Ann Baynard

Ann Baynard (sometimes spelled Anne) (Born 1672 Preston, Lancashire, England – 12 June 1697, Barnes, Surrey) was a British natural philosopher and model of piety.[1] She sought discussions with atheists and non-Christians. Later, during her eulogy, Reverend Prude called her philosophical knowledge of this 20-year-old woman the same size as that of an "old bearded male philosopher" [2]

Life

Like most young women of her class, Ann Baynard was tutored by her father,[3][4] Edward Baynard (c. 1641–1717), physician and pseudonymous poet and a member of the Royal College of Physicians in London, in science, mathematics, philosophy, and classical languages and literature.[5] Her education encompassed classical languages and philosophy as well as science and mathematics, preparing her for a scholarly life.[3] Considered in her time an exemplar of piety and virtue, her erudition was directed to the elucidation of Protestant theology;[3] she disdained secular learning for its own sake. Although she wrote a number of texts in Latin and English, none has survived.[4]

Baynard declared that secular learning was worthless unless it led to knowledge of God. She was a diligent churchgoer, never missing daily services unless prevented by illness, and spent much of her time in solitary meditation and other pious exercises. Generous to the poor, she set aside a fixed portion of her income for charity. Baynard was active in her attempts to persuade others to lead a religious life. She urged all young people to study philosophy, and, especially, to read the Bible, with a particular appeal to her own sex to make an effort to educate themselves.[6]

Her epitaph read:[7]

"Here lies that happy maiden, who often said,
That no man is happy until he is dead;
That the business of life is but playing the fool,
Which hath no relation to saving the soul:
For all the transaction that's under the sun,
Is doing of nothing—if that be not done,
All wisdom and knowledge does lie in this one."
Anne Baynard obiit June 12. An. ætat. suæ 25. Christi 1697.
O mortales! quotusquisque vestrum cogitet ex hoc momento pendet æternitas."

Quotation
"I would wish that all young persons might be exhorted to read the great book of nature, wherein they may see the wisdom and power of the Creator, in the order of the universe, and in the production of all things." -Anne Baynard, 1697

Notes
  1. Mendelson, Sara H. "Baynard, Ann". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1770. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. A Society of Ladies , The Ladies Monthly Museum or Polite Repository of Entertainment and Instruction - volume 6 , Vernor & Hood, London, 1801, "Celebrated British Ladies n ° XXI", pages 303-309. [https://books.google.be/books?id=L39PAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA309&lpg=PA309&dq=gens+Solymaea&source=bl&ots=J9hMryMdkF&sig=GT3rXJBLEKfpUmuzI36h4SrGeTI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqzPyi08LSAhVJOBoKHZirA_oQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false]
  3. Henry Gardiner Adams, Cyclopaedia of Female Biography, 1857
  4. Lindley Murray, The Power of Religion on the Mind, 1859
  5. Helena Bergmann, "Ann Baynard," Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women's Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part II, Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013: vol. 5, pp. 341-45, editorial notes pp. 465-66
  6. Penelope Whitworth, "Ann Baynard," Project Continua, 2013. http://www.projectcontinua.org/ann-baynard/
  7. The Environs of London: volume 1 by Daniel Lysons on Barnes.
gollark: Also convolutions and stuff, but mostly big matrices.
gollark: Neural networks are just big matrix multiplies. CC can do them, but it's bad.
gollark: (Note: some hypercomputation required)
gollark: Just use Solomonoff induction.
gollark: Yes you can.

References
  • Project Continua: Biography of Ann Baynard Project Continua is a web-based multimedia resource dedicated to the creation and preservation of women’s intellectual history from the earliest surviving evidence into the 21st Century.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.