 The second of seven children, Mary Wollstonecraft was born in Spitalfields, London, on 27 April 1759, in a house on Primrose Street. Her paternal grandfather was a successful master weaver who left a sizeable legacy, but her father, Edward John, mismanaged his share of the inheritance. He tried to establish himself as a gentleman farmer in Epping. This was the first of the family’s several moves, each of which marked its financial and social decline. Only Mary’s brother, Edward (Ned), was to receive a formal education; he became a lawyer. He had also inherited directly from his grandfather a substantial part of the latter’s legacy.