Martin

(Emma), English writer and lecture , b. Bristol, 1812. Brought up as a Baptist, she, for a time, edited the Bristol Magazine . She wrote the Exiles of Piedmont and translated from the Italian the Maxims of Guicciardini. The trials of Holyoake and South well for blasphemy led her to inquire and embrace the Free thought cause. While Holyoake and Paters on were in gaol, Mrs. Martin went about committing the “crime” for which they were imprisoned. In ’43 she published Baptism A Pagan Rite . This was followed by Tracts for the People on the Bible no Revelation, Religion Superseded, Prayer, God’s Gifts and Men’s Duties, a conversation on the being of God, etc. She also lectured and wrote on the Punishment of Death , to which she was earnestly opposed. Died Oct. 1851.