Wollstonecraft Chronology 309higher education from Arden’s father, a Dissenting Chris-
tian and scientifi c lecturer.
1775 After a 1774 move to London, Wollstonecraft initiates a
transformative intellectual friendship with her peer, the
botanical illustrator Fanny Blood.
1776 The American colonies issue their Declaration of Indepen-
dence from Britain.
1778 Wollstonecraft takes a job as the companion of Mrs. Daw-
son in Bath, while her family moves to Enfi eld.
1782 The death of Wollstonecraft’s mother marks a transition
in the life of her family. Mary goes to live with the
Bloods; Mary’s sister, Eliza, marries Meredith Bishop;
and Mr. Wollstonecraft remarries and moves to Laugharne.
1784 Eliza Wollstonecraft suffers a nervous breakdown.
Mary, her sister Everina, and Fanny Blood decide to inter-
vene. Mary runs away with Eliza to Hackney. Eliza’s baby
is left behind, due to the patriarchal marriage and child
custody laws of the time. The baby dies of illness soon
thereafter.
Mary, Eliza, and Fanny attempt to make a living
together. They fi rst seek to establish a school at Islington,
but to avoid competition from other schools in the
area they determine to move to and start a school in
Newington Green. The historical record indicates it
was a successful coeducational day school run by the
three women with the aid of a Dissenting minister,
the Presbyterian turned Unitarian James Burgh, and his
wife Hannah.
At Newington Green, Wollstonecraft attends the ser-
mons of the Dissenting minister and abolitionist Richard
Price, which deeply shape her evolving radical political
perspective.
Wollstonecraft also meets the radical Joseph Johnson,
who is later to become her publisher.
1785 Fanny Blood moves to Lisbon, Portugal, to marry Hugh
Skeys. Wollstonecraft follows about nine months later
to help care for Fanny, who soon dies as a result of
childbirth.
1786 Wollstonecraft writes her educational treatise, Thoughts on
the Education of Daughters.