In
March, 1773, his first wife died after giving birth to a daughter named
Anna. In July, 1773, he married again, Honora Sneyd, and went to live in
Ireland, taking with him his daughter Maria, who was then about six years
old. Two years afterwards she was sent from Ireland to a school at
Derby. In April, 1780, her father's second wife died, and advised him
upon her death-bed to marry her sister Elizabeth. He married his
deceased wife's sister on the next following Christmas Day. Maria
Edgeworth was in that year removed to a school in London, and her
holidays were often spent with her father's friend Thomas Day, the author
of "Sandford and Merton," an eccentric enthusiast who lived then at
Anningsley, in Surrey.
Maria Edgeworth--always a little body--was conspicuous among her
schoolfellows for quick wit, and was apt alike for study and invention.
She was story-teller general to the community. In 1782, at the age of
fifteen, she left school and went home with her father and his third
wife, who then settled finally at Edgeworthstown.
At Edgeworthstown Richard Lovell Edgeworth now became active in the
direct training of his children, in the improvement of his estate, and in
schemes for the improvement of the country. His eldest daughter, Maria,
showing skill with the pen, he made her more and more his companion and
fellow-worker to good ends.
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