Who was Mary Wollstonecraft?
Philosopher and Women's Rights Campaigner.
Date and Place of Birth:
27th April 1759, Spitalfields, London, England.
Family Background:
From family of seven children. Mary had three
sisters and three brothers. Granddaughter of a wealthy manufacturer
who worked in Spitalfields, London. Her father, Edward John Wollstonecraft,
originally a handkerchief weaver, spent the fortune on a series
of unsuccessful farm businesses trying to establish himself as a
gentleman farmer. He was also fond of a drink and was prone to beat
his wife Elizabeth Dixon.
Education:
Local day schools in Beverley, Yorkshire.
Chronology/Biography of Mary Wollstonecraft:
1761: Birth of her
brother Henry Woodstock Wollstonecraft.
1763: Birth of her
sister Elizabeth known as Eliza. Moves to Epping Forest with her
family.
1765: Birth of her
sister Everina known as Averina. At the death of her grandfather
her father inherits some of his estate and the family again move
on, this time to Barking.
1768: Birth of her
brother James. The family moves on to Beverley in Yorkshire in October
and Mary becomes friends with Jane Arden.
1770: Birth of her
brother Charles.
1774: The family
moves to Hoxton in North London. Mary Wollstonecraft meets Mr and
Mrs Clare, who allow her into their home and begin to provide her
with an education. She meets Fanny Blood for the first time at the
Clares.
1776: The family
moves to Laugharne in South Wales.
1777: The family
moves to Walworth in London.
1778: Mary gets
her first employment as a lady's companion to Mrs Sarah Dawson in
Bath and Windsor. The relationship between the two women was difficult.
1780: The family
and younger children move to Enfield.
1781: Mary moves
back home to nurse her sick mother in the autumn.
1782: Death of her
mother on 19th April. Her father remarries and moves to Wales.
In October Mary moves in with Fanny Blood and her family at Walham
Green as a ladies companion. This is the time that her vision of
a feminist utopia took shape as she began to idealise Fanny. Her
sister Eliza marries on 20th October.
1783: Eliza gives
birth to a child and develops post natal depression.
The Current Newington Green Primary School on a site near
Mary Wollstonecraft's original School
(© Anthony Blagg)
1784: Mary moves
in with her sister Eliza after convincing her to leave her violent
husband. Mary and Eliza set up a school together in Newington Green
with the help of Fanny Blood. She made friends with Richard Price
a Minister at the local Dissenting Chapel who along with his friend
Joseph Priestley was the leader of a
group of people called the Rational Dissenters.
Newington Green Unitarian Chapel with a banner outside proudly
proclaiming Mary
and it as the birthplace of feminism
(© Anthony Blagg)
1785: Fanny Blood
marries Hugh Skeys in Lisbon. Mary leaves the school and goes to
Portugal to help Fanny Blood with her childbirth who went to Europe
initially to improve her health. Fanny dies later later in the year
of consumption. Mary Wollstonecraft returns to London in December.
1786: The school
at Newington Green closes due to lack of finance. In August Mary
goes to work as a governess to the Anglo-Irish Lord and Lady Kingsborough
in County Cork in Ireland. Her relationship with Lady Kingsborough
was also strained but the children thought of her as an inspirational
teacher. Frustrated by the life in Ireland she decides to become
an author. Wollstonecraft begins work on her book on the conduct
of children, "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters".
1787: Mary Wollstonecraft
accompanies the Kingsborough family to Bristol where she writes
her first novel, "Mary: A Fiction", and the short work
"Cave of Fancy". She is dismissed by the Kinsborough's
in August. She then moves to London where she takes up work as a
translator with the assistance of the liberal publisher Joseph Johnson
whom she had met via her radical friend Richard Price. She lives
at 49 George Street, Blackfriars, London and works as a reviewer
for Johnson's "Analytical Review". She meets influential
people at this time such as the artist and writer Henry Fuseli,
the writer Anna Laetitia Barbauld and the political reformer Thomas
Holcroft.
1788: In May the
Analytical Review begins publication and during the year prints
Wollstonecraft's first novel," Mary: A Fiction", her children's
book "Original Stories from Real Life" and her translation
of "Of the Importance of Religious Opinions" by Jacques
Necker.
1789: Mary Wollstonecraft's
anthology, "The Female Reader" is published by Johnson
under the pseudonym of Mr. Cresswick. She begins to be romantically
attached with Henry Fuseli.
1790: Mary's translations
of Christian Gotthilf Salzmann's "Elements of Morality"
and "Young Grandison" by Maria Geertruida van de Werken
de Cambon are published by Johnson. The former is illustrated by
William Blake. In November she publishes
"A Vindication of the Rights of Man" anonymously at first
and then under her own name on 18th December as she was upset by
the attacks on her friend Richard Price by Edmund
Burke. Mary temporarily adopts Ann a seven-year-old relative
Fanny Blood's husband Hugh.
1791: Mary Wollstonecraft
moves to Store Street. In September the second edition of "Original
Stories from Real Life", illustrated by William
Blake is published. She also begins writing "A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman". She first meets William
Godwin at a dinner in November held by Johnson where Tom
Paine was speaking. Godwin was disappointed
with Mary as she spent to whole time criticising Paine.
At this time Mary was still infatuated with the artist Henry Fuseli
despite the fact that he was already married. She was excited by
his genius and actually proposed a platonic arrangement where she
would live with Fuseli and his wife and travel to France. Fuseli's
wife was understandably upset and the artist ended their relationship
the following year. She sits for a portrait by John Opie which is
now held by the Tate Gallery.
1792: In January
"A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" is published which
Mary dedicates to the French Statesman Tallyrand. In August Mary
and Johnson set out for France but only get as far as Dover. In
December Mary goes to Paris alone this time and meets Thomas
Paine. She looked for other British people and joined a circle
which included the writer Helen Maria Williams.
1793: In April Mary
Wollstonecraft meets the American timber merchant Gilbert Imlay
in Paris. She falls in love with him and registers as his wife at
the American Embassy for protection against imprisonment during
the Terror although Imlay had refused to actually marry her. In
June she moves to Neuilly-sur-Seine to escape the violence but returns
to Paris in September when she realises she is pregnant.
1794: In January
Mary moves to Le Havre and writes "An Historical and Moral
View of the French Revolution". Imlay says he will follow her
but doesn't which convinces her he is now bored with her. Mary gives
birth to Imlay's daughter Frances (Fanny) on 14 May. Imlay returns
to England, leaving Mary alone with her new daughter. "An Historical
View" is published in London in December.
1795: In April Mary
Wollstonecraft returns to England to try and find Imlay but is rejected
by him. She goes to live in Charlotte Street, London and makes an
unsuccessful attempt at suicide in May realising that Imlay already
has a mistress. She is saved by Imlay. In June she goes to Scandinavia
with her maid and Fanny to do some business for Imlay in a desperate
attempt to win him back.She returns again to London in September.
In October she makes a second attempt at suicide by jumping off
Putney Bridge into the River Thames but is rescued by strangers.
1796: In April she
sees Godwin again and on the 21st August
begins a full blown relationship. He had been impressed by her passion
in her “Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway,
and Denmark” about her love for Imlay. She starts to write "Maria:
or The Wrongs of Woman".
1797: She Marries
William Godwin on 29th March at St Pancras Old Church.
St Pancras Old Church where Mary Wollstonecraft and William
Godwin were married.
The church has stood here since the eleventh century.
The West Tower was demolished in the mid nineteenth Century
and a new bell tower was erected on the side.
(© Anthony Blagg)
The couple move into 29 The Polygon, Somers Town,
London which were actually two adjoining houses, so that they could
still be independent. They had decided to get married to make the
new baby legitimate but it made their friends aware that she had
not been married to Imlay and many now shunned them. Godwin was
further criticised as he had already advocated the abolition of
marriage in his philosophical treatise "Political Justice".
John Opie paints the famous portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft which
is now in the National Portrait Gallery.
On the 30th August Mary gives birth to a daughter,
also called Mary (later to become Mary
Shelley). The placenta broke during delivery and Mary became
infected which puerperal fever. She survived several days in agony
until she actually died on 10 September of septicaemia.
(1798): William
Godwin published his "Posthumous Works of the Author of
a Vindication of the Rights of Woman" and his "Memoirs
of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman". He
felt he was honouring his wife's memory with love but many readers
were shocked at the story of illegitimate children, love affairs,
and suicide and her reputation went into the decline for the next
forty years or more.
Written Works:
- 1786:
“Thoughts on the Education of Daughters”.
- 1788: "Mary
- A Fiction", "Original Stories from Real Life Conversations
Calculated to regulate the Affections and Form the Mind of Truth
and Goodness" (Children's Book).
- 1789: “The
Female Reader”. “Miscellaneous Pieces for the Improvement of Young
Women”.
- 1790:
"The Rights of Men".
- 1792:
“A Vindication of the Rights of Women”.
- 1794: "An
Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French
Revolution.
- 1796:
“Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and
Denmark”. "Maria: or The Wrongs of Woman"
- 1797: "On
Poetry", "Our Relish for the Beauties of Nature".
- (1798): "Memoirs
of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman" and
"Posthumous Works" both published by Godwin.
Marriage:
29th March 1797 to William
Godwin at St. Pancras Old Church, London.
Date and Place of Death:
10th September 1797, London, England of puerperal
fever and septicemia caused by a breakage in the placenta after
the birth of her daughter Mary.
Age at Death:
38.
Site of Grave:
Originally buried in St Pancras Old Churchyard
but was re-interred in 1851 by her grandson Percy Florence Shelley
in St. Peter's Churchyard, Bournemouth, Dorset, England with Husband
William Godwin and next to Daughter Mary
Shelley.
The original grave of Mary Wollstonecraft and William
Godwin
in St Pancras Old Churchyard. (with detail of inscription)
(Note the ornate grave of Sir John Soanes in background
which was later the inspiration for the public telephone box K2)
(© Anthony Blagg)
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
The British Library.
The Women's Library, Old Castle Street, E1 7NT.
St Pancras Old Church and gardens.
Newington Green Unitarian Church.
Further Information:
http://avindicationoftherightsofmary.blogspot.com/
