Tomb Of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Churchyard Of Old Church Of St Mary

Chest tomb commemorating Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825) and her brother John Aikin (1747-1822), located in the churchyard of the Old Church of St Mary, Stoke Newington. The tomb is constructed of stock brick with a granite ledger slab and Portland stone plaques on the north and south sides. It sits at the south end of the churchyard, positioned just behind the railings to Stoke Newington Church Street and equally spaced between the two Grade II* churches. At the time of inspection in November 2007, the plaques had deteriorated significantly, leaving the inscriptions practically illegible—only the letters A and L of her name could just be discerned on the south side. A small corner of the slab at the southwest end has broken off, and there is an off-centre circular inset at the east end.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld was born in 1743 at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, to Presbyterian parents; her father and maternal grandfather were both ministers. A precocious reader from the age of two, she began writing poetry in the mid-1760s on subjects ranging from politics and religion to women's issues and the natural and scientific world. Her early works demonstrated a variety of styles, from burlesque to sublime and impishly humorous. She published 'Poems' in 1773 and jointly with her brother 'Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose', also in 1773. In 1774 she married Reverend Rochemont Barbauld, who converted to dissent and later became a Unitarian. The Barbaulds together ran a successful boys' school in Suffolk, and Barbauld published books on religion and reading lessons for children. Following travel in France, she published 'An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts' in 1790, celebrating the French Revolution, and in 1791 a satirical work, 'An Epistle to William Wilberforce, esq., on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade'. She also published essays and poems in periodicals such as the 'Monthly Review' and undertook editorial work for publishers. Her final work, the poem 'Eighteen Hundred and Eleven' (1812), criticised British involvement in the Napoleonic wars while celebrating Britain through the reflections of a traveller in London. Though met with anger from the Tory press, it is now recognised as an important work of the Romantic period.

The Barbaulds moved to Stoke Newington in 1802 where they associated with a group of radical intellectuals. Barbauld experienced considerable emotional hardship during these years: her husband committed suicide in 1808 following a separation, his violent reactions attributable to manic-depression; her brother, with whom she had collaborated on publications, died in 1822. Barbauld died on 9 March 1825 and was buried with her brother. Her niece Lucy Aikin edited her 'Works' in 1825, publishing an additional 52 poems beyond the 55 Barbauld had published in her lifetime, and also a collection of her teaching essays in 1826 titled 'A Legacy for Young Ladies'.

The tomb has group value with the Grade II Old St Mary's Church, in whose churchyard it stands, and the Grade II New St Mary's Church directly across the road. It also groups with the Grade II Neo-Classical tomb of James Stephen (1758-1832), lawyer and abolitionist.