Richard Lovell Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish writer and inventor. He had a highly inventive mind and wrote many articles on scientific and mechanical ideas.
Background
Richard was born at Bath on the 31st of May 1744.
The greater part of his life, however, was spent at Edgeworthtown, or Edgeworthstown, in the county of Longford, Ireland, where the Edgeworth family had been settled for upwards of 150 years.
He was of gentle blood-his father being the son of Colonel Francis Edgeworth, and his mother, Jane Lovell, being the daughter of Samuel Lovell, a Welsh judge.
Education
The Rev. Patrick Hughes initiated him in Lilye's Latin Grammar - an office he also performed for Goldsmith, who was born on the property of the Edgeworths-and his public education began, in August 1752, in a school at Warwick.
He subsequently attended Drogheda school, then reputed the best in Ireland; and, after spending two years at a school in Longford, entered Trinity College, Dublin, in April 1761, but was transferred to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in October of the same year.
While still at college, he made a mnaway'match, marrying at Gretna Green, Anna Maria, one of the daughters of Paul Elers of Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, an old friend of his father.
In Lyons, where he resided for about two years, he took an active part in the management of public works intended to turn the course of the Rhone.
Career
Edgeworth devoted much time to scientific reading and experiments; and he made an attempt to establish telegraphic communication. He also invented a turnip-cutter, a one-wheeled chaise and other contrivances. In the pursuit of his mechanical inventions he visited Erasmus Darwin at Lichfield, where he met Anna Seward, and her cousin, Honora Sneyd. His home was now at Hare Hatch, in Berkshire, where he endeavoured to educate his son according to the method explained by Rousseau. In later life, however, the ill-success of this experiment led him to doubt many of Rousseau's views.
In 1785 he was associated with others in founding the Royal Irish Academy; and, during the two succeeding years, mechanics and agriculture occupied most of his time.
In 1794 he returned to Edgeworthtown.
Ireland was, at that time, harassed by internal disturbances, and threats of a French invasion, and Edgeworth offered to establish telegraphic communication of his own invention throughout the country. This offer was declined. A full account of the matter is given in Edgeworth's Letter to Lord Charlemont on the Telegraph', and his apparatus is explained in an " Essay on the art of Conveying Swift and Secret Intelligence".
Practical Education (1798) was written in collaboration with his daughter Maria, and embodied the experience of the authors in dealing with children.
This book, generally regarded as old-fashioned, has a real value in the history of education. Mr Edgeworth's interest in the subject had been inspired by the study of Rousseau and by his friendship with Thomas Day. But he went beyond Rousseau, who developed his theories from his own ingenious mind and related an imaginary process. The Edgeworths brought a scientific method to their work.
In 1798 was elected M. P. for the borough of St John's Town, Longford. The same year, too, saw a hostile landing of the French and a formidable rebellion; and for a short time the Edgeworths took refuge in Longford.
The winter of 1802 they spent in Paris. In 1804 the government accepted his telegraphic apparatus, but the installation was left incomplete when the fear of invasion was past.
in 1806 Edgeworth was elected a member of the board of commissioners to inquire into Irish education. From 1807 till 1809 much of his time was spent on mechanical experiments and in writing the story of his life. In 1808 appeared Professional Education, and in 1813 his Essay on the Construction of Roads and Carriages.
Many of Edgeworth's works were suggested by his zeal for the education of his own children. Such were Poetry Explained for Young People (1802), Readings in Poetry (1816), A Rational Primer (unpublished), and the parts of Early Lessons contributed by him. His speeches in the Irish parliament have also been published; and numerous essays, mostly on scientific subjects, have appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, the Monthly Magazine and Nicholson's Journal. The story of his early life, told by himself, is fully as entertaining as the continuation by Maria, as it contains less dissertation and more incident.