Dr Robert Herbert Brabant (1781 to 1866)

This portrait shows Dr Robert Herbert Brabant of Devizes. In 1843 a young Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) visited Dr Brabant, then in his early 60s. Dr Brabant called Mary Ann 'Deutera' which means second in Latin, but also sounds like daughter. The pair may have been romantically involved and Mary Ann quickly returned to Coventry. The following year Dr Brabant employed Mary Ann to translate Strauss's Das Leben Jesu.