Mary Morse Baker, the sixth and last child of Mark Baker and Abigail Ambrose Baker, was born at Bow, near Concord, N. H., U.S.A., on July 16, 1821 Her father was a farmer and member of a Congregational church. Congregationalist beliefs owned much to Calvinism, which rested on the dogma of predestination (i.e., the belief that those people who are not elected by God are eternally damned). The Christian Science organisation which Mary built up later can be interpreted as her lifelong protest against this teaching.
Due to ill-health, Mary's education was sporadic; she infrequently attended a one-room schoolhouse and later, after the family had moved to a farm near Sanbornton Bridge in 1836, several local ladies' academies. In her memoirs, Retrospection and Introspection (1891), Baker claimed
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Citation: Spies, Marion. "Mary Baker Eddy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1386, accessed 26 November 2024.]
