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where she was taught needlework.
However, one member of Mary’s family did encourage her educational ambitions. When visiting her uncle in Jedburgh near the English border Mary told him that she had been teaching herself Latin. Far from being cross, her uncle encouraged her and the two would read Latin before breakfast while Mary stayed with him in Jedburgh.
When Mary was about thirteen, the family rented a house in Edinburgh where they spent the winter months, the summers being spent in Burntisland. Mary balanced her life between the social life expected of a young lady at this time and her own private study. She did learn many skills that were seen appropriate for a young lady. In addition to the needlework, she learnt to play the piano and was given lessons in painting from the artist Alexander Nasmyth, then in his thirties, an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution and friend of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns.
In fact it was through Nasmyth that Mary first became interested in mathematics. She overheard him explaining to another pupil that Euclid’s Elements formed the basis for understanding perspective in painting, but much more, it was the basis for understanding astronomy and other sciences. This comment inspired Mary to study Euclid.
There was another quite different reason why Mary became interested in studying algebra. She read an article on the subject in a woman’s magazine belonging to a friend. Her younger brother’s tutor was able to provide Mary with algebra texts and help introduce her to the subject. Mary became so engrossed in mathematics that her parents worried that her health would suffer because of the long hours of study that she put in, usually during the night. Her father believed (not uncommon at the time) that ‘the strain of abstract thought would injure the tender female frame’.
In 1804, when Mary was twenty-four years old, she married a distant cousin, Captain Samuel Greig. Mary and Greig went to London but Mary found that her husband did not understand her desire to learn. As she put it, ‘he had a very low opinion of the capacity of my sex, and had neither knowledge of, nor interest in, science of any kind.’
Samuel Greig died three years after the marriage. By this time Mary had given birth to two sons – one was Woronzow Greig – and on the death of her husband she returned to Scotland with them. She now had a circle of friends who strongly encouraged her in her studies of mathematics and science.
In particular John Playfair, then professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh, encouraged her and through him she began a correspondence with a former pupil of Playfair called William Wallace. In this correspondence they discussed the mathematical problems set in the Mathematical Repository and in 1811 Mary received a silver medal for her solution to one of these problems. At this time Mary read, among other things, Sir Isaac Newton’s famous Principia (1687).
In 1812 Mary Greig married William Somerville, an inspector of hospitals. William was the son of her aunt Martha and her husband Thomas Somerville in whose house she had been born.
Unlike her first husband, William was interested in science and also supportive of his wife’s desire to study. By the time Ada and Lady Byron met Mary, she was well on her way to becoming not only one of the greatest female mathematicians in the world, but one of the greatest mathematicians of either sex.
Indeed, she soon proved to be one of the most remarkable intellects of the nineteenth century. Her book Connection of the Physical Sciences became famous.
Her son Woronzow soon became a close friend of Ada as well as, later, her lawyer. It is quite clear that, like all of London society, he was fascinated by Ada, and had a romantic interest in her. The feeling wasn’t reciprocated, but she enjoyed shocking him and he lapped up her shocks eagerly and faithfully.
His biographical document about Ada is in seven foolscap
However, one member of Mary’s family did encourage her educational ambitions. When visiting her uncle in Jedburgh near the English border Mary told him that she had been teaching herself Latin. Far from being cross, her uncle encouraged her and the two would read Latin before breakfast while Mary stayed with him in Jedburgh.
When Mary was about thirteen, the family rented a house in Edinburgh where they spent the winter months, the summers being spent in Burntisland. Mary balanced her life between the social life expected of a young lady at this time and her own private study. She did learn many skills that were seen appropriate for a young lady. In addition to the needlework, she learnt to play the piano and was given lessons in painting from the artist Alexander Nasmyth, then in his thirties, an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution and friend of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns.
In fact it was through Nasmyth that Mary first became interested in mathematics. She overheard him explaining to another pupil that Euclid’s Elements formed the basis for understanding perspective in painting, but much more, it was the basis for understanding astronomy and other sciences. This comment inspired Mary to study Euclid.
There was another quite different reason why Mary became interested in studying algebra. She read an article on the subject in a woman’s magazine belonging to a friend. Her younger brother’s tutor was able to provide Mary with algebra texts and help introduce her to the subject. Mary became so engrossed in mathematics that her parents worried that her health would suffer because of the long hours of study that she put in, usually during the night. Her father believed (not uncommon at the time) that ‘the strain of abstract thought would injure the tender female frame’.
In 1804, when Mary was twenty-four years old, she married a distant cousin, Captain Samuel Greig. Mary and Greig went to London but Mary found that her husband did not understand her desire to learn. As she put it, ‘he had a very low opinion of the capacity of my sex, and had neither knowledge of, nor interest in, science of any kind.’
Samuel Greig died three years after the marriage. By this time Mary had given birth to two sons – one was Woronzow Greig – and on the death of her husband she returned to Scotland with them. She now had a circle of friends who strongly encouraged her in her studies of mathematics and science.
In particular John Playfair, then professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh, encouraged her and through him she began a correspondence with a former pupil of Playfair called William Wallace. In this correspondence they discussed the mathematical problems set in the Mathematical Repository and in 1811 Mary received a silver medal for her solution to one of these problems. At this time Mary read, among other things, Sir Isaac Newton’s famous Principia (1687).
In 1812 Mary Greig married William Somerville, an inspector of hospitals. William was the son of her aunt Martha and her husband Thomas Somerville in whose house she had been born.
Unlike her first husband, William was interested in science and also supportive of his wife’s desire to study. By the time Ada and Lady Byron met Mary, she was well on her way to becoming not only one of the greatest female mathematicians in the world, but one of the greatest mathematicians of either sex.
Indeed, she soon proved to be one of the most remarkable intellects of the nineteenth century. Her book Connection of the Physical Sciences became famous.
Her son Woronzow soon became a close friend of Ada as well as, later, her lawyer. It is quite clear that, like all of London society, he was fascinated by Ada, and had a romantic interest in her. The feeling wasn’t reciprocated, but she enjoyed shocking him and he lapped up her shocks eagerly and faithfully.
His biographical document about Ada is in seven foolscap
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