Mary Collyer (née Mitchell) (c. 1716 – 1763) was an English translator and novelist.
Mary, whose maiden name was Mitchell, married Joseph Collyer the elder;[1] their son, Joseph Collyer the younger, was an engraver, and illustrated one edition of his mother's translation Death of Abel.
The readers of Gessner's version of the biblical story belonged to a poorer and less educated public.
While sophisticated readers on the Continent found delight in the Arcadian pantheism of the idyll, the poorer masses of England and North America were attracted to the epic's mixture of sentimental and pious feelings, hymnal pathos and cultural criticism, all of which was intensified in Mary Collyer's translation.
[2] She had previously published in 1750, in two volumes, 'Letters from Felicia to Charlotte,' which recommended her to the notice of Mrs. Montague, Miss Talbot, and Mrs. Carter.