Mary (Fairfax) Somerville (1780 - 1872)

Born 26 Dec 1780 in Jedburgh, Scotland

Wife of William Somerville — married 1812 in Scotland

Died 28 Nov 1872 at age 91 in Naples, Italy

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Biography

Mary (Fairfax) Somerville is Notable.

Mary (Fairfax) Somerville was a Scottish science writer, astronomer, and mathematician. When she died in 1872, she was hailed as "The Queen of Nineteenth-Century Science". In 1835, she and Caroline Herschel became the first women members of the Royal Astronomical Society.^[1]

She was the daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir William George Fairfax (8 March 1739 – 7 November 1813)^[2][3] and his second wife, Margaret Charters (daughter of Samuel Charters). She was born in 1780 at the Manse of Jedburgh, home of her aunt and future mother-in-law, Martha Somerville.^[1] Her father was then at sea.

At age 10, she spent a year at Musselburgh, an expensive boarding school, but received no further formal education (her father forbade it). She learned from relatives (e.g., sitting in on her brother's sessions with his tutor) and by reading (Euclid's Elements of Geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, conic sections, and Fergusson's Astronomy) from her uncle Dr. Thomas Somerville's extensive library.^[1]

She was also strongly political. As a child, she gave up sugar in protest against slavery. She later became an advocate for women's education and suffrage.^[1]

In 1804, she married a second cousin, Captain Samuel Greig, who was the Russian consul in London. They had two sons, one of whom was Woronzow Greig (died 1865), a barrister and scientist. Samuel Greig was not supportive of her academic studies. When he died in 1807, she returned to Scotland with sufficient inheritance to study in earnest.^[1]

In 1812, she married another cousin, Dr William Somerville^[4][5], inspector of the Army Medical Board. He (unlike her first husband) supported and encouraged Mary’s pursuit of scientific and intellectual knowledge.^[1] They had two daughters, Mary and Martha. who both died unmarried.

In 1838, after William's serious illness, they moved to Italy. He died in 1860 in Florence. She continued to be active, publishing ‘Molecular and Microscopic Science,’ in 1869.^[1] She died in Naples, on 29 Nov. 1872 (age ninety-two) , and was buried in the English cemetery there.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Winterburn, Emily. Mary Somerville: the life of the Scottish scientist; 30 Nov 2020; accessed 30 March 2022.
2. ↑ Wikipedia William George Fairfax
3. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 18 Fairfax, William George
4. ↑ Wikipedia William Somerville (physician)
5. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 53 Somerville, William (1771-1860)

• WIkipedia Mary Somerville
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 53 Somerville, Mary
• Mary Somerville's Family (has more genealogical information, including all her children)
• mentalfloss.com. 22 Influential Women You Probably Didn't Learn About in School, 28 March 2022; accessed 30 March 2022.

See also:

• 'Michael Faraday - a Sandemanian and Scientist' by Geoffrey Cantor