Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Memoirs of the Author of a
Vindication of the Rights of
Woman

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Vindication of
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Title: Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Author: William Godwin
Release Date: July 4, 2005 [EBook #16199]
Language: English
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[Illustration: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.]

MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR OF A VINDICATION OF THE

RIGHTS OF WOMAN.
By WILLIAM GODWIN.
_LONDON_: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, NO. 72, ST. PAUL'S
CHURCH.YARD; AND G.G. AND J. ROBINSON,
PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1798.
[Transcriber's Note: corrobation has been corrected to corroboration]

MEMOIRS.
CHAP. I.
1759-1775.
It has always appeared to me, that to give to the public some account of
the life of a person of eminent merit deceased, is a duty incumbent on
survivors. It seldom happens that such a person passes through life,
without being the subject of thoughtless calumny, or malignant
misrepresentation. It cannot happen that the public at large should be
on a footing with their intimate acquaintance, and be the observer of
those virtues which discover themselves principally in personal
intercourse. Every benefactor of mankind is more or less influenced by
a liberal passion for fame; and survivors only pay a debt due to these
benefactors, when they assert and establish on their part, the honour
they loved. The justice which is thus done to the illustrious dead,
converts into the fairest source of animation and encouragement to
those who would follow them in the same carreer. The human species
at large is interested in this justice, as it teaches them to place their
respect and affection, upon those qualities which best deserve to be
esteemed and loved. I cannot easily prevail on myself to doubt, that the
more fully we are presented with the picture and story of such persons
as the subject of the following narrative, the more generally shall we
feel in ourselves an attachment to their fate, and a sympathy in their
excellencies. There are not many individuals with whose character the
public welfare and improvement are more intimately connected, than
the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
The facts detailed in the following pages, are principally taken from the
mouth of the person to whom they relate; and of the veracity and
ingenuousness of her habits, perhaps no one that was ever acquainted
with her, entertains a doubt. The writer of this narrative, when he has
met with persons, that in any degree created to themselves an interest

and attachment in his mind, has always felt a curiosity to be acquainted
with the scenes through which they had passed, and the incidents that
had contributed to form their understandings and character. Impelled by
this sentiment, he repeatedly led the conversation of Mary to topics of
this sort; and, once or twice, he made notes in her presence, of a few
dates calculated to arrange the circumstances in his mind. To the
materials thus collected, he has added an industrious enquiry among the
persons most intimately acquainted with her at the different periods of
her life.
* * * * *
Mary Wollstonecraft was born on the 27th of April 1759. Her father's
name was Edward John, and the name of her mother Elizabeth, of the
family of Dixons of Ballyshannon in the kingdom of Ireland: her
paternal grandfather was a respectable manufacturer in Spitalfields, and
is supposed to have left to his son a property of about 10,000l. Three of
her brothers and two sisters are still living; their names, Edward, James,
Charles, Eliza, and Everina. Of these, Edward only was older than
herself; he resides in London. James is in Paris, and Charles in or near
Philadelphia in America. Her sisters have for some years been engaged
in the office of governesses in private families, and are both at present
in Ireland.
I am doubtful whether the father of Mary was bred to any profession;
but, about the time of her birth, he resorted, rather perhaps as an
amusement than a business, to the occupation of farming. He was of a
very active, and somewhat versatile disposition, and so frequently
changed his abode, as to throw some ambiguity upon the place of her
birth. She told me, that the doubt in her mind in that respect, lay
between London,