Mary Burns
Mary Burns | |
---|---|
Born | 29 September 1821 |
Died | 7 January 1863 | (aged 41)
Occupation | Activist |
Partner | Friedrich Engels |
Relatives | Lizzie Burns (sister) |
Mary Burns (29 September 1821
Burns lived in
Burns was the daughter of Michael Burns or Byrne, a dyer in a cotton mill, and of Mary Conroy. The family may have lived off Deansgate.[4] She had a younger sister named Lydia (1827–1878), known as "Lizzie", and a niece named Mary Ellen Burns (born 1859), known as "Pumps".
After meeting in the 1840s, Burns and Engels formed a relationship that lasted until Burns' sudden death at the age of 41 on 7 January 1863. Although the custom of the day was marriage, the two politically opposed the bourgeois institution of marriage[citation needed] and never married. After her death Engels lived with her sister Lizzie, whom he married on 11 September 1878, hours before her death.[7]
Not much is written about Burns. The only direct references to her that have survived are a letter from Karl Marx to Engels on learning of her death, saying she was "very good natured" and "witty", and a letter from Marx's daughter, Eleanor, saying she was "very pretty, witty and an altogether charming girl, but in later years drank to excess".[8] No images of Burns are known to exist.[9]
References
- ^ Roy Whitfield: "Die Wohnorte Friedrich Engels' in Manchester von 1850–1869". In: Nachrichten aus dem Engels-Haus, Heft 3. ceres, Wuppertal 1980, p 80.
- ^ a b Irving, Sarah. (2010-03-15) Frederick Engels and Mary and Lizzy Burns | Manchester's Radical History. Radicalmanchester.wordpress.com. Retrieved on 2014-02-20.
- ^ Engels to Marx. 7 January 1863. (Collected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Volume 41, p. 441.)
- ^ ISBN 0906932211
- ^ Legacies – Work – England – Manchester – Engels in Manchester – Article Page 2. BBC. Retrieved on 2014-02-20.
- ^ Certified Copy of an Entry of death (1863-52). See Harald Wessel: Hausbesuch bei Friedrich Engels. Dietz, Berlin 1971, p. 110.
- ISBN 978-0-7146-3040-3.
- ^ MARY BURNS SUPERSTAR. Salford Star, issue 6, Winter 2007
- ^ Dash, Mike (1 August 2013). "How Friedrich Engels' Radical Lover Helped Him Father Socialism". Smithsonian.