fLORENCE nIGHTINGALE essays

fLORENCE nIGHTINGALE essays Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy in Villa Columbia on May12, 1820. Florence was named after her birth place just like her older sister Parthenope, who has the Greek name of Naples. Florence was the daughter of the wealthy landowner William Nightingale of Embley Park Hampshire, and his wife Francis Nightingale born 1788 who was a sibling of ten children. William was part of the antislavery movement and both William and Francis Fanny were Unitarians. In England the Nightingales had two homes. They spent the summer months at their home in Lea Hurst in Derbyshire then moving to Williams home town Embley in Hampshire for the winter. Lea Hurst was later turned into a retirement home and Embley was turned into a school. Florence and her father were good friends and he treated her as a companion rather than a daughter, he took responsibility for her education by teaching her and her sister at their home. Florence was a competent student and William taught her Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, History, Philosophy and Mathematics. She also excelled in Literature, Music, Drawing and the Domestic arts. Fanny Nightingale came from a stanch Unitarian family, she was a domineering women who was primarily concerned with finding her daughter a good husband. However Florence had other ideas for her future, thus writing in her diary just before her 17th birthday, her entry read; On February 7th, 1837, God spoke to me and called me to his service. ( Anglican Theological Review, 1996) Although she had no idea of what this calling meant, it was from this day she decided to remain single forever. It was around this time when Florence rejected her first proposal of marriage to a man named Lord Houghton a man whom she dearly loved. ( Anglican Theological Review, 1996) Five years later Florence met Richard Monckton Miles who becomes her dear friend, to which he would like to be more, however t...