Anna Letitia Barbauld

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Standard Name: Barbauld, Anna Letitia
Birth Name: Anna Letitia Aikin
Nickname: Nancy
Married Name: Anna Letitia Barbauld
Pseudonym: A Dissenter
Pseudonym: A Volunteer
Pseudonym: Bob Short
Used Form: Mrs Barbauld
Used Form: Anna Laetitia Barbauld
ALB , writing and publishing in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, was a true woman of letters, an important poet, revered as mouthpiece or laureate for Rational Dissent. Her ground-breaking work on literary, political, social, and other intellectual topics balances her still better-known pedagogical works and writings for the very young. During her lifetime an extraordinary revolution in public opinion made her vilified as markedly as she had been revered.
Coloured stipple engraving by John Chapman of Anna Letitia Barbauld, published in the Lady's Monthly Museum, 1 September 1798 (probably unauthorized and not from life). She is in profile, facing left, wearing a straw hat with pale pink ribbon, a white gauzy outer dress typical of the 1790's, and a dark cloak worn off her shoulders.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships Hester Mulso Chapone
The shock was terrible to her; her long-continued grief and mourning would be thought by many people exaggerated. There were rumours that she had not been happy in her marriage. These were vigorously denied by...
Family and Intimate relationships Bessie Rayner Parkes
BRP 's great-grandfather, her mother's grandfather, was the famous Radical and Unitarian scientist Joseph Priestley , sometimes referred to as the father of modern chemistry.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia. Macmillan, 1941.
36
Markel, Michael H. Hilaire Belloc. Twayne, 1982.
1
He and his wife, Mary Wilkinson Priestley
Family and Intimate relationships Elizabeth Heyrick
EH 's father, John Coltman , had been taught by John Aikin (father of Anna Letitia Barbauld ). He was an industrialist engaged in the manufacture of worsteds (material from which stockings were made), with...
Family and Intimate relationships Catharine Macaulay
The celebrations also included ringing the church bells and presenting CM with a gold medal. One of the odes (published at Bath the same year) depicts her as triumphing over other, more conservative women writers:...
Family and Intimate relationships Harriet Martineau
HM 's father, Thomas Martineau (1764 - 1826), had been educated at Palgrave School by Rochemont and Anna Letitia Barbauld (to whose teaching Harriet ascribed his sound radical and Unitarian principles). He became a manufacturer...
Friends, Associates Ann Radcliffe
While staying with her uncle Thomas Bentley at Chelsea, Ann Ward (later AR ) met a number of influential men, most of them with Dissenting connections: Joseph Banks , George Fordyce , Ralph Griffiths ,...
Friends, Associates Maria Edgeworth
In London on this visit ME found comparatively little to interest her. She did, however, visit her publisher Joseph Johnson , whose support for radical writings had put him in the King's Bench Prison...
Friends, Associates Mary Wollstonecraft
Newington Green was a fortunate place for MW to have settled: it was a centre of intellectual Dissent. There she met the radical minister Richard Price , the poet Samuel Rogers , and the teacher...
Friends, Associates Lucy Aikin
LA , dining with Walter Scott , was pleased that though she herself went unnoticed, Scott devoted considerable attention to her aunt Barbauld .
Aikin, Lucy. Memoirs, Miscellanies and Letters. Editor Le Breton, Philip Hemery, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864.
98-9
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
Having already praised many contemporary women writers in print, EOB was now able to meet them. The move to London was accomplished principally through the zealous friendship of Miss Sarah Wesley , who had already...
Friends, Associates Mary Wollstonecraft
On her return to London MW sought out the publisher Joseph Johnson , of 72, St Paul's Churchyard, who became her patron, helper, and friend. He introduced her to Sarah Trimmer , Anna Letitia Barbauld
Friends, Associates Jane Porter
The Porters' mother lived a busy social life on limited means, and JP kept up this tradition. Sir Walter Scott was an early friend.
Mudge, Bradford Keyes, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 116. Gale Research, 1992.
265
When she moved to London, JP included among her friends...
Friends, Associates Hannah More
Here she began to gather the circle of friends which by the end of her long life had touched every cranny of English society. She had already met Edmund Burke in Bristol the previous September...
Friends, Associates Mary Matilda Betham
As well as meeting at Llangollen with Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby (who later talked with high praise of her),
Betham, Ernest, editor. A House of Letters. Jarrold and Sons, 1905.
69, 70
MMB acquired a wide acquaintance in London. She became a close friend...
Friends, Associates Mary Hays
After Wollstonecraft's death, and Fenwick's departure from England, it seems unlikely that MH found female friends to replace them, though she knew well such people as Elizabeth Inchbald , Anna Letitia Barbauld , and Charles

Timeline

1793: The liberal Dissenter Benjamin Flowers launched...

Writing climate item

1793

The liberal Dissenter Benjamin Flowers launched a periodical, the Cambridge Intelligencer; it ran until December 1800.
Mahon, Penny. “In Sermon and Story: contrasting anti-war rhetoric in the work of Anna Barbauld and Amelia Opie”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
7
, No. 1, 2000, pp. 23-38.
35n8, 36n20

After 1 February 1793: An organisation calling itself the Friends...

National or international item

After 1 February 1793

An organisation calling itself the Friends of Peace began campaigning in tracts and pamphlets against the war with France (declared on this day).
Mahon, Penny. “In Sermon and Story: contrasting anti-war rhetoric in the work of Anna Barbauld and Amelia Opie”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
7
, No. 1, 2000, pp. 23-38.
23-4, 37

February 1796: The Monthly Magazine: or British Register,...

Writing climate item

February 1796

The Monthly Magazine: or British Register, edited by Anna Letitia Barbauld 's brother John Aikin , began publication.
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
370-3

By 22 July 1797: William Beckford published a second and more...

Women writers item

By 22 July 1797

William Beckford published a second and more marked burlesque attack on women's writing: Azemia: A Descriptive and Sentimental Novel. Interspersed with Pieces of Poetry.
Beckford, William. Azemia. Sampson Low, 1797, 2 vols.
1: 21; 2: 43, 61, 236ff
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
2nd ser. 20 (1797): 470

1801: The Quaker Joseph Lancaster opened his non-sectarian...

Building item

1801

The QuakerJoseph Lancaster opened his non-sectarian Free School in Borough Road in south-east London; he soon had a thousand pupils.
Dickson, Mora. The Powerful Bond: Hannah Kilham 1774-1832. Dobson, 1980.
78-81
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
376

December 1802: The Critical Review extolled the quality...

Women writers item

December 1802

The Critical Review extolled the quality of contemporary women's poetry: Miss Seward , Mrs Barbauld , Charlotte Smith , will take their place among the English poets for centuries to come.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
2nd ser. 36 (1802): 413

9 September 1803: The first number appeared of the Annual Review,...

Writing climate item

9 September 1803

The first number appeared of the Annual Review, a Dissenting periodical run by Lucy Aikin 's brother Arthur Aikin , which had been planned in 1802.
White, Daniel E. “The Joineriana: Anna Barbauld, the Aikin Family Circle, and the Dissenting Public Sphere”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 4, 1999, pp. 511-33.
531n25
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
411

January 1806: The Monthly Repository, a Dissenting magazine,...

Writing climate item

January 1806

The Monthly Repository, a Dissenting magazine, began publication in London, edited by Robert Aspland .
White, Daniel E. “The Joineriana: Anna Barbauld, the Aikin Family Circle, and the Dissenting Public Sphere”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 4, 1999, pp. 511-33.
531n25
University of Alberta Libraries On-line Catalogue. http://www.library.ualberta.ca/.

January 1807-June 1809: John Aikin (Anna Letitia Barbauld's brother)...

Writing climate item

January 1807-June 1809

John Aikin (Anna Letitia Barbauld 's brother) ran a Dissenting periodical, The Athenæum: A Magazine of Literary and Miscellaneous Information.
White, Daniel E. “The Joineriana: Anna Barbauld, the Aikin Family Circle, and the Dissenting Public Sphere”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 4, 1999, pp. 511-33.
531n25
University of Alberta Libraries On-line Catalogue. http://www.library.ualberta.ca/.

6 November 1817: Princess Charlotte died at 2.30 a.m. after...

National or international item

6 November 1817

Princess Charlotte died at 2.30 a.m. after delivering a stillborn son. Poor clinical judgement was to blame; intense national mourning and controversy followed.
Towler, Jean. Midwives in History and Society. Croom Helm, 1986.
142-4
Bynum, William F. Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
205
Macalpine, Ida, and Richard Hunter. George III and the Mad-Business. Allen Lane, 1969.
241-2
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
2 (1817): 449

Early 1818: William Hazlitt opened On the Living Poets,...

Writing climate item

Early 1818

William Hazlitt opened On the Living Poets, the last of his Lectures on the English Poets, with a statement on gender issues.
Chandler, James. England in 1819: The Politics of Literary Culture and the Case of Romantic Historicism. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
112

By January 1821: Ballantyne's Novelists Library began publication;...

Writing climate item

By January 1821

Ballantyne's Novelists Library began publication; it was completed in 1824.
Quarterly Review. J. Murray.
24 (1821): 57

1868: Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered...

Writing climate item

1868

Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered for books connected with her school-teaching career, published Memories of some Contemporary Poets, with Selections from their Writings, with a good representation of women among her subjects (from...

By Christmas 1869: Francis Galton, mathematician, scientist,...

Writing climate item

By Christmas 1869

Francis Galton , mathematician, scientist, and eugenicist, published Hereditary Genius: An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences,
Saturday Review. Chawton.
28.739 (25 December 1869): 832-3

Texts

Barbauld, Anna Letitia. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld. Editors McCarthy, William and Elizabeth Kraft, University of Georgia Press, 1994.
Collins, William, poet. The Poetical Works of William Collins. Editor Barbauld, Anna Letitia, T. Cadell, jun. and W. Davies, 1797.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. The Religion of Nature. Printed for the Benefit of the Distressed Spital-Field Weavers, 1793.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. The Works of Anna Letitia Barbauld. Editor Aikin, Lucy, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1825, 2 vol.