In 2014 the Ri is proud to celebrate women in science with the first ever all women line-up for our Friday Evening Discourses. To coincide with these monthly events, Frank James will tell the stories of some of the many women associated with the Ri since 1799 in this monthly blog. Eleanor Maguire will give the second of this year's programme of Friday Evening Discourses, 'The neuroscience of memory – travels through space and time', on Friday 28 February from 8.00pm to 9.15pm. Book your tickets now

Sarah Faraday, née Barnard (1800-1879)

Sarah and Michael Faraday

Sarah Barnard, born on 7 January 1800, was the fifth child (out of nine) of Edward Barnard (1767-1855) and Mary Boosey (1769-1847). Edward Barnard owned one of the largest silversmith companies in London; he was also a full member of the small congregation of the Sandemanians, a neo-Calvinist sect of literalist Christianity, who met in Paul’s Alley. The year after his daughter’s birth he would become a Deacon in the Church, and from 1821 to 1844 served as an Elder. We know nothing about Sarah’s early life or education but it is safe to assume that she would have met the laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution, Michael Faraday (1791-1867) in Paul’s Alley; she made her Confession of Faith in the Church when she was nineteen. Her elder brother Edward Barnard (1796-1867) knew Faraday well through a self-improvement essay writing group to which they both belonged. In some of his essays he criticised the notion of love, which Edward mentioned to his sister and thus seems to have piqued her interest. This resulted in Faraday, nearly ten years older, declaring his ardour in a letter to her of 5 July 1820 and more or less proposing marriage. Of this letter her father commented that ‘love made philosophers into fools’ and she departed for Ramsgate to avoid making a decision. At the end of July Faraday followed her there. After a tense beginning he remained and by the time of his departure they had become engaged. They were married on 12 June 1821 at her parish church of St Faith in the Virgin near St Paul’s Cathedral; his banns were read at St George’s, Hanover Square. (Until the introduction, in 1837, of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths everyone in England, aside from Quakers and Jews, were required by law to marry in an Anglican church, a major affront to the consciences of dissenters). Shortly after their marriage Faraday made his Confession of Faith and later served as Deacon and Elder. Faraday, who already had rooms in the Royal Institution, negotiated extra accommodation for his new wife in exchange for his taking on the additional responsibilities of Superintendent of the House. They lived there for the rest of Faraday’s life, although they spent less time there following the Queen providing Faraday with a Grace and Favour house at Hampton Court in 1858.

Faraday's Grace & Favour House in Hampton Court where he and Sarah spent a large portion of their time. This was the Master Mason's house, later called Faraday House, and now No.37 Hampton Court Road. Credit: Royal Institution