Margaret Bryan: Newly Discovered Biographical Information about the Author of A Compendious System of Astronomy (1797)

Abstract

This paper gives the results of a successful search to uncover new biographical details about Margaret Bryan, the English author of several textbooks intended to educate young women: A compendious system of astronomy (editions in 1797, 1799 and 1805), Lectures on natural philosophy (1806) and Astronomical and geographical class book for schools (1815). Among the hitherto unknown information collected from contemporary wills, parish records, civil records and newspapers in England are the names of her parents and other family members, the year and place of her baptism, the year and place of her marriage, the names of her husband and two daughters and a possible year and place of her death.