Mathematician and science writer, daughter of Admiral William George Fairfax (1739-1813) and friend of Ada Byron; she spent her later years in Italy. She was twice married.

REFERENCES TO Mary Somerville [née Fairfax]:

John Murray to Walter Scott, 6 June 1818 in Memoir of John Murray 2 Vols (London: John Murray, 1891)

James Fenimore Cooper to Samuel Rogers, 19 January 1831 in Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries 2 Vols (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1889)

Sir Robert Peel to Robert Southey, 4 April 1835 in The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey (London: 1849-1850)

Sydney Smith to George Philips, 23 November 1835 in A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith. By his Daughter, Lady Holland. With a Selection from his Letters, edited by Mrs. Austin 2 vols (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855)

Augusta Leigh to Francis Hodgson, [1836?] in Memoir of Francis Hodgson 2 Vols (London: Macmillan and Co., 1878)

Sydney Smith to Sarah Austin?, 23 January 1840 in A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith. By his Daughter, Lady Holland. With a Selection from his Letters, edited by Mrs. Austin 2 vols (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855)

John Gibson Lockhart to Henry Hart Milman, 17 January 1843 in The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897)