ABSTRACT
In 1784, 25-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft moved to Newington Green with her best friend Fanny Blood and sisters Eliza and Everina to open a school for girls. She picked an intellectually stimulating and socially dynamic location. The chapel had been founded by the Presbyterians in 1708 and had, since 1758, been ministered by Richard Price, who lived on the Green, and who was often at home to an eclectic range of guests including Joseph Priestley, David Hume, John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The neighbours included Hannah Burgh, who had lived there with her husband James – the Whig politician who had founded a Dissenting academy on the Green – until his death in 1775. Hannah Burgh and Wollstonecraft had a close and nurturing friendship. 1 Although she considered herself Anglican at the time, Wollstonecraft attended Price’s chapel, and their close proximity quickly gave rise to a firm and lasting bond. 2 It is evident he encouraged her intellectual endeavours as well as providing personal encouragement and support. A weekly supper club was the centre of the Green’s social life, and these convivial occasions introduced Wollstonecraft to other notable radical Dissenting thinkers, including Joseph Johnson. 3
