Editing Maria Edgeworth (section)

==Life==

===Early life===
Maria Edgeworth was born in [[Black Bourton]], Oxfordshire. She was the second child of [[Richard Lovell Edgeworth]] (who eventually fathered twenty-two surviving children by four wives) and Anna Maria Edgeworth (''née'' Elers); Maria was thus an aunt of [[Francis Ysidro Edgeworth]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Keown |first=Edwina |title=Edgeworth, Maria |date=2011-02-01 |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/edgeworth-maria-a2882 |work=Dictionary of Irish Biography |editor-last=Quinn |editor-first=James |access-date=2023-05-25 |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |language=en |doi=10.3318/dib.002882.v2}}</ref> She spent her early years with her mother's family in England, living at The Limes (now known as Edgeworth House) in [[Northchurch]], by [[Berkhamsted]] in [[Hertfordshire]].<ref>{{NHLE|num=1342141|desc=Edgeworth House|access-date=11 June 2021|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wreyford |first1=Paul |title=Literary Buckinghamshire |date=2008 |publisher=History Press |isbn=978-0-7509-5342-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xvw6AwAAQBAJ&dq=Maria+Edgeworth+%22the+limes%22&pg=PT184 |access-date=11 June 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Her mother died when Maria was five, and when her father married his second wife [[Honora Sneyd]] in 1773, she went with him to his estate, [[Edgeworthstown]], in [[County Longford]], Ireland.<ref>{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=79 |isbn=}}</ref>
[[File:Edgeworthstown House.jpg|thumb|Edgeworthstown House, Ireland]]

Maria was sent to Mrs. Lattafière's school in Derby after Honora fell ill in 1775. After Honora died in 1780 Maria's father married Honora's sister Elizabeth (then socially disapproved and legally forbidden from 1833 until the [[Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907]]). Maria transferred to Mrs. Devis's school in London. Her father's attention became fully focused on her in 1781 when she nearly lost her sight to an eye infection.{{sfn|McCormack |2015}} Returning home at the age of 14, she took charge of her many younger siblings<ref name=dona2>{{cite book|author=Jane Donawerth|title=Rhetorical Theory By Women Before 1900|year=2002|publisher=Rowman & LittleField|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=0-7425-1717-9|pages=130–131}}</ref> and was home-tutored in law, Irish economics and politics, science, and literature by her father. She also started her lifelong correspondences with learned men, mainly members of the [[Lunar Society of Birmingham|Lunar Society]].{{cn|date=January 2022}}

She became her father's assistant in managing the Edgeworthstown estate, which had become run-down during the family's 1777–1782 absence; she would live and write there for the rest of her life. With their bond strengthened, Maria and her father began a lifelong academic collaboration "of which she was the more able and nimble mind".{{sfn|McCormack |2015}} Present at Edgeworthstown was an extended family, servants and tenants. She observed and recorded the details of daily Irish life, later drawing on this experience for her novels about the Irish. She also mixed with the Anglo-Irish gentry, particularly [[Catherine Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington|Kitty Pakenham]] (later the wife of [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington]]), [[Elizabeth Rawdon, Countess of Moira|Lady Moira]], and her aunt Margaret Ruxton of [[Blackcastle House|Blackcastle]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.navanhistory.ie/index.php?page=blackcastle-house |title=Blackcastle House |website=Navan & District Historical Society |access-date=13 May 2019}}</ref> Margaret supplied her with the novels of [[Ann Radcliffe]] and [[William Godwin]] and encouraged her in her writing.<ref name=boy>{{cite book|author=Henry Boylan|year=1998|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition|page= 120|location=Dublin|publisher= Gill and MacMillan|isbn = 0-7171-2945-4}}</ref>

===Travels===
In 1798 Richard married [[Frances Anne Edgeworth|Frances Beaufort]], daughter of [[Daniel Augustus Beaufort]], who instigated the idea of travelling to England and the European continent. Frances, a year younger than Maria, became her lifelong confidante. The family travelled first to London in 1800.{{cn|date=January 2022}}

In 1802 the Edgeworths toured [[The Midlands]]. They then travelled to [[Continental France]], first to [[Brussels]] and then to France (during the [[Peace of Amiens]], a brief lull in the [[French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars]]). They met all the notables, and Maria received a marriage proposal from a Swedish courtier, [[Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz]]. Her letter on the subject seems very cool, but her stepmother assures us in the [[Augustus Hare]] ''Life and Letters'' that Maria loved him very much and did not get over the affair quickly.  They came home to Ireland in 1803 on the eve of the resumption of the wars and Maria returned to writing. ''Tales of Fashionable Life'', ''[[The Absentee]]'' and ''[[Ormond (novel)|Ormond]]'' are novels of Irish life.<ref name=boy/> Edgeworth was an extremely popular author who was compared with her contemporary writers [[Jane Austen]] and [[Sir Walter Scott]]. She initially earned more than them, and used her income to help her siblings.<ref name="Donawerth 2002">{{cite book|author=Jane Donawerth|title=Rhetorical Theory By Women Before 1900|year=2002|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Lanham, MD}}</ref>

On a visit to London in 1813, where she was received as a literary lion, Maria met [[Lord Byron]] (whom she disliked) and [[Humphry Davy]]. She entered into a long correspondence with the ultra-Tory [[Sir Walter Scott]] after the publication of ''[[Waverley (novel)|Waverley]]'' in 1814, in which he gratefully acknowledged her influence, and they formed a lasting friendship. She visited him in Scotland at [[Abbotsford House]] in 1823, where he took her on a tour of the area.<ref name=boy/> The next year, Sir Walter visited Edgeworthstown. When passing through the village, one of the party wrote, "We found neither mud hovels nor naked peasantry, but snug cottages and smiles all about".<ref>{{Cite news | title=Maria Edgeworth |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] | date=12 September 1903}}</ref> A counter view was provided by another visitor who stated that the residents of Edgeworthstown treated Edgeworth with contempt, refusing even to feign politeness.<ref name=hurst>Michael Hurst (1969) ''Maria Edgeworth and the Public Scene''. Fla.: Coral. p. 94.</ref>

===Later life===
[[File:Maria Edgeworth, by Richard Beard.jpg|thumb|Maria Edgeworth, c. 1841]]
Richard Edgeworth was comparatively fair and forgiving in his dealings with his tenants and was actively involved in the estate's management. After debating the issue with the economist [[David Ricardo]], Maria came to believe that better management and the further application of science to agriculture would raise food production and lower prices.<ref name=exatt>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cswep.org/edgeworth.html |author=Kern, William |publisher=American Economic Association: Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession |title=Maria Edgeworth and Classical Political Economy |work=Publications |access-date=1 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725212131/http://www.cswep.org/edgeworth.html |archive-date=25 July 2011  }}</ref> Both Richard and Maria were also in favour of [[Catholic Emancipation]], enfranchisement for Catholics without property restrictions (although he admitted it was against his own interest), agricultural reform and increased educational opportunities for women.{{sfn|Butler|1972|loc=p.&nbsp;112}}<ref name=bo>{{cite book|author=Sharon Murphy|year=2004|title=Maria Edgeworth and Romance|location=Dublin|publisher= Four Courts Press|isbn = 1-85182-852-4}}</ref> She particularly worked hard to improve the living standards of the poor in Edgeworthstown. In trying to improve conditions in the village she provided schools for the local children of all denominations.<ref>{{Cite news | author=Lord Longford | title=Memorial Service, Maria Edgeworth |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] | page= 5 | date=23 May 1949}}</ref>

After her father's death in 1817 she edited his memoirs, and extended them with her biographical comments. She was an active writer to the last, with her final work, the novella ''Orlandino,'' being written and published in 1848.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zimmern |first=Helen |date=1884 |publisher=Roberts Brothers |location=Boston |series=Famous Women |title=Maria Edgeworth |chapter=Last Years |chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/33268/pg33268-images.html#CHAPTER_XIV|access-date=2025-03-11 }}</ref>

She worked for the relief of the famine-stricken Irish peasants during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]]. She wrote ''Orlandino'' for the benefit of the Relieve Fund.<ref name=gift>{{Cite news | title=Maria Edgeworth |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] | page= 5 | date=28 February 1895}}</ref> Her letters to the Quaker Relief Committee provide a vivid account of the desperate plight facing the tenants in Edgeworthstown, the extreme conditions under which they lived, and the struggle to obtain whatever aid and assistance she could to alleviate their plight.<ref>Neiligh O Cléirigh – Hardship and High Living: Irish Women's Lives 1808–1923. Portobello Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-9519249-1-5}}</ref><ref>[http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/big-houses-of-ireland/edworthstown-house-co.-lo/the-famine-years/ Biddy Macken, Schools Folklore Collection] accessed 26 September 2011</ref> Through her efforts she received gifts for the poor from America.<ref name=gift/>

During the Irish Famine Edgeworth insisted that only those of her tenants who had paid their rent in full would receive relief. Edgeworth also punished those of her tenants who voted against her Tory preferences.<ref name=hurst/>

With the election of [[William Rowan Hamilton]] to president of the Royal Irish Academy, Maria became a dominant source of advice for Hamilton, particularly on the issue of literature in Ireland. She suggested that women should be allowed to participate in events held by the academy. For her guidance and help, Hamilton made Edgeworth an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1837, following in the footsteps of Louisa Beaufort, a former member of the academy and a relative of hers.{{sfn|McCormack |2015}}

After a visit to see her relations in Trim, Maria, now in her eighties, began to feel heart pains and died suddenly of a heart attack in Edgeworthstown on 22 May 1849.{{sfn|McCormack |2015}}