Maria Edgeworth (Longford Co. Library)
Maria Edgeworth (Longford Co. Library)
Maria Edgeworth (Longford Co. Library)
Portrait of a young Maria Edgeworth from an original etching, artist unknown. Maria was born near Oxford in 1767, the second of two children by her fathers first marriage. Her mother died when she was only 6 years old and when he remarried, the family moved back to Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, where they had been granted a large estate at Mostrim in 1619. At the age of 8 Maria was sent back to England to be educated, returning back to Edgeworthstown in 1782. Maria loved this locality, and this was one of the reasons she turned down the proposal of marriage to Chevalier Edelcrantz, the private secretary to the King of Sweden.