Anne Conway was born on December 14th, 1631 in London, England. Anne was the youngest child of Elizabeth Cradock and Sir Heneage Finch. Her father was a prominent statesman, Sergeant of Law, recorder of the city of London, and Speaker of the House of Commons who died a week before she was born. She was raised in what is today known as Kensington Palace which then belonged to her family. Since she was not allowed to attend college, she was tutored at home and was a pupil of Henry More. Anne’s half-brother John Finch encouraged her interest in philosophy and theology. Anne wed Edward Conway at the age of 19 in February of 1651. They inhabited her home in Kensington Palace, and later lived at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire, London. Anne and Edward
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She spent much of her time under medical supervision and searching for a cure, even having her jugular veins opened at one point. Anne was treated by many great doctors but none of the medicines had any impact on her. Anne died at the age of 47 on February 18, 1679 in London, England. The stories of the sufferings and corruption of Quaker ladies in English penitentiaries moved the weak, disable Conway to action. During her last years, she persistently advocated for the Quakers, who were abused and denied for their position against social traditions. Conway’s commitment to her new “family” even stretched out to the point of asking her husband to intervene for their benefit. While willing to help his wife, Lord Conway remained hostile toward the Quakers. Conway’s openness to the Quakers and dismissal of her formal mentor’s perspectives are noteworthy for a few reasons. To start with, she surveyed the legitimacy of Quaker religiosity in view of her own perceptions of and engagements with them rather than on the public and negative images maintained by More. With such independent thinking, Conway subsequently expected, or made a signal toward, a critical philosophical interpretive procedure, what later religious feminists would identify as a hermeneutic of
She spent much of her time under medical supervision and searching for a cure, even having her jugular veins opened at one point. Anne was treated by many great doctors but none of the medicines had any impact on her. Anne died at the age of 47 on February 18, 1679 in London, England. The stories of the sufferings and corruption of Quaker ladies in English penitentiaries moved the weak, disable Conway to action. During her last years, she persistently advocated for the Quakers, who were abused and denied for their position against social traditions. Conway’s commitment to her new “family” even stretched out to the point of asking her husband to intervene for their benefit. While willing to help his wife, Lord Conway remained hostile toward the Quakers. Conway’s openness to the Quakers and dismissal of her formal mentor’s perspectives are noteworthy for a few reasons. To start with, she surveyed the legitimacy of Quaker religiosity in view of her own perceptions of and engagements with them rather than on the public and negative images maintained by More. With such independent thinking, Conway subsequently expected, or made a signal toward, a critical philosophical interpretive procedure, what later religious feminists would identify as a hermeneutic of