For The Women of T.H.E.T.A. series, the short and vague answer is some, which is true of many works of historical fiction. The genre can run the gambit from having so much historical information it can almost read like a non-fiction reference to the opposite end of having very little historical connection. Most stories lie somewhere in between those two extremes. We’re fortunate to have a large variety of authors meeting the wide preferences found among readers (or even the same reader depending on their mood).
Abigail St. Clare, in Expanding Their Scope, is a fictional character loosely based on female scientists and mathematicians living at the end of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Plots and content were based on historic information, but stretched and pushed. Not very different in spirit from the women who inspired the stories but still very much fictional entertainment.
For example, Caroline Lucretia Herschel discovered many astronomical bodies, Mary Somerville’s deep interest in mathematics caused so much alarm in her family they pushed her to marry, Lady Byron and Ada Lovelace were mathematicians and members of the aristocracy, and Jane Marcet reportedly did experiments with her husband along with her own work. Information like this and more was thrown up in the air, so to speak and rearranged, until Abigail, her family, friends, and world were formed.
Caroline Lucretia Herschel
Mary Fairfax Somerville
Lady Byron
Ada Lovelace
Jane Marcet
In the THETA series, the historical backdrop of the early 1800’s provides the circumstances that inspire and create many of the conflicts, opportunities, and beliefs of the characters, but it’s presence is in no way so strong that it itself is it’s own character. Historical fiction with a modern twist — the boundaries are sometimes blurred to communicate character and plot developments and just to have a little fun!
A future blog article will go into more depth about this topic by sharing a little research for the books Forge and The Ruins (The Women of T.H.E.T.A. books five and six) and pulling in a historical painting into the discussion.
“A man can always command his time under the plea of business, a woman is not allowed any such excuse.”
Somerville, Recollections, 164
Mary Somerville (née Fairfax), Scottish mathematician and astronomer (1780–1872) – medallion by Pierre Jean David d’Angers (MET, 98.7.12)
After the death of her first husband, Mary Fairfax Somerville threw herself into mathematical and scientific studies. She speaks of studying plane and spherical trigonometry, conic sections, astronomy, “the Calculus”, and reading Newton’s Principia.1
During this period, she was in contact with several mathematics professors and solved a prize problem that garnered her a silver medal. One professor recommended books for a course in mathematical and astronomical science, including the highest branches.
“I was thirty-three years of age when I bought this excellent little library. I could hardly believe that I possessed such a treasure when I looked back on the day that I first saw the mysterious word ” Algebra,” and the long course of years in which I had persevered almost without hope. It taught me never to despair. I had now the means, and pursued my studies with increased assiduity ; concealment was no longer possible, nor was it attempted. I was considered eccentric and foolish, and my conduct was highly disapproved of by many, especially by some members of my own family, as will be seen hereafter. They expected me to entertain and keep a gay house for them, and in that they were disappointed. As I was quite independent, I did not care for their criticism.”
Somerville, Recollections, 80
In time, she married William Somerville, a military doctor, who would prove to be much more encouraging in her studies than her first husband. They moved to Hanover Square in London.
It was here where she met the Herschels, Sir William and Lady Herschel. His sister, Miss Caroline Herschel was away during this time, though they would meet on a later occasion. Herschel shared his celebrated telescopes with Mary.
“It would be difficult to name a branch of the physical sciences which he has not enriched by important discoveries. He has ever been a dear and valued friend to me, whose advice and criticism I gratefully acknowledge.”
Somerville, Recollections, 105
The Somervilles, as a couple, were social, enjoyed the theater, and attended many lectures, but the death of their eldest daughter ended a cheerful life in Hanover Square. Her daughter states,
“The long illness and death of this young girl fell very heavily on my mother, who by this time had lost several children. The following letter was written by her to my grandfather on this occasion. It shows her steadfast faith in the mercy and goodness of God, even when crushed by almost the severest affliction which can wring a mother’s heart.”
Somerville, Recollections, 152
Mary would receive a commission from Lord Brougham that she and her daughter describe as changing the trajectory of her life. The following is an extract from a letter written to her husband requesting her assistance.
“I mean an account of the Mecanique Celeste ; the other is an account of the Principia, which I have some hopes of at Cambridge. The kind of thing wanted is such a description of that divine work as will both explain to the unlearned the sort of thing it is — the plan, the vast ‘merit, the wonderful truths unfolded or methodized — and the calculus by which all this is accomplished, and will also give a somewhat deeper’ insight to the initiated. Two treatises would do this. …”
An excerpt from Lord Brougham’s letter to Dr. Somerville, Somerville, Recollections, 162
Surprised and not quite convinced she was the person for the task, Lord Brougham and her husband urged her to accept the challenge, and she did. Arrangements were made so she would have some time to write without the constant interruptions of her family and children. She still spent time everyday giving lessons to her children. Her daughter recollects,
“I have already mentioned that when we were very young she taught us herself for a few hours daily ; when our lessons were over we always remained in the room with her, learning grammar, arithmetic, or some such plague of childhood. Any one who has plunged into the mazes of the higher branches of mathematics or other abstruse science, would probably feel no slight degree of irritation on being interrupted at a critical moment when the solution was almost within his grasp, by some childish question about tense or gender, or how much seven times seven made. My mother was never impatient, but explained our little difficulties quickly and kindly, and returned calmly to her own profound thoughts…Things were so clear to her !” Pg. 165-166
words of her daughter, Recollections Pg 165-166
Once the work was finished, Mary sent it to Lord Brougham to be examined and received a letter from Sir John Herschel.
“I have read your manuscript with the greatest pleasure, and will not hesitate to add…with the highest admiration. Go on thus, and you will leave a memorial of no common kind to posterity; and, what you will value far more than fame, you will have accomplished a most useful work…”
excerpt of letter from Sir John Herschel to Mrs. Somerville, Recollections Pg. 167
A professor from Cambridge thanked her through letter for a copy of Mechanism of the Heavens. She considered its subsequent use to be the highest honor she received, and she would be granted many in the years to come.2
” I consider it to be a work which will contribute greatly to the extension of the knowledge of physical astronomy, in this country, and of the great analytical processes which have been employed in such investigations. It is with this view that I consider it to be a work of the greatest value and importance. Dr. Whewell and myself have already taken steps to introduce it into the course of our studies at Cambridge, and I have little doubt that it will immediately become an essential work to those of our students who aspire to the highest places in our examinations.”
excerpt of letter from Professor Peacock to Mrs. Somerville, Somerville, Recollections, 172
For her work, Mechanism of the Heavens, Mary Fairfax Somerville was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society along with Caroline Herschel. Mary says,
“To be associated with so distinguished an astronomer was in itself an honour.”
Somerville, Recollections, 173
1831 copy of “Mechanism of the Heavens” by Mary Somerville
A bust of her by the sculptor Chantry was placed in the great hall of the Royal Society of London. She was elected, an honorary member of the Royal Academy at Dublin, the Societe de Physique el’Histoire Naturelle of Geneva, and the Bristol Philosophical Institution. Mary received 300 pounds per annum pension from the royal crown so she could continue her studies without interruption.
She says of her husband’s support through her endeavors,
“The warmth with which Somerville entered into my success deeply affected me ; for not one in ten thousand would have rejoiced at it as he did ; but he was of a generous nature, far above jealousy, and he continued through life to take the kindest interest in all I did.”
Somerville, Recollections, 176
When her husband fell ill, they stayed in Rome which is where Mary would eventually live out the end of her long life.
Somerville, Mary. Personal recollections, from early life to old age, of Mary Somerville : with selections from her correspondence, 1873, 78 https://archive.org/details/b21960239/ ↩︎
[Personal note: Epic fail on my experiment to write shorter blog articles faster. We live and learn, and blogging is apparently not one of my strengths. But I’ll keep trying!]
Mary Fairfax Somerville Thomas Phillips, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
During Mary Fairfax Somerville’s adolescence and young adulthood prior to her first marriage, she developed varied talents. She spent five hours a day practicing the piano and also painted landscapes, seizing the opportunity to study painting in school. Mary was very social and enjoyed parties and gatherings.
For a great portrait painting of Mary Fairfax Somerville as a young woman, check out this page at the Art UK website.
A tutor for her youngest brother came to live with them for a time. While math was apparently not one of his strengths, she begged him to bring her something after asking about Geometry and Algebra. He presented her with “Euclid” and Bonnycastle’s “Algebra”, works used in education during that time period. 1
“I asked Mr. Craw to hear me demonstrate a few problems in the first book of “Euclid,” and then I continued the study alone with courage and assiduity, knowing I was on the right road.”
Somerville, Recollections, 53
Mary’s early forays into chemistry did not go as smoothly. On her first trip to a laboratory…
“Mrs. Boswell was gentle and lady-like. The son had a turn for chemistry, and his father took me to see what they called the Laboratory. What a laboratory might be I knew not, as I had never heard the word before, but somehow I did not like the look of the curiously-shaped glass things and other apparatus, so when the son put a substance on the table, and took a hammer, his father saying, ” Now you will hear a fine report,” I ran out of the room, saying, ” I don’t like reports.” Sure enough there was a very loud report, followed by a violent crash, and on going into the room again, we found that the son had been knocked down, the father was trembling from head to foot, and the apparatus had been smashed to pieces. They had had a narrow escape.”
Somerville, Recollections, 55-56
Rising at dawn every morning, Mary continued to study algebra until breakfast, at which point she said her brain usually had about enough, losing clarity of thought.2
Miss Fairfax would eventually marry her first husband, Samuel Grieg, and then move to London.
“I was alone the whole of the day, so I continued my mathematical and other pursuits, but under great disadvantages; for although my husband did not prevent me from studying, I met with no sympathy whatever from him, as he had a very low opinion of the capacity of my sex, and had neither knowledge of nor interest in science of any kind.”
Somerville, Recollections, 75
After three years, Mary’s husband died, and she returned to Scotland with two little boys. Now a widow with decent means, Mary resumed her mathematical studies.
Somerville, Mary. Personal recollections, from early life to old age, of Mary Somerville : with selections from her correspondence. 1873 https://archive.org/details/b21960239/ ↩︎
[A Personal Note: I’m trying a different approach, since my earlier attempt to breathe life into the series was nonexistent ( I apologize for that). Or more accurately, my desire to add more information to my initial story research led me to a rabbit hole, into which I happily tumbled. Then I was stuck.
Getting back to the point (still in that rabbit hole)…
I’ll experiment with multiple, mini articles, sometimes featuring the same person, instead of a more extensive biography like Caroline Herschel’s blog article. That way, I might actually complete them 🙂
I’m really enjoying reading Personal recollections, from early life to old age, of Mary Somerville : with selections from her correspondence by Somerville, Martha Charters, 1813-1879; Somerville, Mary, 1780-1872; Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. I’ll shorten all of that, as others have done, to just Recollections. She has an amusing turn of phrase and a wry way of describing things. I think it’ll be be more entertaining for Mary Fairfax Somerville to tell her story than for me to summarize it, especially in this first part.]
Mary Fairfax Somerville: Interesting Factoids
Mary Fairfax Somerville and Caroline Herschel, were the first women accepted as honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society. However, in 1842, Mary Somerville was not allowed to become an actual member because she was a woman. Instead, they commissioned Francis Leggatt Chantrey to sculpt a bust of her, and placed it in the Royal Society’s Great Hall.
In 2017, The Royal Bank of Scotland featured Mary Somerville on a £10 polymer bank note. Until that time, only the Queen of England had that honor.
Reportedly, the first known mention of the word scientist was used in a review of Mary Fairfax Somerville’s work On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences published in 1834. The reviewer, William Whewell, wished to use a more descriptive word than philosopher for those working in scientific spheres.
Mary Fairfax was born in 1780 in Jedburgh, Scotland. Her father was an admiral in the British navy and away often. She proudly describes him as a handsome officer who bravely executed his duties with great “cool”1. Mary also spoke well of her mother as” indulgent and kind”, and she and her siblings “were perfectly at ease with her.”2
The degree of education Mary was to attain seemed to be a regular source of discussion amongst her immediate and extended family throughout her youth. Her mother told Mary that “she would be contented if she [Mary] had only learnt to write well and keep accounts, which was all that a woman was expected to know.”3 Her father was of a similar mind4, and after coming home from sea for a time, took interest in developing her reading skills. He then determined that she should have a more formal education.
At ten years of age, Mary was sent to a boarding school in Musselburgh. It apparently wasn’t the happiest year as she recalled, “The change from perfect liberty to perpetual restraint was in itself a great trial; besides being naturally shy and timid, I was afraid of strangers, and although Miss Primrose was not unkind she had an habitual frown…”5
Nor was the purpose for her attendance quite realized.
Soon after my return home I received a note from a lady in the neighborhood, inquiring for my mother, who had been ill. This note greatly distressed me, for my half-text writing was as bad as possible, and I could neither compose an answer nor spell the words. My eldest cousin, Miss Somerville, a grown-up young lady, then with us, got me out of this scrape, but I soon got myself into another, by writing to my brother in Edinburgh that I had sent him a bank-knot (note) to buy something for me. The school at Musselburgh was expensive, and I was reproached with having cost so much money in vain.
Somerville, Recollections, 24.
She still enjoyed reading and made use of the family library, where she read, among other things, Shakespeare. A few extended family members took exception to this, which vexed Mary.
“I was annoyed that my turn for reading was so much disapproved of, and thought it unjust that women should have been given a desire for knowledge if it were wrong to acquire it.”
Somerville, Recollections, 28
With guidance from others, Mary took her education into her own hands. Part II will talk more about her teenage years and her early mathematics education. Until then, take care!
References
Personal recollections, from early life to old age, of Mary Somerville : with selections from her correspondence by Somerville, Martha Charters, 1813-1879; Somerville, Mary, 1780-1872; Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 7, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/b21960239
It’s been a while and I apologize for that! I didn’t mean to abandon the Women in Science series of brief bios, but perhaps March is the perfect month to begin again. Mary Fairfax Somerville has been sitting uncompleted for the last two months, but I hope to have that done in the next week or two. She’s pretty awesome; it’s hard to make her biography short!
In the meantime here’s an image of composite pics of a few other notable 18th and 19th century women in math and science.
Composite of a few notable 18th and 19th century women in science. Individual photos can be found on Wikimedia Commons.
Prequel featuring Christiana and Edgar from Expanding Their Scope
At her father’s dinner party, the only man who arrests Christiana’s interest is the one he won’t deem as suitable marriage material.
Mr. Edgar Locke is a foreman. A very talented and intelligent one for sure, but he’s definitely not the same station as the daughter of one of the country’s wealthiest gentlemen.
Do Christiana and Edgar end a relationship before it has even begun because it seems doomed to failure, or do they charge on full steam ahead?
The Foreman is a sweat and clean, dual P.O.V. novella that takes place just before The Women of T.H.E.T.A. series begins. The strong-willed and whole-hearted Christiana Yeatman sounds the opening battle cry for the ladies.
Now on Amazon.
The Imagination Room features Dr. Clinton Fiske from Expanding Their Scope
It began with an introduction to Lady Deanna Prescott’s beloved terrier. She brings disorder to Dr. Clinton Fiske’s order, makes his tidy existence a complete mess, and he loses control of everything.
Including his senses.
Will the confirmed bachelor be confirmed no more?
Or will past enemies, fears, and insecurities keep them apart?
The Imagination Room is a sweet and clean, dual POV novella featuring Dr. Fiske from Expanding Their Scope. Laugh and get swept up as Lady Deanna’s imagination and reality meld into a heartwarming story.
Buy The Imagination Room on Amazon or receive it as a free gift when you sign-up for my newsletter and email list!
Career Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) was an astronomer and discovered comets and nebulae. She is also known for the detailed and careful cataloging of astronomical charts, a couple of which are still in use today. Caroline Herschel was assistant to her older brother, William, who discovered the planet Uranus and subsequently became King George’s III private and royal astronomer. As an assistant, she received a salary from the king, making her one of the first females to occupy such a position.
William educated Caroline in mathematics and astronomy, and she began working as his assistant, cleaning lenses for the large telescopes he created and making calculations for his celestial observations. Caroline started making her own astronomical observations in 1782 and discovered her first comet in 1786. Between that year and 1797, Caroline would discover eight comets along with many other astronomical objects such as a smaller elliptical dwarf galaxy near the Andromeda Galaxy (her work in 1783 was independent of Messier’s discovery in 1773, which he never included in his catalog but noted in a drawing www.messier.seds.org/m/m110.html ).
Caroline then embarked on the project of expanding and correcting a star chart produced by Flamsteed and submitted it to the Royal Society in 1798. She also completed a catalog of 2500 nebulae and another catalog of William’s work after his death in 1822.
Awards
In 1828 The Royal Astronomical Society awarded Caroline Herschel a gold medal. She would remain the only woman to receive this award until 1996. In 1835, she was one of two of the first women to be named Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society (the other woman was Mary Fairfax Somerville who will be featured in a later blog). Caroline became an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1838, and she received a Gold Medal for Science from the King of Prussia in 1846.
Interesting Facts:
Caroline contracted typhus at the age of ten which stunted her growth.
An asteroid was named Lucretia in her honor in 1889.
The C. Herschel crater on the Moon is named after her.
