Author: Stockdale, Mary R.
Biography:
STOCKDALE, Mary Ridgway (1774-1854: findmypast.co.uk)
She was born on 18 May 1774 in Westminster, the eldest daughter of John Stockdale (1750-1814) and his wife Mary Ridgway (1749-1824). Her father started off as a porter to the publisher John Almon but on Almon’s retirement, he established himself as a bookseller and publisher and was on good terms with leading American rebels: Franklin, Adams and Jefferson. His bookshop also later became a fashionable meeting-place for William Pitt’s supporters. His brother-in-law James Ridgway (1755-1838) was also a publisher and bookseller, a strong supporter of the American cause, friendly with English radicals such as Paine, Eaton, and Spence; in later years he became a liberal reformer. Mary Stockdale was educated at home and, like many women, developed a deep admiration for William Cowper. After her father’s death in 1814, she jointly ran the business with her mother and her brothers John Joseph (1776-1847) and William (1783-1847). After her mother’s death in 1824, Mary continued to run a bookshop and publishing business at 180 Piccadilly but is unlikely to have wanted to be involved in John Joseph’s publication of Memoirs of Harriet Wilson (1825) and subsequent blackmailing activities. Two other brothers died in India. She lived for most of her life in Piccadilly and collected her poems in The Mirror of the Mind (1810-1817), to which she prefixed an account of her life. She also published translations of French instructional children’s books and wrote elegies of public figures (Spencer Perceval, Sir Samuel Romilly, Princess Charlotte). She died, aged 80, on 13 June 1854 at White Hall, Hayes. (Orlando; ancestry.co.uk 5 Aug. 2020; "Stockdale, John," ODNB 5 Aug. 2020; R. A. Manogue, "James Ridgway and America," Early American Literature 31 [1996], 264-88; findmypast.co.uk 5 Aug 2020; GM June Supplement 1814, 701; GM June Supplement 1815, 649; GM Oct. 1824, 381; GM Dec. 1824, 574; GM Apr. 1847, 452; The Welshman 26 Feb. 1847;Windsor and Eton Express 17 Jun. 1854; Boyle 274) AA
Other Names:
- Mary Stockdale
- Miss Stockdale