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

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

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 William Curtis (11 January 1746 – 7 July 1799) was an English botanist and entomologist, who was born at Alton, Hampshire, site of the Curtis Museum. Curtis began as an apothecary, before turning his attention to botany and other natural hi ...

to paint wildflowers for his book ''

Flora Londinensis ''Flora Londinensis'' is a folio sized book that described the flora found in the London region of the mid 18th century. The ''Flora'' was published by William Curtis in six large volumes. The descriptions of the plants included hand-coloured cop ...

''. 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 for ...

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 a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the a ...

, which soon failed, and then in

Newington Green Newington Green is an open space in North London that straddles the border 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 an ...

. The school was combined with a boarding house for women and their children. On 24 February 1785 Blood married Skeys. When Blood married and left the school, Wollstonecraft left as well to take care of her friend—the second school failing as well. Blood died in childbirth in Lisbon, Portugal, on 29 November 1785. 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 Frances Imlay (14 May 1794 – 9 October 1816), also known as Fanny Godwin and Frances Wollstonecraft, was the illegitimate daughter of the British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the American commercial speculator and diplomat Gilbert Im ...

(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 Flower artists English illustrators