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Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh
Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (22 March 1615 – 23 December 1691), also known as Lady Ranelagh, was an Anglo-Irish scientist in seventeenth-century Ireland and England. She was also a political and religious philosopher, and a member of many intellectual circles including the Hartlib Circle, the Great Tew Circle, and the Invisible College. Her correspondents included Samuel Hartlib, Edward Hyde, William Laud (the Archbishop of Canterbury), Thomas Hyde, and John Milton. She was the sister of Robert Boyle and is thought to have been a great influence on his work in chemistry. In her own right, she was a political and social figure closely connected to the Hartlib Circle. Lady Ranelagh held a London salon during the 1650s, much frequented by virtuosi associated with Hartlib.
Katherine Boyle was born in New College House on Emmet Street in Youghal, Ireland to Catherine Fenton and Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork on 22 March 1615. She was the seventh child of fifteen. Her siblings included the scientist, Robert Boyle, and the spiritual diarist, her sister, Lady Mary Rich, later Countess of Warwick. It is not clear how much education she received, although it is known that her brothers received an extensive education. She may have been tutored privately by the family chaplains and received an education in religion and manners. As a wealthy man, her father made sure that his sons were well educated and that he secured politically advantageous marriages for his daughters.
When Jones was nine and a half years old, she moved in with the Beaumont family because she was to be wedded to one of their sons, Sapcott Beaumont. When she was thirteen, Beaumont's father died; this event caused the marriage arrangements between the couple to dissolve. She moved back home and two years later married Arthur Jones, heir to Viscount Ranelagh at the age of 15 and she became known as Katherine Jones. It was common for noble women to get married at a younger age, but normally women of this time would not get married until their twenties. As evidenced through letters to her father from her husband, it is insinuated that Arthur Jones was unfaithful to her. Their marriage was not a good one. They spent most of their time living apart, Katherine moving back and forth between Ireland and London, and Arthur spending much of his time travelling. They had three daughters and one son: Catherine, Elizabeth, Frances, and Richard. Katherine lived in Ireland until 1642 when she was trapped in Athlone Castle for four months due to the rebellions in Ireland. Frustrated, she moved to London with her four children in tow.
In 1630, Jones's mother died, causing her bereaved father to erect a monument in St. Patrick's Cathedral which depicts the Boyle family as statues with the parents in the middle surrounded by their children. After her mother's death, Jones assumed a maternal role for her younger siblings Robert and Mary. In one of his memoirs, Robert Boyle recalls a time when Katherine chastised him for eating plums that he was meant to save for his pregnant sister-in-law. Further accounts suggest that Katherine supplied similar moral guidance to her younger siblings throughout their lives and up until her death.
In the mid-1640s in London, she came to be a friend and supporter of John Milton, sending him as pupil her nephew Richard Barry in 1645. Sometime later, Milton also taught her son Richard.
Apart from Samuel Hartlib and his closest ally John Dury, she knew John Beale, Arnold Boate and Gerard Boate, Sir Cheney Culpeper, Theodore Haak, William Petty, Robert Wood, and Benjamin Worsley. Christopher Hill suggested that her house may have been the meeting place of the "Invisible College" of the later 1640s. From 1656 Henry Oldenburg was tutor to her son Richard. In the 1650s her brother Robert Boyle had a laboratory in her London house, as well as in Oxford, and they experimented together. She was also prominent in the Hartlib Circle of correspondents. She commissioned Robert Hooke in 1676, to modify her house to include a laboratory for her brother.
Her letters suggest that her influence and encouragement on Boyle's work were considerable. Boyle credited her in some of his works but using terms like "a great Lady" rather than her name. His contemporaries widely acknowledged Jones's influence on his work, but later historiographies dropped her from the record. Theirs was "a lifelong intellectual partnership, where brother and sister shared medical remedies, promoted each other's scientific ideas, and edited each other's manuscripts."
In 1656, she went to Ireland on family business, staying several years. With Arthur Annesley and William Morice she interceded for Milton, arrested after the English Restoration of 1660. In 1668 her brother came to live with her on Pall Mall. They lived together for the last 23 years of their lives and both died in 1691 within a short period of time. They are buried in the south chancel of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.
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Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh
Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (22 March 1615 – 23 December 1691), also known as Lady Ranelagh, was an Anglo-Irish scientist in seventeenth-century Ireland and England. She was also a political and religious philosopher, and a member of many intellectual circles including the Hartlib Circle, the Great Tew Circle, and the Invisible College. Her correspondents included Samuel Hartlib, Edward Hyde, William Laud (the Archbishop of Canterbury), Thomas Hyde, and John Milton. She was the sister of Robert Boyle and is thought to have been a great influence on his work in chemistry. In her own right, she was a political and social figure closely connected to the Hartlib Circle. Lady Ranelagh held a London salon during the 1650s, much frequented by virtuosi associated with Hartlib.
Katherine Boyle was born in New College House on Emmet Street in Youghal, Ireland to Catherine Fenton and Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork on 22 March 1615. She was the seventh child of fifteen. Her siblings included the scientist, Robert Boyle, and the spiritual diarist, her sister, Lady Mary Rich, later Countess of Warwick. It is not clear how much education she received, although it is known that her brothers received an extensive education. She may have been tutored privately by the family chaplains and received an education in religion and manners. As a wealthy man, her father made sure that his sons were well educated and that he secured politically advantageous marriages for his daughters.
When Jones was nine and a half years old, she moved in with the Beaumont family because she was to be wedded to one of their sons, Sapcott Beaumont. When she was thirteen, Beaumont's father died; this event caused the marriage arrangements between the couple to dissolve. She moved back home and two years later married Arthur Jones, heir to Viscount Ranelagh at the age of 15 and she became known as Katherine Jones. It was common for noble women to get married at a younger age, but normally women of this time would not get married until their twenties. As evidenced through letters to her father from her husband, it is insinuated that Arthur Jones was unfaithful to her. Their marriage was not a good one. They spent most of their time living apart, Katherine moving back and forth between Ireland and London, and Arthur spending much of his time travelling. They had three daughters and one son: Catherine, Elizabeth, Frances, and Richard. Katherine lived in Ireland until 1642 when she was trapped in Athlone Castle for four months due to the rebellions in Ireland. Frustrated, she moved to London with her four children in tow.
In 1630, Jones's mother died, causing her bereaved father to erect a monument in St. Patrick's Cathedral which depicts the Boyle family as statues with the parents in the middle surrounded by their children. After her mother's death, Jones assumed a maternal role for her younger siblings Robert and Mary. In one of his memoirs, Robert Boyle recalls a time when Katherine chastised him for eating plums that he was meant to save for his pregnant sister-in-law. Further accounts suggest that Katherine supplied similar moral guidance to her younger siblings throughout their lives and up until her death.
In the mid-1640s in London, she came to be a friend and supporter of John Milton, sending him as pupil her nephew Richard Barry in 1645. Sometime later, Milton also taught her son Richard.
Apart from Samuel Hartlib and his closest ally John Dury, she knew John Beale, Arnold Boate and Gerard Boate, Sir Cheney Culpeper, Theodore Haak, William Petty, Robert Wood, and Benjamin Worsley. Christopher Hill suggested that her house may have been the meeting place of the "Invisible College" of the later 1640s. From 1656 Henry Oldenburg was tutor to her son Richard. In the 1650s her brother Robert Boyle had a laboratory in her London house, as well as in Oxford, and they experimented together. She was also prominent in the Hartlib Circle of correspondents. She commissioned Robert Hooke in 1676, to modify her house to include a laboratory for her brother.
Her letters suggest that her influence and encouragement on Boyle's work were considerable. Boyle credited her in some of his works but using terms like "a great Lady" rather than her name. His contemporaries widely acknowledged Jones's influence on his work, but later historiographies dropped her from the record. Theirs was "a lifelong intellectual partnership, where brother and sister shared medical remedies, promoted each other's scientific ideas, and edited each other's manuscripts."
In 1656, she went to Ireland on family business, staying several years. With Arthur Annesley and William Morice she interceded for Milton, arrested after the English Restoration of 1660. In 1668 her brother came to live with her on Pall Mall. They lived together for the last 23 years of their lives and both died in 1691 within a short period of time. They are buried in the south chancel of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.