Vindication

by Lyndall Gordon

  Joan Ruddiman, a member of the Allentown Historical Association, showed me around Imlay’s hometown in New Jersey. Bryan Waterman of NYU sent an unknown article on Wollstonecraft in a New York magazine of 1799. Dolores de Vera d’Aragona found a key to the English graveyard in Livorno at 63 Via Verdi. Fran Balkwill, a London scientist, showed me around her neighbourhood graveyard of Bunhill Fields where we found the grave of Wollstonecraft’s first political mentor Dr Price.

  Readers of the first draft, New York agent Georges Borchardt and HarperCollins editor Terry Karten, made transforming comments. Other suggestions came from Margaret Bluman, and Pat Kavanagh with her eye for the questionable phrase. Pamela Norris read the chapter on Woman’s Words in the light of her forthcoming book on love. Hilary Laurie of Penguin Classics was encouraging at the start and gave the finished book a characteristically thoughtful reading. English editor Anna South confirmed the book’s course with her understanding response to the first eight chapters. I was sad to lose her when she left the press.

  I’d like to thank Lennie Goodings for her alacrity in taking this on and for seeing the book as part of a larger biographical experiment.

  Appreciation is also felt for the team at Time Warner Book Group: editor Elise Dillsworth, copy-editor Sue Phillpott, marketing director Roger Cazalet, publicist Susan de Soissons and picture researcher Linda Silverman. At HarperCollins, US, my thanks to art director Roberto de Vicq.

  An additional thanks to Caroline Cuthbert for her interest and kindness.

  Siamon Gordon shared journeys to Ireland, Scandinavia, Hamburg, Paris, Pisa, and San Marcello, and discussed every chapter as it was written. The book is dedicated to him for his honesty and continuous participation.

  SEARCHABLE TERMS

  Accademia di Lunatici

  Adams, Abigail Adams, Henry

  Adams, John: ambassador in London; opinion of Barlow; opinion of MW; peace treaty signing; political views; Priestley’s American immigration; relationship with Godwin; relationship with Price; rhyme on secret agents; See Internet for debate with MW

  Adams, John Quincy

  Advice or courtesy books for women

  Alderson, Amelia, see Opie

  Alderson, Dr

  Algiers; Algerian pirates

  Altona. See Hamburg

  Americans, native inhabitants

  American Bill of Rights

  American maritime trade (see Slavery)

  American profiteers. See Barlow, Codman, Imlay, Swan

  American Revolution

  American spies. See Gilbert Imlay, Joel Barlow, Gouveneur Morris and internet documents.

  Analytical Review

  Ann (orphan)

  Anti-Jacobin

  Arden, Jane (later Gardiner): education; friendship with MW; marriage; MW’s letters to; sister’s marriage; teaching career

  Arden, John

  Arendal Arnold, Thomas

  Astell, Mary

  Austen, Jane: boarding school; brothers; economics; education; eye; father’s school; on institutional history; on marriage; publication of works; reading; unwanted suitor; in Winchester; works and affinities with MW: Catherine; Emma; Mansfield Park; Northanger Abbey; Persuasion; Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility; The Watsons

  Austen, Philadelphia

  Avery, Gillian

  Backman, Elias: business associate of Imlay; career; character; family; Mary and Margrethe venture; MW’s mission; purchase of Mary and Margrethe; Rambler bullion import; relationship with Wulfsberg

  Bage, Robert

  Baldwin, Abraham

  Baldwin, Edward (pseudonym of Godwin) Baldwin, Ruth, see Barlow

  Barbauld, Mrs

  Barère, Bertrand

  Barlow, Joel: in Algiers; ambassador to France; American network; appearance; biographical blanks; business schemes; career; defence of Miranda; duality mirrors Imlay (see American spies); on English in Paris; family background; finances; first meeting with MW; in France; French citizenship; in Hamburg; James Wollstonecraft’s debts; letters to wife; in London; Louisiana scheme marriage; meetings with MK; Paine’s arrest; plans for Charles Wollstonecraft; political views; relationship with Imlay; relationship with MW; relationship with wife; Scioto scheme; shipping ventures; and Swan; works: Advice to the Privileged Orders; The Conspiracy of Kings; The Vision of Columbus

  Barlow, Ruth (Baldwin): appearance; care of Ann; on execution of Louis XVI; family background; friendship with MW; in Hamburg; on Leavenworth’s bankruptcy; letters from husband; letters from MW; in London; marriage; in Paris; plan to return to America; relationship with husband Barrett Browning, Elizabeth

  Bastille, storming (1789) Bath

  Baxter (friend of Godwin in Dundee)

  Beall, Mr (land sales)

  Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin de

  Beckford, William

  Bedlam Hospital

  Benedict, Ruth

  Bercovitch, Sacvan

  Berlinghieri, Andrea Vaccà, see Vaccà

  Bernadotte. See Carl XIV Johan, King of Sweden

  Bernstorff, Andreas Peter

  Beverley, Yorkshire

  The Bible; Proverbs

  Biography, alternative plots of; counter-narratives to cut-off with death; fallen woman plot; ‘hated existence’; intellectual women; interrupted life; Mary; truth.

  Bishop, Elizabeth (Bess Wollstonecraft, sister of MW): appearance; birth of daughter; character; childhood; death of daughter; depression; emigration plan; engagement; escape from husband; finances; letters from MW; marriage; meeting with Godwin; meeting with Johnson; MW’s death; Newington Green school; relationship with Godwin; relationship with husband; relationship with mother; relationship with niece Fanny; relationship with sister MW; social status; story told in Wrongs; teaching career; visits to family in Wales

  Bishop, Meredith (brother-in-law of MW)

  Blackden, Colonel Samuel Blackden, Mrs

  Blackstone, Sir William

  Blackwell, Elizabeth

  Blair, Hugh

  Blake, William

  Blenkinsop, Mrs (midwife)

  Blood, Caroline (Roe, mother of Fanny): daughter’s fall; dowry; on Neptune Blood; relationship with MW; shop

  Blood, Caroline (sister of Fanny)

  Blood, Fanny (later Skeys): appearance; artistic career; Bess’s escape; birth of son; death; first meeting with MW; friendship with MW; health; letter to Everina; letters; love for Hugh Skeys; marriage; MW’s journey to; Newington Green school; pregnancy; shop

  Blood, George (brother of Fanny): Bess’s escape; career; character; first meeting with MW; meeting with Fanny Imlay; MW’s letters to; relationship with MW; reputation; sister’s support

  Blood, Matthew (father of Fanny)

  Blood, Neptune

  Blood family: background; finances; MW’s relationship with; in Tipperary

  Bluestocking Club

  Boarding schools

  Boccaccio, Giovanni

  Boiti, Antonio

  Bonnycastle, John

  Boone, Daniel

  Boston Monthly Magazine

  Bostridge, Mark

  Boswell, James

  Boyle, Robert

  Bregantz, Mrs (headmistress)

  Brissot de Warville, Jacques Pierre: on America; execution; imprisonment; Louisiana policy; MW meets in Paris

  Bristol Hot Wells

  Brittain, Vera

  Brontë, Charlotte Brontë sisters

  Browning, Robert

  Bullet, Colonel

  Burgh, Hannah (Harding): Bess’s teaching career; Caroline Blood’s situation; death; foundation of Newington Green school; husband’s career; influence on MW; kindness to MW; letters from MW; loans to MW; support for MW’s journey to Lisbon; support for MW’s teaching career

  Burgh, Revd James

  Burke, Edmund: attack on Price; Bluestocking Club; Cooper’s challenge; MW’s attack on; opinion of MW; political views; Reflections on the Revolution in France; on Terror as theatre

  Burney, Fann
y Burr, Aaron

  Burr, Theodosia

  Butler, Samuel

  Byron, daughter Allegra; dismissed Claire’s novel

  Byron, Anne Isabella, Lady

  Byron, George Gordon, Lord: advice to Mary Shelley; Childe Harold dedications; daughter Allegra; love affair with Claire; political views; publication; Shelley’s feelings

  Cambon, Maria Geertruida de

  Carl XIV Johan, King of Sweden

  Carlisle, Anthony

  Carter, Elizabeth

  Casanova, Giacomo Girolamo

  Chalmers & Cowie, see also Cowie

  Charles I, King

  Charles II, King

  Chartist Circular

  Chaucer, Geoffrey

  Chauvelin, Bernard-François, marquis de Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope, fourth Earl of

  Christie, Jane

  Christie, Rebecca (Thomson): arrest and flight; marriage; MW’s meeting with Imlay; relationship with MW; return to London; social life

  Christie, Thomas: arrest and flight; career; Letters on the Revolution of France; marriage; in Paris; relationship with MW; return to London; in Surinam

  Christine de Pisan

  Church, Mr (‘Friendly Church’)

  Cicero

  Cini, Bartolomeo

  Cini, Catherine Elizabeth Ranieri (‘Nerina’ Tighe)

  Clairmont, Allegra (daughter of Claire and Byron), see Byron

  Clairmont, Charles (son of Charles Gaulis and Mary Jane)

  Clairmont, Clara Mary Jane (‘Claire’): appearance; character and views; childhood; as ‘Constantia’; daughter Allegra; death; education; educational theory; feminism; finances; health; influence of MW; letters; meeting with MK; memories of Fanny; memories of Shelley; mother’s marriage to Godwin; music; in Pisa; politics; pregnancy;

  Clairmont, Clara Mary Jane (‘Claire’)–cont relationship with Byron; relationship with MM; relationship with Shelley; relationship with stepsisters; running away with Mary and Shelley; in Russia; works

  Clairmont, Mary Jane (Vial), see Godwin

  Clare, Mrs

  Clare, Revd Mr

  Clarissa. See Pamela

  Clarke, Dr John

  Clive, Robert

  Clonmell, John Scott, first Earl of, Lord Chief Justice

  Club des Amis de la Loi

  Club for Constitutional Information

  Cockburn, Mrs

  Codman, Richard

  Coleman, Thomas

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: American project; lectures; on MW; publication; reading of MW’s work; spied upon; works

  Commission des Substances

  Committee for Public Instruction

  Committee of Public Safety

  Condorcet, marquis de

  Condorcet, Mme

  Conelly, Colonel (British spy)

  Conrad, Joseph; Heart of Darkness; ‘The Secret Sharer’

  Cooper, James Fenimore, The Spy

  Cooper, Thomas

  Cooper, William

  Copenhagen Corday, Charlotte

  Cotton, Mrs

  Cowie, Mr (associate of Imlay)

  Cowper, William

  Crawford, Elizabeth

  Crèvecoeur, St Jean de

  Cristall, Miss (friend of Everina)

  Crosby, Miss (governess)

  Cumberland (ship)

  Curran, John Philpot

  Curtis, William

  Cutting, John Browne

  Cutting, Nathaniel

  Dacier, Anne

  Dallarde & Swan

  Daly, Ann

  Danton, Georges

  D’Argès (French spy)

  Darwin, Erasmus

  Darwin, Mrs

  Davy, Humphry

  Dawson, Caroline Stuart

  Dawson, Sarah (Regis)

  Dawson, William

  Dazzi, Andrea

  Dazzi, Cristina

  Dazzi, Giovanna

  De Quincey, Thomas

  Debrett (publisher of Peerage)

  Defoe, Daniel

  Delamotte (US Vice-consul in Le Havre)

  Delane, Betty (later Skeys): concern for MW’s health; first meeting with MW; friendship with MW; loan; marriage; at masquerade; niece Ann

  De Lille, Patricia (South African MP) Dickens, Charles,(Smallweeds)

  Dickinson, Emily

  Disney, Mrs

  D’Israeli, Isaac

  Dissenters Doilé, Commissioner

  Dryden, John

  Dublin

  Duer, William

  Dyson, George

  East, Sir William and Lady

  Edgeworth, Maria

  Egan, John

  Eliot, George; works

  Elizabeth I, Queen

  Ellefsen, Margrethe

  Ellefsen, Marie (de Fine Fasting)

  Ellefsen, Peder: accusations against; arrest and bail; career; disappearance of silver; family background; MW’s mission; mystery of silver disappearance; ownership of Margrethe; silver transport to Norway

  Enclosure Acts

  Enlightenment ideals

  Eton College

  European Magazine

  Evans, Elizabeth (preacher, George Eliot’s aunt)

  Eyre, Lord Chief Justice

  Farington, Joseph

  Fawcett, Millicent (suffragist)

  Fenwick, Eliza: appearance; care of baby Mary; help for MW in childbirth; Lessons for Children; letter to Everina

  Fenwick, John

  Fillietaz, Aline (Bregantz)

  Fillietaz, M.(husband of Aline)

  Filson, John

  Finch, Anne

  Finsbury Place, London

  Fitzgerald, Lord Edward

  FitzGerald, Gerald

  Fitzgerald, Henry Gerald

  FitzGerald, Margaret (King) n

  FitzGerald, Mary (Mercer): daughters; reception of MW; relationship with MW

  FitzGerald, Richard

  Flemming, John

  Fordyce, Dr James (physician, son of James)

  Fordyce, Dr George (Sermons to Young Women)

  Forman, David

  Foster, R.F.

  Fouquier-Tinville, Antoine Quentin

  Fournée, Marguerite: MW’s suicide attempt; nursemaid to Fanny; presence in MW’s home; travels with MW; wages

  Fox, Charles James

  France, post-revolutionary

  Frankenstein . See Mary Shelley’s works

  Franklin, Benjamin

  French ballets

  French character; women

  French language

  French Revolution : Barlow’s views; Christie’s Letters; execution of king; Girondins; impact in England; impact in Ireland; influence on MW; Louisiana issue; MW’s presence; MW’s status as American; outbreak; promise of perfectibility; the Terror; turn against women; women revolutionaries; women’s march . See Paris

  Frend (Dissenting minister)

  Fuller, Margaret

  Fuseli, Henry: appearance; background; character; description of MW; friendship with Lavater; gift to Charles; Godwin’s account of; at Johnson’s house; marriage; Paris connections; Paris visit plans; relationship with Godwin; relationship with Johnson; relationship with MW; reputation; works

  Fuseli, Sophia (Rawlins)

  Gabell, Ann (Gage)

  Gabell, Henry Dyson

  Galen

  Gambs, Herman

  Gardiner, Jane, see Arden

  Garrett, Elizabeth

  Garrick, Eva Marie

  Gascoyne, Bamber

  Gascoyne, Joseph

  Gatsby (The Great Gatsby); See Gilbert Imlay

  Gaulis, Charles

  Gaulis, Charles, son of above, see Clairmont

  Genêt, Edmond Charles

  Genlis, Brulart de

  Genlis, Mme de

  George III, King

  George, Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent, then George IV)

  Gillray, James

  Girondins

  Gisborne, Maria . See Reveley

  Giusti, Giuseppe

 
; Gladstone and MW

  Glorious Revolution (1688)

  Godwin, Fanny (Françoise Imlay, daughter of MW), see Imlay Godwin, Mary Jane (nee Vial, then Gaulis, then Clairmont): appearance; background; character; marriage to Godwin; name;

  Godwin, Mary Jane–cont relationship with daughter; relationship with stepdaughters; religion; writings

  Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft (daughter of MW), see Shelley Godwin, William: account of MW; appearance; attractive to women; care of Fanny; character; childhood; contraception; conversations with MW; daughter Mary’s relationship with Shelley; death; editing MW’s letters; education; educational theories; family background; finances; first meetings with MW; friendship with MW; grave; health; letter to Cowie; literary career; love for MW; love-making; marriage to Mary Jane Clairmont; marriage to MW; married life with MW; meeting with MM; meetings with MW’s sisters; MW’s death; on MW’s father; MW’s funeral; on MW’s mood; MW’s pregnancy; political views; publication of Travels n; publishing firm; relationship with Barlow; relationship with daughter Mary; relationship with Fuseli; relationship with Mrs Inchbald; relationship with MW; relationship with MW’s daughters; relationship with MW’s sisters; social circle; Treason Trials; trip to Midlands; view of marriage; works: Bible Stories; biographies; Caleb Williams; ‘Cursory Strictures’; The Enquirer; Enquiry Concerning Political Justice; Fables Ancient and Modern; Juvenile Library; Life of Lady Jane Grey; Memoirs of the Author of ‘The Rights of Woman’; Political Justice

  Godwin, William, son of above

  Goethe, Werther

  Goldsmith, Oliver

  Gordon, Alexander

  Gordon, James

  Gothenburg

  Gouges, Olympe de

  Gough, Francis

  Granard, George Forbes, sixth Earl of

  Granard, Selina, Lady

  Grant, Anne

  Gravel Pit Meeting House, London

  Greer, Germaine

  Gregory, Dr John

  Guerrazzi, Francesco

  Gunning sisters

  Hale, Sir Matthew

  Halifax, Charles Montagu, Earl of

  Halleran, Elinor