Born in
Beccles in
Suffolk as
Mary Rede, her father was Leman Thomas Rede. He was a barrister and writer, but was imprisoned for debt shortly before her birth. In 1798, the family moved to
Hamburg in an attempt to escape creditors, where Mary's brother
William Leman Rede was born. After Leman died in 1810, Mary's mother moved the family to London. Mary began writing in 1815, with much of her early work published in
La Belle Assemblée. The following year, she married Richard Grimstone. while her first novel came out in 1825,
The Beauty of the British Alps. This was followed by
Character, or, Jew and Gentile,
Cleone, a Tale of Married Life and, most significantly, ''Woman's Love''. In this last novel, she included a postscript in which she set out her view of women's rights, which had developed through her participation in a circle around the Unitarian
South Place Chapel. During the 1830s, Grimstone was active in
Robert Owen's socialist movement, writing frequently for his
New Moral World newspaper. In particular, she championed better education for women and for men and women to be held to the same moral standards. She also wrote, on similar themes, for the Unitarian journal,
Monthly Repository, and for the
Edinburgh Review. She was also active in the
People's International League and a campaign for early education, led by
Samuel Wilderspin. In 1836, Grimstone married William Gillies, father of
Margaret Gillies. One source says that she withdrew from writing until 1846. She had her writing published in the ''People's Journal''. and its editor compared her work as equal to
Jane Austen. In addition she enjoyed the social life of Mrs Gillies.
Leigh Hunt included her in his poem 'Blue-Stocking Revels' in 1837 and she may have been the basis for "Lady Psyche" in
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's
The Princess. She was in the same social set as other writers including
Elizabeth Gaskell and
Caroline Norton. She wrote about Australia and also about women's rights, but was less radical, mainly eulogising women's moral qualities. When the ''People's Journal'' closed in 1851, she stopped writing, and lived off an annuity until 1869, when she died in Paddington from swallowing disinfectant. ==References==