ABSTRACT
Several events occurred while Wollstonecraft lived with the Bloods. First, she found love and acceptance by the Bloods. Two, she helped the women earn money because Mr. Blood, like Mr. Wollstonecraft, could not live within his means. Third, Fanny Blood fell in love with Hugh Skeys, but he was reluctant to propose to her because of her family’s impoverished state. Fourth, he had a friend, a well-off shipwright from Rotherhithe who owned his business, by the name of Meredith Bishop, who would marry Bess. This chapter explores, in detail, Wollstonecraft’s extraction of her youngest sister, Bess, from a marriage when she was most likely suffering from what is now known as postpartum depression. Besides analyzing Wollstonecraft’s motives and behavior in this episode of their lives, it suggests the implications of them in her writing.
