Who was Esther Vanhomrigh, whom Jonathan Swift called Vanessa?

Esther Vanhomrigh was a woman who developed a passionate attachment to Jonathan Swift after they met during his London visit between 1707 and 1709. Swift famously gave her the name "Vanessa" and featured her in his poetry.1

Despite Swift’s admonitions, Vanhomrigh followed him to Ireland in 1714. Her correspondence with Swift reveals her deep romantic passion for him, which stood in contrast to the friendship Swift maintained with Esther Johnson, known as Stella. Swift consistently maintained a distant attitude toward Vanhomrigh, and by the time of her death in 1723, she had apparently turned against him. The exact nature of the relationships between Swift, Vanhomrigh, and Johnson remains a subject of scholarly uncertainty, as there is no solid evidence to support the various melodramatic theories surrounding them.1