Margaret Bryan

Margaret Bryan (1759-1836(?)) was an English natural philosopher and educator, and the author of standard scientific textbooks. She was schoolmistress of a school located at various times in Blackheath, at Cadogan Place, and in Margate at Bryan House above the yet to be discovered Margate Caves. Her first known work was Compendious System of Astronomy (1797), collecting her lectures on astronomy. She later published Lectures on Natural Philosophy (1806), a textbook on the fundamentals of physics and astronomy, and an Astronomical and Geographical Class Book for Schools, a thin octavo, in 1815. Life Personal information about Margaret Bryan was unknown until genealogical research published in 2023 uncovered many details about her life and family. Baptized on 12 October 1759 in West Ham, Essex, Margaret was the daughter of textile merchant Oswald Haverkam and Sarah (née Wall), whose father was an apothecary. Margaret’s mother, Sarah, died in 1767, and Margaret and her siblings were put under the care of her uncle Thomas Nottidge and a second guardian; her father, Oswald, remarried in 1769 and died in 1781. Margaret, then living in Chigwell, married William Bryan in London on 12 July 1783, had two children, Ann Marian and Maria, in about 1784 and 1786, respectively, and by 1794 she was a widow living in Margate. From about 1791 until about 1816 she operated a boarding school for young ladies, initially in Margate and later in several places in London; during this time she also wrote the books for which she is best known. Sometime during or before 1837 Margaret and her older daughter, Ann Marian, had died; her younger daughter, Maria, lived at least until 1847, at which time she was still unmarried. It is possible, though not certain, that Margaret Bryan died on 30 March 1836 in Kentish Town in north London. Teaching Bryan was a schoolmistress. She taught young ladies from 1791 (and possibly earlier) until 1797 outside of London, most often at Bryan House on Hooper Hill in Margate. There is evidence to suggest that in July 1794 Bryan’s day school and boarding school were located in Tonbridge and Hadlow in Kent (villages over 60 km away from both Margate and London); the subjects taught included ‘English and French, Music, Writing, Dancing and Drawing, with every kind of Needle and Fancy Work’. Bryan’s school was back in Margate by 1795.