MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY
1759 MW born on 27 April in Spitalfields,
London to Edward John
Wollstonecraft, the son of a weaver, and
Elizabeth Dickson
Wollstonecraft, who was Irish. MW is the second of seven
children. Her older brother, Edward (Ned) was born in 1757;
Henry followed in 1761, Elizabeth (Eliza)
in 1763, Everina in
1765, James in 1768, and Charles in 1770.
1763–68
Determined to set up as a gentleman farmer,MW’s father
moves
his family successively from London to Epping, Barking
(both
outside London), and Beverley (in
Yorkshire). Unsuccessful in
these (and later) efforts, MW’s father is
violent at home.
Disgusted with her father’s brutality,
contemptuous of her
mother’s acquiescence to it, and resentful
of their shared
preference for her older brother, MW is
intensely unhappy at
home and driven to seek affection and
nurture elsewhere. While
in Beverley, MW develops a close
friendship with Jane Arden.
1774
The Wollstonecraft family moves to Hoxton, on the outskirts
of London. MW is befriended by a
neighboring clergyman,
Mr Clare, and his wife, who assist in MW’s education and
become a second family for her.
1775
Through the Clares, MW first meets and
develops an intense
friendship with Fanny Blood, later the
model for Ann in Mary
and the namesake of her first daughter.
1776 The
Wollstonecraft family moves to Laugharne, Wales.
1777
The Wollstonecraft family returns to Walworth, a suburb of
London.
1778 As
her father’s finances continue to deteriorate, MW resolves
to live away from home and takes a job as
a paid companion
to Mrs Dawson,
of Bath, one of the few kinds of employment
conventionally open to women of
Wollstonecraft’s position.
While employed by her, MW visits Bath,
Windsor, and
Southampton.
1781
MW’s mother becomes sick, and MW goes to London to nurse
her.
1782
MW’s mother dies. MW’s father remarries and moves to Wales.
Angry with the familial indifference of
her older brother, now an
attorney in London, MW feels responsible
for the care of her
siblings. MW moves in with Fanny Blood’s
family in Walham
Green, west of London, and helps to
support them as well. In
October, MW’s sister Eliza marries
Meredith Bishop.
1783
MW’s sister Eliza gives birth to a daughter in August, and
thereafter suffers from acute postpartum
depression. Fearing a
repeat of her parents’ marriage, MW
attributes her sister’s
unhappiness to Bishop’s cruelty.
1784 MW
convinces Eliza to take the bold step of running away in
secret from her husband and child, who
dies later in the year.
After an attempt to start a school in
Islington fails,MWstarts one
at Newington Green, a dissenting community
north of London,
with Fanny Blood and Eliza. MW begins a
friendship with the
celebrated non-conforming preacher Richard
Price, and she
becomes a member of his circle. MW is
introduced to Dr. Samuel
Johnson. Everina
Wollstonecraft joins her sisters at Newington
Green.
1785
Fanny Blood leaves the school at Newington Green, and sails
for Lisbon to marry Hugh Skeys. MW journeys to Lisbon to
assist Fanny during her pregnancy. Fanny
dies in childbirth in late
November. MW returns to London in
December.
1786 MW
closes her school because of financial problems that had
mounted during her absence. To raise money
and improve her
spirits, MW begins Thoughts
on the Education of Daughters.
Faced with debts, MW helps her sisters
find positions as teachers,
and agrees to become a governess for the
Viscount Kingsborough
family of Mitchelstown
(County Cork) in Ireland. On her way
to Ireland, MW visits Eton, confirming her
disapproval of public
school education and suggesting material
she would later use in
her education writings. MW passes the winter
with the
Kingsboroughs in Dublin.
1787
Thoughts
on the Education of Daughters is published by Joseph
Johnson, earning MW 10 guineas, which she
gives to the Blood
family. MW travels with the Kingsboroughs to Bristol, and
composes Mary and “Cave of Fancy.” In August Lady
Kingsborough dismisses MW, in part because
she disapproves of
her daughter’s attachment to her.
Returning to London and
working as a reader and translator with
Joseph Johnson, MW
begins her career with a hard-earned sense
of satisfaction. She joins
Johnson’s circle of progressive writers
and artists, eventually
meeting such figures as Thomas Holcroft, Henry Fuseli, Joel
Barlow, Horne Tooke, and Anna Letitia Barbauld.
1788 Mary:
A Fiction, Original Stories from Real
Life and Of the
Importance
of Religious Opinions (trans.
from Necker) published
by Joseph Johnson. MW begins reviewing for
the Analytical
Review, a monthly progressive periodical
recently started by
Joseph Johnson and Thomas Christie.
1789 The
Female Reader published, under
pseudonym of
Mr. Cresswick.
On 14 July, the Bastille falls, and the French
Revolution begins.
1790
MW
publishes Young
Grandison, a translation of Maria van de
Werken de Cambon’s adaptation of
Richardson’s novel, and a
translation of Salzmann’s Elements
of Morality, illustrated by
William Blake. On 29 November, MW
publishes A
Vindication
of
the Rights of Men anonymously,
in response to Burke’s
Reflections
on the Revolution in France (published
1 November).
On 18 December, MW’s second edition is
published, bearing MW’s
name and establishing her reputation as a
partisan of reform.
1791 MW
publishes a second edition of Original Stories, illustrated by
Blake, and starts writing A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
MW meets William Godwin for the first time
through Joseph
Johnson in November.
1792
MW’s portrait is painted by an unknown artist. In January, MW
publishes A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman, which receives
several favorable reviews.MWmeets
Talleyrand, whose proposals
regarding women’s education in France had
disappointed her. A
second edition of the Rights
of Woman, somewhat revised, is
published later that year. MW plans to
write a “Second Part” but
never does so, though Godwin published her
“Hints [Chiefly
designed to have been incorporated in the
Second Part of the
Vindication of the Rights of Woman]” in
her Posthumous
Works
(1798). MW becomes passionately attached
to the painter Henry
Fuseli. After Fuseli and his wife refuse
to let her join their household
as she wishes,MWdeparts
alone for France in December. In Paris,
she meets leading Girondins
and English friends of the Revolution,
including Helen Maria Williams and Tom
Paine.
1793 On
21 January, Louis XVI is executed. On 1 February, France
declares War on England, and English
nationals come under
suspicion. MW meets American fellow
radical Gilbert Imlay and
begins her affair with him. MW’s friends,
the Girondists, fall from
power in late May. The Reign of Terror
begins, dampening MW’s
enthusiasm for the Revolution. In June, MW
moves from Paris to
Neuilly to escape increasing revolutionary
violence. MW is
pregnant and returns to Paris in
September. Although they are not
married, Imlay registers MW at the
American Embassy as his wife
so that she can claim the protection of
American citizenship
(America being an ally of France during
this time). On 16 October,
Marie-Antoinette is executed.
1794 In
January MW moves to Le Havre and starts writing An
Historical
and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French
Revolution. Fanny Imlay born in May at Le Havre. In
late July,
Robespierre falls and the Terror ends.
Imlay returns to England,
leaving MW and Fanny alone. In December,
MW’s An
Historical
and
Moral View of the French Revolution is published in London.
1795 In
April, MW returns to London to join Imlay, and learns of his
infidelity.MWattempts suicide, but is prevented by Imlay. In
June,
MWagrees to travel to Scandinavia with her infant daughter
Fanny
and with Marguerite, their maid, in
connection with Imlay’s
business concerns. MW returns to England
in September. In
October, increasingly depressed over her
disintegrating
relationship with Imlay, MW attempts
suicide by jumping off
Putney Bridge into the Thames.
Anti-sedition legislation is passed
in England.
1796 In January,MWpublishes
Letters
Written during a Short Residence
in
Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In
March, she meets Imlay for
the final time, and in April meets Godwin again.MWstarts to write
Wrongs
of Woman. By mid-summer, MW begins her
relationship
with Godwin.
1797
John Opie paints MW’s portrait. On 29 March,
MW marries
Godwin at Old St. Pancras
Church, although the couple retain
separate households. Their marriage is
something of a scandal, in
part because Godwin had denounced marriage
as an monopolistic
institution, and in part because its
occurrence underscored the fact
that MW had not in fact been previously
married to Imlay. Some
friends drop MW as a result. Their
daughter, Mary, born on
30 August.
MW dies on 10 September of complications
resulting
from childbirth, and is buried at St. Pancras Churchyard.
1798
Godwin publishes MW’s Posthumous
Works, including The
Wrongs
of Woman, or Maria, “The
Cave of Fancy,” her Letters
to
Imlay and other miscellaneous pieces. Also
included is Godwin’s
own controversial Memoirs
of the Author of A Vindication of the
Rights
of Woman, MW’s first biography.
URL: http://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/83439/frontmatter/9780521783439_frontmatter.pdf
The information has been taken on 31st of
October 2008
© Cambridge University Press
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