Harriet was an accomplished pianist as well as harpist. She was often in charge
of the education of her younger siblings, though she, like her sisters, had
received her own education from her mother and visiting tutors. At the age of 26
on 25 November1854, she married John Lake Crompton, an English clergyman who had
come to Madeira for his health. Three years later they settled in Pinetown in
Natal where she had to learn to manage without trained servants and overcome
many hardships attached to life in a distant colony. She was responsible for
introducing many plants from Madeira, which are favourites in Natal gardens
today. She was one of the pioneers of the Women's Movement in South Africa being
the first president of the Pinetown Suffrage Society. She bore ten children, two
of whom died in childhood, and after the death of her husband (3 August 1889)
she was able to make many voyages to England, sometimes visiting Madeira on the
way. She died aged 97, survived by 6 of her children, 18 grandchildren and 4
great grandchildren.