Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mangnall, Richmal
MANGNALL, RICHMAL (1709–1820), schoolmistress, daughter of James Mangnall of Hollinhurst, Lancashire, and London, and Mary, daughter of John Kay of Manchester, was born on 7 March 1769, probably at Manchester, but the evidence on this point is inconclusive. On the death of her parents she was adopted by her uncle, John Kay, solicitor, of Manchester, and was educated at Mrs. Wilson's school at Crofton Hall, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, She remained there as a teacher, and eventually, on the retirement of Mrs. Wilson, took the school into her own hands, conducting it most successfully until her death on 1 May 1820. She was buried in Crofton churchyard.
Her 'Historical and Miscellaneous Questions for the use of Young People' was first published anonymously at Stockport in 1800, but she afterwards sold the copyright for a hundred guineas to Longmans, who for many years issued edition after edition of the book. It has also been published by different firms down to the present time, with additions and alterations by Cobbin, Pinnock, Wright, Guy, and others. Miss Mangnall also wrote a 'Compendium of Geography' in 1816, of which a second edition was published in 1832, and a third in 1829; and 'Half an Hour's Lounge, or Poems' (Stockport, 1805, 12mo, pp. 80). Her portrait in oils still exists, and an engraving of it appears in some modern editions of the 'Questions' (Mr. Theodore Coppock in Journal of Education, 1889).
[Journal of Education, 1888 pp. 329, 431, 1889 p. 199; Heginbotham's Hist. of Stockport, ii. 361–2 (with silhouette portrait of Miss Mangnall); Allibone's Dict. of Authors; English Catalogue; Brit. Mus. Cat.]