Ann Baynard

Who was Ann Baynard?

Ann Baynard was a British natural philosopher and model of piety.

Like most young women of her class, Ann Baynard was tutored by her father, Edward Baynard, physician and pseudonymous poet and a member of the Royal College of Physicians in London, in science, mathematics, philosophy, and classical languages and literature. Her education encompassed classical languages and philosophy as well as science and mathematics, preparing her for a scholarly life. Considered in her time an exemplar of piety and virtue, her erudition was directed to the elucidation of Protestant theology; she disdained secular learning for its own sake. Although she wrote a number of texts in Latin and English, none has survived.

Baynard declared that secular learning was worthless unless it led to knowledge of God. She was a diligent churchgoer, never missing daily services unless prevented by illness, and spent much of her time in solitary meditation and other pious exercises. Generous to the poor, she set aside a fixed portion of her income for charity. Baynard was active in her attempts to persuade others to lead a religious life. She urged all young people to study philosophy, and, especially, to read the Bible, with a particular appeal to her own sex to make an effort to educate themselves.