Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/M'Avoy, Margaret
M'AVOY, MARGARET (1800–1820), blind lady, was born at Liverpool of respectable parentage 28 June 1800. Of sickly constitution, she became totally blind in June 1816. Her case attracted considerable attention from the readiness with which she was alleged to distinguish by touch colours of cloth, silk, and stained glass; accurately to describe, too, the height, dress, bearing, and other characteristics of her visitors; and even to decipher letters in a printed book or manuscript with her fingers' ends, so as to be able to read with tolerable facility. But these pretensions proved impostures (cf. Roscoe, Life of W. Roscoe, ii. 169–73). Her needlework was remarkable for its extreme neatness. Within a few days of her death she wrote a letter to her executor. She died at Liverpool on 18 Aug. 1820.
[Smeeton's Biographia Curiosa (with portrait); European Mag. 1820, pt. ii. 183; The Quiz, Liverpool, Jan. 1818; Brit. Mus. Cat.]