Thomas Day
| Thomas Day | |
|---|---|
Thomas Day by Joseph Wright of Derby (1770); National Portrait Gallery, London
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| Born |
22 June 1748 London |
| Died | 28 September 1789 (aged 41) Barehill, Berkshire |
| Occupation | Author, Lawyer |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Notable works | The History of Sandford and Merton |
Thomas Day (22 June 1748 – 28 September 1789) was a British author and abolitionist. He was well known for the children's book The History of Sandford and Merton (1783–1789) which emphasized Rousseauvian educational ideals.
Day was born on 22 June 1748 in London, the only child of Thomas and Jane Day. His father died when he was about a year old, but left him wealthy. He first attended a school in Stoke Newington, Middlesex, but after a bout of smallpox he was moved to Charterhouse School. He subsequently attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he became a master debater and developed a close friendship with William Jones; he did not graduate and left the college in 1767.
Day moved back to his family estate at Barehill, Berkshire. There he met the progressive educator Richard Lovell Edgeworth, from whom he became almost inseparable. Together they resolved to educate Edgeworth's son, Dick, in the style of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile. Edgeworth and the project converted Day to Rousseauism. He declared in 1769 that the two books he would save, were all the world's books to be destroyed, would be the Bible and Emile. He, Edgeworth and Dick visited Rousseau in France. Because of his connection with Edgeworth, Day was able to join the Lunar Society in Lichfield and meet and converse with Erasmus Darwin as well as Anna Seward.
After this education project, Day undertook a second: he tried to train a wife. After failing to find the perfect wife (several women including Honora Sneyd and her sister Elizabeth turned down his proposals of marriage), he decided to adopt two foundlings from orphanages and, using Rousseau's maxims, educate them to be the perfect wife (two would ensure that one of them worked out). He adopted a 12-year-old and an 11-year-old whom he renamed Sabrina Sidney and Lucretia and took them to France to educate them in isolation. The girls became ill, and quarrelled. Day decided to give up on Lucretia, who he did not think could satisfy him intellectually. Sabrina he felt was still a possibility, but her character had to be further strengthened. After dropping hot wax on her arms and hearing her scream, though, he gave up in despair.
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