Mary Ann Galton

Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck was a British writer in the anti-slavery movement. Born at Birmingham, she was eldest child of Samuel "John" Galton and his wife, Lucy Barclay. Both parents were members of the Society of Friends, and brought up their children strictly. In 1785 the family moved to Barr, Staffordshire. There among their frequent visitors were James Watt, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Thomas Day, Joseph Priestley, Samuel Parr, and Erasmus Darwin whose daughter Violetta married Mary Anne's eldest brother, Samuel Tertius Galton. In 1837 Schimmelpenninck was attacked with paralysis, and moved to Clifton. Her health improved slowly. After her husband's death, in June 1840, she led a retired life. She died at Bristol on 29 August 1856, and was buried in the burying-ground of the Moravian chapel there.