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
death Hester Mulso Chapone
Anna Letitia Barbauld wrote her obituary for the Monthly Magazine.
Education Mary Lamb
It is not clear whether ML shared her brother Charles's contempt for didactic children's books which stuff the child with insignificant & vapid knowledge instead of appealing to the imagination, which BLIGHTS & BLASTS...
Education Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck
Her home learning had begun well before this: a very early text in her life was Anna Letitia Barbauld 's Hymns in Prose for Children, which her mother used to read with her.
Schimmelpenninck, Mary Anne. Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Editor Hankin, Christiana C., Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1858, 2 vols.
1: 5
Education Mary Howitt
They seem to have made some stops on the way, since Mary says they travelled across a country loud with celebrations of George III's Jubilee (whose date was 25 October). At this school, where other...
Education Mary Cowden Clarke
MCC later remembered her responsibility, when very young, of escorting her two next younger brothers to their school.
Clarke, Mary Cowden. My Long Life. Dodd, Mead, 1896.
10
Unlike them, she began her education at home. She writes fondly about the rich array of...
Education Anne Marsh
At probably four years old AM read Anna Letitia Barbauld 's Lessons for Children (a composite title for her various books for the very young). With her reader Anne Caldwell, Barbauld achieved her aim of...
Education Frances Power Cobbe
FPC received lessons from her nurse Martha Jones and from her mother . Her reading included Sarah Trimmer 's History of the Robins, Anna Barbauld 's Lessons for Children, and poetry by Jane Taylor
Education Georgiana Fullerton
She could read by four-and-a-half, and recalls an early admiration for hymns by Anna Letitia Barbauld and Maria Edgeworth . Julius Cæsar, the first Shakespearean play that she saw, left a lasting impression. Later...
Education Harriet Martineau
When young, HM was taught by her older siblings. Her eldest sister, Elizabeth , taught her French, Thomas taught her Latin, and Henry taught her mathematics and writing. Although practical jokes and name-calling played a...
Education Elizabeth Gaskell
Until the age of eleven, Elizabeth was taught at home by her Aunt Hannah Lumb . As befitting the Unitarian emphasis on personal freedom and rationality, she read widely, and was encouraged to make her...
Education Anna Brownell Jameson
Anna was educated by Miss Yokeley , a governess, who taught her French. After the departure of Miss Yokeley, some time between 1803 and 1806, Anna acted as governess to her sisters. She also taught...
Education Anna Sewell
For most of her childhood, AS was educated at home by her mother, as the Sewell family could not afford formal training for either of the children. Mary Sewell believed strongly in the Edgeworth s'...
Education Mary Louisa Molesworth
Educated privately at home, MLM could not remember a time before she could read, nor any time when reading stories was not my greatest delight.
qtd. in
Green, Roger Lancelyn. Mrs. Molesworth. Bodley Head, 1961.
21
She began formal learning with her mother. She read...
Education Lucy Aikin
LA was educated at home by her mother. Because she did not learn to read as quickly as others in the family, her grandmother (who fondly remembered the unequalled early brilliance of her own daughter,...
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...

Timeline

August 1715: Isaac Watts published Divine Songs Attempted...

Writing climate item

August 1715

Isaac Watts published Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children.
Foxon, David F. English Verse 1701-1750. Cambridge University Press, 1975, 2 vols.

18 June 1744: John Newbery advertised his Little Pretty...

Building item

18 June 1744

John Newbery advertised his Little Pretty Pocket Book, one of the first books aimed at delighting children while instructing them.
Demers, Patricia, and Robert Gordon Moyles, editors. From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children’s Literature to 1850. Oxford University Press, 1982.
104
O’Malley, Andrew. “The Coach and Six: Chapbook Residue in Late Eighteenth-Century Children’s Literature”. The Lion and The Unicorn, Vol.
24
, 2000, pp. 18-44.
22-3, 38n5
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
445

1762-December 1772: Under the auspices of the third Duke of Bridgewater,...

Building item

1762-December 1772

Under the auspices of the third Duke of Bridgewater , a canal was built connecting Manchester with Liverpool (about 56 miles).
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.
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.
533n48

8 May 1769: The independence struggle of Corsica against...

National or international item

8 May 1769

The independence struggle of Corsica against the Republic of Genoa ended in defeat by the French at Pontenuovo.
Chisholm, Hugh, editor. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Eleventh, Cambridge University Press, 1911.
under Paoli

July 1773: The Westminster Magazine printed, along with...

Building item

July 1773

The Westminster Magazine printed, along with its account of Oxford University 's annual degree-giving, an article by L. P.On the Propriety of Bestowing Academical Honours on the Ladies.
Myers, Sylvia Harcstark. The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1990.
271-2

April 1774: The Monthly Review, in a notice on Hannah...

Women writers item

April 1774

The Monthly Review, in a notice on Hannah More 's The Inflexible Captive, quoted some lines which transform the Muses from ancient Greece into the living female poets of Britain.
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
50 (April 1774): 243-51

1777: Richard Samuel engraved his Nine Living Muses...

Women writers item

1777

Richard Samuel engraved his Nine Living Muses of Great Britain (or Portraits in the Character of the Muses in the Temple of Apollo) for Johnson's Ladies New and Polite Pocket Memorandum for 1778...

January 1781-December 1782: The Lady's Poetical Magazine, or Beauties...

Writing climate item

January 1781-December 1782

The Lady's Poetical Magazine, or Beauties of British Poetry appeared, published by James Harrison in four half-yearly numbers; it is arguable whether or not it kept the first number's promise of generous selections of work...

1785: Dialogues Concerning the Ladies, a celebration...

Women writers item

1785

Dialogues Concerning the Ladies, a celebration of famous women, was anonymously published; it borrows from Ballard 's Memoirs of Eminent Ladies.
Guest, Harriet. Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750-1810. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
168-70

April 1789: The Gentleman's Magazine published Anna Seward's...

Women writers item

April 1789

The Gentleman's Magazine published Anna Seward 's selection of living celebrated Female Poets.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
59 (1789): 292

2 March 1790: Charles James Fox proposed in the House of...

Building item

2 March 1790

Charles James Fox proposed in the House of Commons the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts (instruments of discrimination against Dissenters ). Next day his motion was voted down (its third rejection in four...

Late 1790: William Holland published a print of Burke...

National or international item

Late 1790

William Holland published a print of Burke running the gauntlet of enemies with whips: women as well as men.
Guest, Harriet. Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750-1810. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
224-5

1791: Gilbert Wakefield published An Enquiry into...

Building item

1791

Gilbert Wakefield published An Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Public or Social Worship, whose arguments were challenged in different ways by Anna Letitia Barbauld and Mary Hays .
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

19 April 1791: Wilberforce's motion to abolish the slave-trade...

National or international item

19 April 1791

Wilberforce 's motion to abolish the slave-trade (put on 18 April) was defeated in the House of Commons .
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.

14 June 1792: The title of radical novelist Robert Bage's...

Writing climate item

14 June 1792

The title of radical novelist Robert Bage 's anonymous Man As He Is, published this day, suggests the unpalatable truths revealed by reformers or satirists; it influenced later titles chosen by William Godwin and...

Texts

Barbauld, Anna Letitia. A Legacy for Young Ladies. Editor Aikin, Lucy, Longman, 1826.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. J. Johnson, 1790.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Anna Letitia Barbauld : Selected Poetry and Prose. Editors McCarthy, William and Elizabeth Kraft, Broadview, 2001.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Civic Sermons to the People. J. Johnson, 1792, Parts I and II.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Devotional Pieces. J. Johnson, 1775.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Eighteen Hundred and Eleven. J. Johnson, 1812.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq. J. Johnson, 1791.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia, and John, the younger Aikin. Evenings at Home. J. Johnson, 1796.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Hymns in Prose for Children. J. Johnson, 1781.
McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, 1994, p. xxi - xlvi.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Lessons for Children, from Three to Four Years Old. Joseph Johnson, 1779.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Lessons for Children, of Three Years Old. Joseph Johnson, 1778, 2 vols.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Lessons for Children, of Two to Three Years Old. Joseph Johnson, 1778.
Edgeworth, Maria et al. Letters of Maria Edgeworth and Anna Letitia Barbauld. Editor Scott, Walter Sidney, Golden Cockerel Press, 1953.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. “Memoir”. The Works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, edited by Lucy Aikin, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1825, p. 1: v - lxix.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia, and John, the younger Aikin. Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose. J. Johnson, 1773.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Poems. J. Johnson, 1773.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Reasons for National Penitence. 1794.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Remarks on . . . the Expediency and Propriety of Public or Social Worship. J. Johnson, 1792.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia, editor. Selections from the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian and Freeholder. J. Johnson, 1804, 3 vol.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation. J. Johnson, 1793.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia et al. “Songs I-VI”. Essays on Song-Writing, J. Johnson, 1772.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia, editor. The British Novelists. Rivington, 1810, 50 vols.
Richardson, Samuel. The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson. Editor Barbauld, Anna Letitia, Richard Phillips, 1804, 6 vols.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia, editor. The Female Speaker. J. Johnson, 1811.