. 'Kitty Costello' (1904), a novel which presents an Irish girl's introduction to English life, and has autobiographic touches, was written when Mrs. Hector was seventy-seven and was barely completed at her death. A witty, clever talker, of quick sympathies and social instincts, Mrs. Hector was in many ways abler and broader-minded than her writings show. She died in London, after ten years' suffering from neuritis, on 10 July 1902, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery.

A portrait painted at the time of her marriage by an artist named Fitzgerald, living at Versailles, and another painted just before her death by her youngest daughter. Miss May Hector (reproduced in 'To-day,' 23 July 1902), belong to her daughters.

 HECTOR, JAMES (1834–1907), Canadian geologist, born in Edinburgh on 16 March 1834, was son of Alexander Hector, writer to the signet, by his wife Margaret Macrostie. Educated at the Edinburgh Academy, he matriculated at the university in 1852, and qualified M.D. in 1856. During the short period in 1854 when Edward Forbes [q. v.] filled the chair of natural history in the university, his lectures deeply interested Hector, who became his assistant and worked zealously at geology and other branches of natural science. Medical studies were likewise pursued with ardour, and Hector acted as assistant to Dr. (afterwards Sir James Young) Simpson [q. v.].

Through the influence of Sir Roderick Impey Murchison [q. v.]. Hector was chosen as surgeon and geologist to accompany the government exploring expedition to the western parts of British North America, under the command of Captain John Palliser [q. v.], during 1857-60. An immense tract of country from Lakes Superior and Winnipeg to Vancouver Island was traversed with a view to colonisation. Hector then discovered the pass, now known as Hector's Pass, by which the Canadian Pacific railway crosses the Rocky Mountains. Many other important geographical as well as ethnological and geological observations were made and communicated, some to the British Association (1858-60), others to the Geological Society of London (1861). Hector drew attention to the erratic blocks and the evidence of extensive glaciation; he noted the general structure of the Rocky Mountains, and described beds of tertiary and cretaceous lignite and coal in the country east of the mountains and at Nanaimo in Vancouver Island. In 1861, on Murchison's recommendation. Hector was appointed geologist to the provincial government of Otago, New Zealand. Four years later he became director of the geological survey of the colony (now dominion), and from 1866