Biography

Anne Finch (aka Anne Conway), the daughter of Sir Heneage Finch and Elizabeth Cradock, was born on the year 1631. Her father died shortly before her birth, but was a former House of Commons speaker. Both her parents were in several marriages and hence had a lot of half-siblings. She was raised in the Kensington Palace in London and was the youngest in her family, and since a young age, Conway had suffered from periodic illnesses. For most of her life, Anne, her family, and her mentors sought out a cure for these sicknesses she kept facing.

Anne was taught Latin, Hebrew, and Greek in order to be able to read and write. She was tutored by John Finch, her half-brother who was a physician that studied at Cambridge and became a pupil of the famous philosopher Henry More. John encouraged Anne to study philosophy. As a woman in 17th century London, Conway wasn't allowed to attend nor affiliate with universities; however, through her brother, she established a relationship with More as another one of his pupils. Conway learned about philosophy—particularly cartesian metaphysics and theology—through her correspondence with More. This dynamic between Conway and More developed into a friendship that lasted the remainder of Anne's life. And in 1652, More wrote a book that was dedicated to Conway.

In 1650, Anne married Edward Conway who would later become the third Viscount Conway and then the Secretary of State for the Northern Department. The couple initially remained in the Kensington Palace before moving to Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. Conway, due to her incessant and reoccurring illnesses, preferred to stay home at her home in seclusion. Luckily, Ragley Hall had one of the largest private libraries in England. Furthermore, Edward seemed supportive of her passion for philosophy, often buying her books so she could continue pursuing her passion.

Conway would soon give birth to her first and only child, Heneage Edward Conway, who unfortunately died of smallpox at an infant age. To make matters worse, for the remainder of Conway's life, her periodic illnesses progressively got more severe. To help with her illnesses, a physician and philosopher by the name Francis Mercury van Helmont agreed to live in her residence for the purposes of treating her, which he did until her death in 1679. However, before she died, Conway was persuaded by some of Van Helmont's beliefs. Specifically, Conway was influenced by Kabbalah, an ideology which seeks to explain the relationship of God with the mortal universe. With the help of Van Helmont introducing Conway to many Quakers, she soon adopted the ideology, and made it the basis for her one and only published philosophical work, The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy. She abandoned her initial Cartesian beliefs and began criticizing many of Descartes's conclusions. For example, she refuted Cartesian dualism and exemplified how creatures only exist in a spiritual sense. More and Conway's family disagreed with her newly found beliefs, but respected them. Soon after, Conway died, and Van Helmont took her notes to the Netherlands to get them published anonymously as her treatise.