Mary Ridgway Stockdale (1774–1854) was an English writer on the themes of

Christian spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

. She was born on 18 May 1774 in parish of St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, and was the daughter of

John Stockdale John Stockdale (25 March 1750Probable – Stockdale (2005) p. 117 – 21 June 1814) was an English publisher whose London shop became a salon for the political classes and who had to face two actions for defamation. One by the House of Commons ...

and sister of

John Joseph Stockdale John Joseph Stockdale (1770, 1776Stockdale (1990) ''p.''30 or 1777 – 16 February 1847) was an English publisher and editor with something of a reputation as a pornographer. He sought to blackmail a number of public figures over the ''memoirs' ...

Early life

Mary was a sickly child, educated at the home of her father, a publisher. As she grew older, her health recovered and she pursued her own education, reading widely and enthusiastically. She soon devoted herself to nursing her mother and family and a young maid servant Elizabeth Haws. When Elizabeth died, Mary wrote her first poem, ''The Effusions of the Heart'' which her father offered to publish. However, Mary modestly refused and only allowed publication when she herself again fell ill and believed herself near to death. In ''The Mirror of the Mind'', she wrote of "the emptiness of sublunary things" and that she held "the most perfect indifference for everything around me." She died at the age of 80 and was buried on 16 June 1854 in the parish of

Hayes, Middlesex Hayes is a town in west London. Historically situated within the county of Middlesex, it is now part of the London Borough of Hillingdon. The town's population, including its localities Hayes End, Harlington and Yeading, was recorded in the ...

Works

*''The Effusions of the Heart: Poems'' (1798) *''The Mirror of the Mind: Poems'' (with an autobiography) (1810), 2 vols. *''The Looking-glass for the Mind, Or, Intellectual Mirror: Being an Elegant Collection of the Most Delightful Little Stories and Interesting Tales'', translations from

Arnaud Berquin Arnaud Berquin (September 1747 in Bordeaux – 21 December 1791) was a French children's author. His most famous work was '' L'Ami des Enfants'' (1782-1783) which was first translated into English, albeit bowdlerised, by Mary Stockdale and publ ...

and others *Some minor pieces.Sutton (1897)

References

Bibliography

* (

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

) *Sutton, C. W. (1897) "Stockdale, John", in Lee, S. (ed.) ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Stockdale, Mary R. 1774 births 1854 deaths British religious writers British spiritual writers British women writers English women religious writers