Threescore Years and Ten

Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan (1809–1892), the wife of the mathematician Augustus De Morgan, was a campaigner on a wide range of issues. She also knew many prominent nineteenth-century thinkers, including Carlyle, and her memoir, published in 1895, gives an insight into the intellectual world of a Victorian reformer.

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Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan (1809–1892) was the wife of the mathematician and logician Augustus De Morgan and mother of ceramicist William De Morgan. In Threescore Years and Ten, completed in 1887, edited by her daughter Mary, and published in 1895, De Morgan recounts her formative early years and the influence of her father, the social reformer William Frend. She followed in his footsteps and fought for many causes, including higher education for women and prison reform. She was also an early animal rights activist and campaigned against vivisection. Throughout her life, De Morgan encountered some of the leading writers and thinkers of the time – she was introduced to William Blake when she was a child and many years later found herself the neighbour of Thomas Carlyle. De Morgan's reflections on her life offer an insight into the intellectual world of a Victorian social reformer.