Mary Wollstonecraft was born on the 27th of April, 1759. Her
father - a quick-tempered and unsettled man, capable of beating wife,
or child, or dog - was the son of a manufacturer who made money in
Spitalfields, when Spitalfields was prosperous. Her mother was a
rigorous Irishwoman, of the Dixons of Ballyshannon. Edward John
Wollstonecraft - of whose children, besides Mary, the second child,
three sons and two daughters lived to be men and women - in course of
the got rid of about ten thousand pounds, which had been left him by
his father. He began to get rid of it by farming. Mary
Wollstonecraft's first-remembered home was in a farm at Epping.
When she was five years old the family moved to another farm, by the
Chelmsford Road. When she was between six and seven years old they
moved again, to the neighbourhood of Barking. There they remained
three years before the next move, which was to a farm near Beverley,
in Yorkshire. In Yorkshire they remained six years, and Mary
Wollstonecraft had there what education fell to her lot between the
ages of ten and sixteen. Edward John Wollstonecraft then gave up
farming to venture upon a commercial speculation. This caused him
to live for a year and a half at Queen's Row, Hoxton. His daughter
Mary was then sixteen; and while at Hoxton she had her education
advanced by the friendly care of a deformed clergyman - a Mr. Clare -
who lived next door, and stayed so much at home that his one pair of
shoes had lasted him for fourteen years.
But Mary Wollstonecraft's chief friend at this time was an
accomplished girl only two years older than herself, who maintained
her father, mother, and family by skill in drawing. Her name was
Frances Blood, and she especially, by her example and direct
instruction, drew out her young friend's powers. In 1776, Mary
Wollstonecraft's father, a rolling stone, rolled into Wales. Again
he was a farmer. Next year again he was a Londoner; and Mary had
influence enough to persuade him to choose a house at Walworth,
where she would be near to her friend Fanny. Then, however, the
conditions of her home life caused her to be often on the point of
going away to earn a living for herself. In 1778, when she was
nineteen, Mary Wollstonecraft did leave home, to take a situation as
companion with a rich tradesman's widow at Bath, of whom it was said
that none of her companions could stay with her. Mary
Wollstonecraft, nevertheless, stayed two years with the difficult
widow, and made herself respected. Her mother's failing health then
caused Mary to return to her. The father was then living at
Enfield, and trying to save the small remainder of his means by not
venturing upon any business at all. The mother died after long
suffering, wholly dependent on her daughter Mary's constant care.
The mother's last words were often quoted by Mary Wollstonecraft in
her own last years of distress - "A little patience, and all will be
over."
After the mother's death, Mary Wollstonecraft left home again, to
live with her friend, Fanny Blood, who was at Walham Green.
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