The beginning is always today – Mary Wollstonecraft

Hidden behind St Pancras International railway station in London is Old St Pancras Churchyard.  The church is the quaint English village type and said to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England. In that churchyard there is a headstone that marks the resting place of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Old St Pancras Church

 

Mary was born in 1759 in Spitalfields and is the mother of Mary Shelley.  That’s not why she's starring in my blog this week though.  Wollstonecraft was also a writer.  She wrote novels, history and a children’s book, but she is most known for the book The Vindication of the Rights of Woman.  Right now you’re probably thinking – “Oh my giddy aunt,” she’s going to start sprouting about equal opportunity and the like, but fortunately, I’m not. The subject doesn’t interest me as much as the writer.

Born into a family where drunken violence was a reoccurring event, she was forced to hand over money to her father that she would have inherited on maturity.  As a teenager, Mary would lie outside her mother’s bedroom to protect her. Wollstonecraft was an avid reader and would spend time reading with her friend Jane Arden who came from an intellectual home unlike her own. A more important relationship that was formed during her life was that with another woman by the name of Fanny Blood.  Go ahead and laugh, I couldn’t believe the name myself. Mary had visions of living in a peaceful bliss with Fanny. However, her friend married and soon after, passed away. 

Plaque in Dolben St Southwark

As you may well know, at that particular time in history, there weren’t many prospects for the less fortunate and whilst working as a governess, Mary decided to embark on a career as an author. The Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the very first feminist books. In the book, Wollstonecraft argues that women should have an education corresponding to their status.  She claims that women are the educators of the nation’s children and not just society’s ornaments. Whether or not you agree with the subject, it’s enlightening to know that even way back in that era; there was somebody who had enough confidence in herself to take a chance on something that was for those times, a little irregular.

Headstone marking the original burial place of
Mary Wollstonecraft

Wollstonecraft married William Godwin after a passionate love affair, but shortly after their daughter Mary was born, she died from septicaemia leaving behind an odd legacy as she had written in many genres. Although the head stone is in the churchyard of Old St Pancras Church, her remains are now in Bournemouth in the family tomb.

I for one prefer not to get involved in feminist debates, but I do believe in freedom of choice.  So if you want to burn your bra, shave your head or become a Brickies labourer, then so be it.  What I will say though is that Once upon a time in London, a woman believed so strongly in something that she chose to write a book that helped pioneer a revolution.