Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (July 25, 1797 – November 4, 1856) was a French American educator and arachnologist.

So, in 1816, Marcellus immigrated with his family to the United States, where they settled in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

[1] In 1820, Hentz enrolled as a medical student at Harvard but soon after abandoned his studies to teach.

After 1851, Hentz and his wife lived with his son in Marianna, Florida, where he eventually died from an illness in 1856.

He married Caroline Lee Whiting on 30 September 1824, and moved with his wife to Covington, Kentucky, in 1831.

It is rumored that although not a revolutionary, her female characters exhibited strong qualities for assertiveness and independence possibly as consequence of an oppressive relationship with her husband.

[2] Her last novel, "Ernest Linwood" (1858), was based on an incident in which Hentz became jealous of Caroline's admirers and resulted in the end of their residence in Cincinnati.

[5] The youngest daughter, Caroline Therese was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and also educated by her parents and married the Baptist pastor, Rev.

The community at the university was largely Presbyterian and did not approve of Hentz's Roman Catholic background, and was predisposed to "ejaculatory prayer".

Professor Hentz resigned from the university in 1833 after finding new academic regulations too restrictive.

Hentz is best known for describing 141 spider species and these descriptions were published in the society's journal between 1842 and 1850.