Born: 12 November 1666, United Kingdom
Died: 11 May 1731
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.
English authoress and linguist
This voluminous writer was the daughter of a merchant of Newcastle- upon-Tyne, where she was born in 1668. She was well educated, and among other accomplishments was mistress of French, and had a good knowledge of the Latin tongue. Her uncle, a clergyman, observing her uncommon predilection, took her under his tuition, and taught her mathematics, logic, and philosophy. She left her native place when she was about the age of twenty, and spent the remaining part of her life at London and Chelsea. Here she pursued her studies with assiduity, acquired great proficiency in the exact sciences, and extended her knowledge of the classic authors. Among these latter, Seneca, Epictetus, Hierodes, Antoninus, Tully, Plato, and Xenophon were her favorites.
She wrote An Essay in Defense of the Female Sex, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, and many other books and essays with the purpose of raising the standard of female education and female character. She was, however, a woman conservative and decidedly opposed to the newfangled spirit of the times. She died at Chelsea, May it, 1731 and was there buried.
The following is excerpted from the Dictionary of National Biography, originally published between 1885 and 1900, by Smith, Elder & Co. It was written by John Henry Overton.
ASTELL, MARY (1668–1731), authoress, was the daughter of a merchant at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her uncle, a clergyman, observing her excellent abilities, undertook to educate her himself. She passed the first twenty years of her life at Newcastle; she then settled in London, and afterwards at Chelsea, where she was a neighbour and acquaintance of Dean Atterbury. She was the intimate friend, to the end of her life, of the excellent Lady Elizabeth Hastings, and the esteemed con-espondent of Norris of Bemerton.
Mary Astell is now chiefly known as the authoress of a ‘Serious Proposal to Ladies’ (1694). It was published anonymously ‘by a Lover of her Sex;’ but the authorship appears to have been an open secret. The proposal was, in her own words, ‘to erect a monastery, or, if you will (to avoid giving offence to the scrupulous and injudicious by names which, tho’ innocent in themselves, have been abus’d by superstitious practices), we will call it a Religious Retirement, and such as shall have a double aspect, being not only a retreat from the world for those who desire that advantage, but likewise an institution and previous discipline to fit us to do the greatest good in it.’ There were to be no vows or irrevocable obligations, not so much as the fear of reproach to keep the ladies longer than they desired.’ It was to be conducted strictly on the principles of the church of England; the daily services were to be performed ‘after the cathedral manner, in the most affecting and elevating way;’ the ‘Holy Eucharist was to be celebrated every Lord’s day and holy day;’ there was to be ‘a course of solid, instructive preaching and catechizing,’ and the inmates were to ‘consider it a special part of their duty to observe all the fasts of the church.’ But it was intended quite as much for mental as for moral and religious training; or, rather, the two were to go hand in hand, for ‘ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice.’ The proposal, she tells us, met with a favourable reception from ‘the graver and wiser part of the world,’ and therefore she published in 1697 a second part, much longer than the first, ‘wherein a method is offered for the improvement of their minds;’ and this she dedicated to the Princess of Denmark, afterwards Queen Anne. The proposal, however, met with unmerited obloquy from more than one quarter. ‘A certain great lady,’ supposed by some to have been the Princess Anne herself, by others the Lady Elizabeth Hastings, was so attracted by the scheme that she purposed giving 10,000l. towards the erection of a ‘sort of college for the education and improvement of the female sex, and as a retreat for those ladies who, nauseating the parade of the world, might here find a happy recess from the noise and hurry of it. But the design coming to the ears of Bishop Burnet, he immediately went to that lady, and so powerfully remonstrated against it, telling her it would look like preparing a way for popish orders, and would be reputed a nunnery, that he utterly frustrated that noble design’ (Ballard). The alarm was surely unfounded. Mrs. Astell observes with perfect truth, in the ‘conclusion’ of her second part: ‘They must either be very ignorant or very malicious who pretend that we would imitate foreign monasteries, or object against us the inconveniences that they are subject to. A little attention to what they read might have convinced them that our institution is rather academical than monastic.’
However, the project fell to the ground; but not without drawing upon its well-intentioned proposer a still more unmerited and, unfortunately, a more widely circulated aspersion. In the 32nd number of the ‘Tatler’ appeared what the annotator of the edition of 1797 justly terms a ‘gross misrepresentation’ of Mrs. Astell under the name of ‘Madonella.’ There is not a shadow of foundation for the insinuation against Mrs. Astell’s personal character, and the account of the proposed college betrays a profound ignorance of the whole scheme which that good lady projected. The slander was repeated in the 59th and 63rd numbers of the same periodical; and in the latter it is stated (no doubt with the intention of turning the whole affair into ridicule) that Mrs. Manley, authoress of that vile work, the ‘New Atalantis,’ was to be the directress of the new institution. The whole story would be unworthy of mention, were it not that it appeared in so famous a paper as the ‘Tatler,’ and that the great names of Swift and Addison are supposed to be connected with the writing of it. ‘Madonella’ is called ‘Platonne,’ but the next point to be noticed in her literary career is her controversy with one of the most distinguished of English Platonists, John Norris, of Bemerton, about one of the pivot doctrines of Platonism, the pure love of God. She again wrote anonymously, but her name was soon discovered. If Mrs. Astell met with unmerited obloquy for her ‘Serious Proposal,’ the balance was partly redressed by the extravagant eulogy which her antagonist, and editor of the ‘Letters,’ lavished upon her. As a matter of fact, the ‘Letters’ are full of pertinent inquiries, and prove the writer to have been, at any rate, a very intelligent woman. In 1705 Mrs. Astell published an octavo volume entitled ‘The Christian Religion, as professed by a Daughter of the Church of England,’ which gives a clear exposition of Church teaching, according to the type of the great Caroline divines; it strongly advocates the doctrine of non-resistance, and protests strongly against Romanism. It was published anonymously, but everybody knew who the ‘Daughter of the Church of England’ was. Another anonymous work, entitled ‘Occasional Communion’ (1705), is attributed to Mrs. Astell by Dean Hickes, who describes it as being ‘justly admired so much.’ As its title implies, it deals with what was the burning question of the day. In 1706 we find her engaged in a controversy with her neighbour, Dean Atterbury, who sends her ‘Remarks’ to his friend Smalridge, ‘taking them to be of an extraordinary nature, considering they come from the pen of a woman;’ ‘had she,’ he adds, ‘as much good breeding as good sense, she would be perfect. She attacks me very home.’ She also wrote against Locke’s ‘Reasonableness of Christianity,’ against Tillotson’s famous sermon on the eternity of hell torments, and against a sermon of Dr. White Kennett, and on each occasion proved herself an acute controversialist. Henry Dodwell speaks of her as ‘that admirable gentlewoman, Mrs. Astell,’ and she deserved the title: for her life was blameless, and her writings show that her abilities and attainments were considerably above the average, though she may not have been so extraordinary a genius as her admirers imagined.
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
ASTELL, MARY, An ornament of her sex and country, was the daughter of Mr. Astell, a merchant at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she was born, about 1668. She was well educated, and amongst other accomplishments, was mistress of the French, and had some knowledge of the Latin tongue. Her uncle, a clergyman, observing her uncommon genius, took her under his tuition, and taught her mathematics, logic, and philosophy. She left the place of her nativity when she was about twenty years of age, and spent the remaining part of her life at London and Chelsea. Here she pursued her studies with assiduity, made great proficiency in the above sciences, and acquired a more complete knowledge of the classic authors. Among these, Seneca, Epictetus, Hierocles, Antoninus, Tully, Plato, and Xenophon, were her favourites.
Her life was spent in writing for the advancement of learning, religion, and virtue; and in the practice of those devotional duties which she so zealously and pathetically recommended to others, and in which, perhaps, no one was ever more” sincere and devout. Her sentiments of piety, charity, humility, friendship, and other Christian graces, were very refined and sublime; and she possessed them in such a distinguished degree, as would have done her honour even in primitive times. But religion sat very gracefully upon her, unattended with any forbidding airs of sourness and bigotry. Her mind was generally calm and serene; and her conversation was not only interesting, but highly entertaining. She would say, “The good Christian alone has reason, and he always ought to be cheerful;” and, “That dejected looks and melancholy airs were very unseemly in a Christian.” But these subjects she has treated at large in her excellent writings. Some very great men bear testimony to the merit of her works; such as Atterbury, Hickes, Walker, Norris, Dodwell, and Evelyn.
She was remarkably abstemious, and seemed to enjoy an uninterrupted state of health, till a few years before her death; when, having a severe operation performed on her, for a cancer in the breast, it so much impaired her constitution, that she did not survive it. When she was confined to her bed by a gradual decay, and the time of her dissolution drew nearer, she ordered her shroud and coffin to be made, and brought to her bed-side, and there to remain in her view, as a constant memento of her approaching fate, and to keep her mind fixed on proper contemplations. She died in 1731, in the sixty-third year of her age, and was buried at Chelsea.
Her writings are as follow:—”Letters Concerning the Love of God,” published 1695; “An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex, in a Letter to a Lady, written by a Lady,” 1696; “A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of their true and greatest Interest,” etc.; and a second part to the same, 1697; “An Impartial Enquiry into the Causes of Rebellion and Civil War in this kingdom, in an Examination of Dr. Rennet’s Sermon,” 1703-4; “Moderation Truly Stated; or, a Review of a late Pamphlet, intitled Moderation a Virtue, or the Occasional Conformist Justified from the Imputation of Hypocrisy,” 1704. The prefatory discourse is addressed to Dr. Davenant, author of the pamphlet, and of essays on peace and war, etc. “A Fair Way with the Dissenters and their Patrons, not writ by Mr. Lindsay, or any other furious Jacobite, whether a Clergyman or Layman; but by a very moderate Person, and a dutiful subject of the Queen,” 1704. While this treatise was in press. Dr. Davenant published a new edition of his “Moderation still a Virtue;” to which she immediately returned an answer, in a postscript in this book. Her next work was “Reflections upon Marriage,” to which is added a preface in answer to some objections, 1705. She next published “The Christian Religion, as Professed by a Daughter of the Church of England,” etc., 1705. This pamphlet was attributed to Bishop Atterbury. Her next work was “Six Familiar Essays on Marriage, Crosses in Love and Friendship, written by a Lady,” 1706. “Bartlemy Fair; or, an Enquiry after it,” was her last work, published in 1709, and occasioned by Colonel Hunter’s celebrated Letter on Enthusiasm. It was republished in 1722, without the words “Bartlemy Fair.” All these works display great power of argument.