 Though Mary Godwin received little formal education , her father tutored her in a broad range of subjects . He often took the children on educational outings , and they had access to his library and to the many intellectuals who visited him , including the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the former vice @-@ president of the United States Aaron Burr . Godwin admitted he was not educating the children according to Mary Wollstonecraft 's philosophy as outlined in works such as A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ( 1792 ) , but Mary Godwin nonetheless received an unusual and advanced education for a girl of the time . She had a governess , a daily tutor , and read many of her father 's children 's books on Roman and Greek history in manuscript . For six months in 1811 , she also attended a boarding school in Ramsgate . Her father described her at age 15 as " singularly bold , somewhat imperious , and active of mind . Her desire of knowledge is great , and her perseverance in everything she undertakes almost invincible . " 
