Frances "Fanny" Blood (1758 – 29 November 1785) was an English illustrator and educator, and longtime friend of

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft ( , ; 27 April 175910 September 1797) was an English writer and philosopher best known for her advocacy of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional ...

Early life

Blood was born in 1758, the daughter of Matthew Blood the Younger (1730–1794) and Caroline Roe ( 1730–1805).

Career

Blood was paid by the botanist William Curtis to paint wildflowers for his book '' Flora Londinensis''. This created an income for her family. Blood was engaged to Hugh Skeys, a wine merchant of Dublin, but her fiancé had gone to sea to establish money that would finance their marriage. Fanny Blood and her brother, Lieutenant George Blood (1762–1844), were good friends with

. They met in 1774 after introductions by common friends, the Clares. As Wollstonecraft's husband

William Godwin William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous fo ...

wrote, Wollstonecraft "contracted a friendship so fervent, as for years to have constituted the ruling passion of her mind". Blood, together with Mary Wollstonecraft and Wollstonecraft's sisters, Eliza and Everina, opened a school, first in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, which soon failed, and then in

Newington Green Newington Green is an open space in North London between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, Green Lanes and Matthias Road to the north, ...

. The school was combined with a

boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...

for women and their children. On 24 February 1785 Blood married Skeys. When Blood married and left the school, Wollstonecraft left too, to take care of her friend. In their absence the second school failed as well. Blood died in childbirth in Lisbon, Portugal, on 29 November 1785. She was buried in the British Cemetery in Lisbon with her son William Skeys. Wollstonecraft was deeply affected by Blood's death, which in part inspired her first novel, '' Mary: A Fiction'' (1788). Wollstonecraft named her daughter, Fanny Imlay (1794–1816), after her friend.

References

Bibliography

* Godwin, William. ''

Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ''Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' (1798) is William Godwin's biography of his late wife Mary Wollstonecraft. Rarely published in the nineteenth century and sparingly even today, ''Memoirs'' is most often viewed ...

''. Eds. Pamela Clemit and Gina Luria Walker. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2001. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Blood, Fanny 1758 births 1785 deaths 18th-century English educators 18th-century British women artists Painters from London Schoolteachers from London Deaths in childbirth English flower artists English illustrators