She wrote an autobiography On Quakers, Medicine, and Property,[1] that was discovered and published 40 years after her death.
Mary Penington was the only daughter of Sir John Proude, an army officer from Kent.
She became an orphan at the age of three, and was taken into the care of Sir Edward Partridge, a bachelor; and lived with other guardians who (Mary later said) wanted for "religious rigour".
[2] Around the age of nine, Mary went to live with Partridge's widowed sister, a practising surgeon, Lady Katherine Springett.
Katherine had three other children, including a son, Sir William Springett, whom Mary married at the age of 18.
Isaac was gaoled half a dozen times for offences including refusing to take an oath, and attending a Quaker meeting, which was forbidden.