by Mary Hoban
and meditation on the verities of religion threatened to make war on that addiction to the world which had hitherto characterized her soul. In this new temper of mind, I have reason to believe that one reason why she received with pleasure the addresses of Nebulo, was that she knew him to be the son of a truly religious and excellent parents, supposed him to have inherited the opinions and principles of his noble father, and which conscious to herself of the frail and dubious hold which her new found religious impressions had as yet conquered in her heart, she welcomed with a secret and honest pleasure the thought of being confirmed and guided in them by the like-minded son of a religious father. If these were her calculations, sadly were they falsified.
On the wedding and reception see ABJ, p. 329; NZL, p. 184. On marriage determining the shape of a woman’s life: in her biography of Jane Franklin, Lepore writes that ‘marrying the man she did when she did, determined the whole course of Jane Franklin’s life. Marriage determined the whole course of every woman’s life.’ See Lepore, Book of Ages, p. 52.
6 – A Woman’s Destiny
On JA’s early married life see NZL, pp. 187, 190; LTAY, p. 12; ABJ, pp. 332, 336, 353, 357. On encounter with bushranger see NZL, p. 194; Lancaster, Pageant, p. 51. On JA’s travels and network of friends see AWR, vol. 1, p. 14; TAAM; LTAY, p. 192. On JA and Gussie, TA’s attitude to her, and his expectations of JA see LTAY, pp. 5, 12, 14, 24; ABJ, p. 305; TAAM; JA to TA, 7 Feb 1887, BCAM. On financial pressures see TA to his brother William, Mar 1858; JA to TA, 7 Feb 1887, BCAM; LTAY, pp. 7, 12. On maternal mortality rate see Irvine Loudon, ‘Deaths in Childbed from the Eighteenth Century to 1935’, Medical History, 30 Jan 1986, no. 1, pp. 1–41. On pregnancy and impact of motherhood see LTAY, pp. 5, 40; TAAM. On battle over christening, JA’s views of religion, and TA’s instability see AWR, vol.1, p. 13; LTAY, pp. 10, 31, 55. On opposition to transportation and desire to leave VDL see NZL, pp. 193, 196, 205; LTAY, pp. 27, 35. On moving to the former Normal School see AVW, p. 76; LTAY, p. 40. Mrs Humphry Ward, Milly and Olly, ch. 2. On death of Arthur and grieving see LTAY, p. 47; Uglow, Elizabeth Gaskell, p. 92; Lepore, Book of Ages, p. 57; Flanders, A Circle of Sisters, p. 16. On impact of death on JA and TA see LTAY, pp. 51–55; AWR, vol. 1, p. 13; AVW, p. 31. ‘I love you dearest Tom’ see LTAY, p. 63.
7 – An Impossible Choice
On JA’s abhorrence of Catholicism and her reaction to TA’s conversion see LTAY, pp. 55, 63; TA, ‘Fragment of a novel’, p. 9; MHW, Helbeck of Bannisdale, pp. 20, 74, in which her daughter Polly used aspects of JA’s attitude to Catholicism in her heroine, Laura, who is horrified by what she sees as the overriding sense of sin in Catholicism and its attendant attitude to women as inferior and works of the devil. ‘What a gross, what an intolerable superstition! — how was she to live with it, beside it?’ On TA’s anti-Catholicism see NZL, pp. 56, 142–43, 167; and LTAY, pp. xxi–xxiii. On TA’s conscience and his martyr’s compulsion see NZL, pp. 4, 215. On TA’s lack of friends to talk to in VDL see LTAY, p. 12. On TA’s reasons for becoming a Catholic see PWL, pp. 153–57; TAAM; AWR, vol.1. On the similarity between Dr Arnold and Newman see Jones, The Broad Church, p. 229. On Newman’s approval see Tuckwell, Reminiscences of Oxford, p. 180. On the help of friends and reactions see LTAY, pp. 61–63; Bishop of Tasmania (Francis Russell Nixon) to JA, 11 Jul 1856, BCAM. On ‘fearful gulf’ and ‘morbid caprice’ see JA to TA, Jun 1855 and TA to JA, 25 Jun 1855, BCAM; LTAY, pp. 62–64. ‘A force, not an organism’, MHW, Helbeck of Bannisdale, p. 59. ‘I know you don’t want to force me’, MHW, Helbeck of Bannisdale, p. 285; ‘The home consecrated by love’, MHW, Robert Elsmere, p. 343. ‘Unjust and half-frantic language’, see LTAY, pp. 66–67. On this view of Newman see Tuckwell, Reminiscences of Oxford, p. 180. On leaving children: if there was no Tom, there could be no children. It was still several years away from the passing of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, which gave men the right to divorce their wives on the grounds of adultery. However, married women were not able to obtain a divorce if they discovered that their husbands had been unfaithful. Once divorced, the children became the man’s property and the mother could be prevented from seeing her children. On TA breaking his promise, JA talking too much and Willson’s advice see TA to Mrs Arnold, 21 Feb 1856, BCAM and LTAY, p. 68. On sectarianism in Australia see Conway, The Road from Coorain, p. 176. On JA throwing stones see Huxley, Memories I, pp. 12–13.
8 – Between Two Worlds
On education in VDL & reaction to TA’s conversion both for and against see ‘The Inspector of Schools’, The Courier, 18 Jan 1856, p. 2; The Cornwall Chronicle, 23 Jan 1856, p. 4; Howell, ‘Education in Van Diemen’s Land’, p. 23; LTAY, pp. 36, 68–69; Letter from Sir Henry Young to TA, BCAM. On TA’s pay rise see Howell, ‘Education in Van Diemen’s Land’, p. 30. On negotiations regarding his position see LTAY, pp. 61, 67–72; Howell, ‘Education in Van Diemen’s Land’, p. 48; LJHN, vol. 32, Supplement, p. 145. On ignoring advice see MA to TA in LMA, vol. 1, p. 211; Mary Arnold to TA, 1 Jan 1856, BCAM. On JA’s deep feeling for TA see MHW, Helbeck of Bannisdale, p. 256. On departure and life at sea: the high regard in which TA was held was revealed by a deputation of public schoolmasters who presented him with an Address, signed by seventy-two teachers, which spoke of his kind assistance, courteous manner, conscientious rigour, and the simplicity and modesty of his demeanour towards them. It also reflected that ‘the admirable system of education at present in force in this colony, which promises fair to place Tasmania in the front rank of educated nations, was initiated during your period of office, and has been fostered by your care’, Colonial Times, 12 Jul 1856, p. 3; TAAM; Bishop of Tasmania to JA, 11 Jul 1856, BCAM; The Hobarton Mercury, 14 Jul 1856, p. 2; LTAY, pp. 58, 69–76; AWR, vol. 1, p. 4.
9 – Facing Reality
On arrival in England & impressions of Fox How and its mistress see AWR, pp. 4, 15, 22; Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, p. 493; NZL, p. 38; MHW to Willy Arnold, 14 Jun 1886, TCCL; William Arnold, Oakfield, p. 157. On TA’s sister Mary Hiley see WTA, pp. 7–8; LOMHW, pp. 8, 13. Mary had been tragically widowed in 1848, only a year after her first marriage, when her young husband, a physician at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, had developed paralysis of the brain. After his death, she remained in London, took up social work and became a follower of F.D. Maurice, who was at the forefront of higher education for working men, and later, women. Only months before Julia’s arrival at Fox How, Mary had married again, this time to the Reverend James Hiley, a clergyman who owned a small estate, Woodhouse, in Leicestershire. John Frederick Denison Maurice, known as F.D. Maurice, was another fascinating player in the religious culture wars of the nineteenth century. A major theologian of the nineteenth-century Anglican Church, who, like Dr Arnold, had initially been unable to graduate because he could not subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles, he was also one of the founders of Christian Socialism, which tried to combine the principles of Christianity with the principles of socialism emerging as a result of the new industrial age. In 1854 he founded the first Working Men’s College and became its first head. On the family’s reaction to TA’s conversion see LTAY, pp. 80, 85–86; Jane Forster to TA, 19 Sep 1855, BCAM; TAHF, p. 125. On negotiations with Newman see LJHN, vol. 17, p. 532. In the same volume in a letter written on 25 Mar 1857 to Joseph Dixon, Archbishop of Armagh, Newman wrote, ‘Mr Arnold is the son, and (I believe) the cleverest son, of the late famous Dr Arnold of Rugby. His Father sent him to Australia and there he became a Catholic, and had to give up his place. It is one of the most wonderful instances of conversion I know, considering how energetic Dr Arnold was in his opposition to the church and the Oxford movement.’ See also AVW, p. 92. On JA at Fox How see AWR, pp. 21–22. In her novel Delia Blanchflower, Polly drew on the feeling of disapproval that Julia believed she triggered on her arrival at Fox How, particularly in Tom’s mother and his sister Fan. See Delia Blanchflower, ch. 8. On news from Tasmania see Gussie to JA, 18 Sep 1856, BCAM. On discussions with Newman re JA’s conversion see L
TAY, p. 85. On letters between JA & TA see LTAY, pp. 81–85. On leaving Polly & Willy & departing for Dublin see Susanna Cropper to JA, 30 Jan 1857 & 8 May 1857; Catherine Reibey to JA Apr 1857; Mary Arnold to JA, 26 May 1857, BCAM. In her novel Marcella, Polly drew on her mother’s stratagem when Evelyn Merritt Boyce sends her daughter away to various schools to keep her as free as possible from the social consequences of her husband’s actions. See MHW, Marcella.
10 – A New Beginning
On Dublin see Daly, Dublin: the deposed capital, pp. 1, 16, 74. On Julia’s reaction to Dublin see Gussie to JA, Sep 1857 & Jane Forster to TA, 3 Mar 1857, BCAM. On servants: Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus was born in Edinburgh towards the end of the eighteenth century. After her marriage to Colonel Henry Smith in 1829, they moved to his estate, Baltiboys, in County Wicklow in Ireland. Elizabeth wrote her memoirs — based on the journals she had kept throughout her life — and they were published after her death under the title of Memoirs of a Highland Lady: the autobiography of Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus. See Pelly & Tod, The Highland Lady, p. xv. On Rathmines see Daly, ‘Dublin Life’, pp. 83, 156, 159. On Mrs Arnold’s advice see Mary Arnold to JA, 19 Jun 1857, BCAM. On JA’s reaction to living in a Catholic world see MHW, Helbeck of Bannisdale, pp. 273, 279. On Newman’s view of JA see LJHN, vol. 24, p. 34. On Newman’s resignation & TA’s reaction see AVW, pp. 109–10. On Polly’s remaining at Fox How see Susanna Cropper to JA, 8 May 1857; Mary Arnold to JA, 26 May 1857; JA to James Dunn, 1861; & Fan Arnold to JA, 26 Apr 1860, BCAM. On raising children as Catholics see Catherine Reibey to JA, Apr 1857, BCAM. JA’s energy was noted by Lord Carlisle, see TAHF, p. 127. On the Whately family & JA’s relationship see AWR, p. 14; Fan Arnold to TA, Jun 1857; Mary Louisa Whately to JA 1857, BCAM; Whately, Ragged Life in Egypt & More About Ragged Life in Egypt. On the relationship with the Benisons see AVW, pp. 103–05. On Dr Arnold’s views on converts see Peterson, Victorian Heretic, p. 23. On JA’s refuge with Mary Hiley see TA, Diary, BCAM; WTA, pp. 7–8; Fan Arnold to JA, 26 Apr 1860; JA to TA, 12 Jan 1859, BCAM. On differences between JA & TA see TA to JA, 26 Dec 1858; JA to TA, 28 Dec 1858; JA to TA, 15 Jan 1859, BCAM. On move to Kingstown see Jane Forster to TA, 3 Mar 1859, BCAM; Daly, Dublin: the deposed capital, p. 195; WTA, p. v. On financial woes, family assistance, and advice see AVW, pp. 113–20; TA’s siblings William, Director of Public Instruction in the Punjab in India, and Jane were particularly helpful — see TA to William, 24 Mar 1858, BCAM; at the same time Julia’s father was expressing his regret that it was not in his power to match the £100 given to them by Tom’s sister, but was hoping that Tom could procure some permanent appointment within the government, as, given his experience in the Colonial Service, he had both the ability and the interest for such a position. See William Sorell to JA, 1 Apr 1858; T Penrose to Mary Arnold, 6 Jun 1859; TA to JA, 27 Feb 1861; Mary Arnold to TA, 8 Apr 1858 & 23 Sep 1862; MA to TA 26 Aug 1858; JA to James Dunn, 1861, BCAM; TAHF, p. 130. That TA was not adept financially was demonstrated in the negotiations regarding his replacement tutor for his private students in Dublin. TA had offered Mr Stuart £18 for the term he would be in Birmingham, and JA had to point out to him that it was senseless to pay Mr Stuart £18 for tutoring when TA himself only received £13 for it. See JA to TA, 3 Mar 1862, BCAM. On the constant demand for money see JA to TA, 28 Jan 1862; William Forster to TA, 24 Jun 1862 & 28 Jun 1862, BCAM. On Marx’s financial situation see Seigel, Marx’s Fate, p. 255. On William Sorell’s death see Percy Sorell to JA, 23 Nov 1860; Gussie to JA 18 Sep, 1856 & 23 Jan 1861; Mary Hiley to JA, 17 Jan 1861; JA to James Dunn 1861; JA to TA, 14 Feb 1861; JA to TA, 4 Aug 1861; MA to TA, 13 Mar 1861, BCAM; AVW, p. 124; £170 in 1860 would be the equivalent of approximately AUD$36,000 today. On the Yelverton case & JA’s religious experiences in London see TA to JA, 27 Feb & 1 Mar 1861; JA to TA, 5 Mar 1861, BCAM. See also Schama, Wild Romance. On mutual desire see JA to TA, 15 Jan 1859 & TA to JA, 27 Feb 1861, BCAM. On JA’s encounter with her step-grandmother see JA to TA, 14 Feb & 28 Feb 1861, BCAM.
11 – Adrift
On plea to James Dunn see JA to James Dunn, 1861, BCAM. On TA’s job applications and JA’s increasing dread see AVW, p. 124; JA to TA, 4 Aug 1861, BCAM. On offer from Oratory see LJHN, vol. 32, pp. 218–19; AVW, p. 125. On moving to Birmingham see LTAY, p. 118 & JA to TA, 28 Jan & 17 Feb 1862, BCAM. On JA’s unhappiness & anxiety about being a mother, TA as a father, & religious division in the nursery see JA to TA, 20 Feb, 2 Mar, & 6 Mar 1862; MA to TA, 21 Dec 1861; MA to Mary Arnold, 9 Jan 1862, BCAM. On TA as teacher see Shrimpton, A Catholic Eton?, p. 196 for Newman’s analysis of Tom as being a superior man, but unable to teach younger students because he could not control them. On Lucy being removed see MA to TA, 21 Dec 1861; MA to Mrs Arnold, 9 Jan 1862; TA to JA, 9 Mar 1862; Susanna Cropper to JA, 31 Oct 1862; TA, Diaries, 8 Nov 1862, BCAM. On Mortara case see PWL, p. 185 & Altholz, ‘A Note on the English Catholic Reaction to the Mortara Case’, pp. 111–18. On JA’s photograph see JA to TA, 14 Feb & TA to JA, 15 Feb 1862, BCAM.
12 – A Dark World
On TA’s desire for JA see TA to JA, 28 Feb & 9 Mar 1862; JA to TA, 6 Mar 1862, BCAM. On Birmingham see TAHF, p. 111; MacCarthy, The Last Pre-Raphaelite, p. 24; Briggs’ Victorian Cities, pp. 186, 196, 202; Southey, Letters from England, pp. 191–92. On relations with Newman see JA to TA, 17 Feb & 3 Mar 1862, BCAM; AWR, chs. 6 & 7. On social life & friendships in Birmingham see PWL, p. 172; JA to TA, 2 Mar 1862, BCAM; MA to TA in LMA, vol. 2, p. 312. The Arnold name had cachet in Victorian England and people were always anxious to meet the family of the famous Dr Arnold of Rugby. On one occasion while visiting London, TA’s mother and sister had been accompanied by the Lord Chamberlain to Whitehall Chapel to hear Arthur Stanley preach. It was noted in The Guardian newspaper that ‘after the Service at Whitehall at which the P & Princess of Wales were present, the Very Rev The Dean of Westminster was observed to conduct out of the Chapel with the greatest care & attention an elderly lady, who, on enquiry, proved to be Mrs Arnold, the widow of the great Head Master of Rugby …’ from Fan to TA, 9 Jun 1864, BCAM. On Birmingham’s climate & family illnesses see TA to JA, 28 Feb, 9 Mar & 15 Apr 1862; TA, Diaries, Nov & Dec 1863, BCAM; Briggs, Victorian Cities, p. 199; Burritt, Walks in the Black Country, ch. 1; Steinbach, Understanding the Victorians, p. 22. On TA’s issues with the Oratory see LTAY, pp. 137–40; LJHN, vol. 20, p. 563, vol. 21, pp. 4–5, vol. 32, p. 250. On troubles with the boys & consequences see Courtney, Recollected in Tranquillity, p. 64; TA’s Diaries, Jan, Mar–Apr & 18 Aug 1864; TA to JA, 15 Jun 1865; MA to Mrs Arnold, 9 Jan 1862, BCAM; LTAY, pp. 155–56, 166; MA to TA in LMA, vol. 2, p. 112; MA to Mrs Arnold in LMA, vol. 3, p. 54; W. Arnold, ‘Introduction’, History of Rome; The Popular Science Monthly, p. 497; Rev. Canon Norris, et al., ‘Is an Unsectarian Scheme of Education Inconsistent with Religious Teaching?’, p. 273. On Polly’s change of school see TA, Diaries, 24 Jan, 30 Sep & 7 Oct 1864, BCAM; LOMHW, p. 17. On TA’s growing dissatisfaction see TA to JA, 16 Feb 1864, BCAM; MA to Mrs Arnold in LMA, vol. 2, p. 286; LOMHW, p. 18.
13 – Returning to the Fold
On TA’s fall away from Catholicism see PWL, pp. 171, 185; TAHF, p. 152;TA to General Collinson, 24 Apr 1888 in LTAY, pp. 219–20 in which TA writes, ‘Towards the end of 1864 a sort of cloud settled down over my mind; perhaps a long continuation of ill health had something to do with it. I gradually lost faith in things unseen altogether; nothing but science and its methods commended itself to me.’ On the controversy re Temporal Power of the Pope in the 1860s see TAHF, pp. 132–33, 147–154; LJHN, vol. 24, p. 34; AWR, ch. 6. TA’s conversion: in a letter to Josephine Benison, TA explains his defection: ‘I had come reluctantly to the conviction that the claim of the Catholic Church to the exclusive possession of religious truth was unfounded, and to the further conviction — closely connected with the former, that the supposition of an infallible authority, permanently residing in the church, was a dream.’ See AVW, p. 160. On reaction to Newman & his Apologia see MA to TA in LMA, vol.
2, p. 312; McCarthy, The Last Pre-Raphaelite, p. 22. On Josephine Benison’s response see TA, Diaries, 7 Jun & 24 Aug, 1864, BCAM and AVW, p. 161. On JA’s knowledge see Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower, Flamingo, London, 1996, p. 27. On application for pay rise see LTAY, pp. 143–45; Shrimpton, A Catholic Eton?, p. 196. On Mrs Arnold’s reaction see Mary Arnold to TA, Nov 1864, BCAM. On new-found harmony between JA & TA see TA to JA, 4 Dec 1864 & TA to JA, 16 May 1865, BCAM; AVW, p. 136. On proposal for TA to be head of Catholic College in Oxford see AVW, p. 133. In a letter dated 6 Jul 1863, Newman refers to TA having just returned from Oxford and saying that there was bitter feeling against Catholics there just now and that the Liberals are strong against any separate Catholic body. See LJHN, vol. 20, pp. 480, 485. On reactions to TA’s tutoring scheme see PWL, p. 91; MA to TA in LMA, vol. 2, pp. 373, 382; William Forster to TA, 21 Jan 1865, BCAM; TA to Dean Arthur Stanley, 5 Apr 1865 in LTAY, p. 146. On Matthew’s reaction to TA’s move away from Catholicism, advice re children, frustration & employment prospects see MA to TA in LMA, vol. 2, pp. 376, 385, 388. On JA in Birmingham following TA’s move to Oxford & Willy’s move to Rugby see TA to JA, 24 Apr & 2 May 1865, BCAM; LTAY, p. 147. On Willy’s view of religion see W. Arnold, ‘Introduction’, History of Rome. On JA’s Oxford visit & TA’s attempts to get pupils see TA to JA, 16 May & 13 Jun 1865, BCAM. On public outing of TA as non-Catholic see TA to JA, 16 May; 1 Jun 1865 & 26 Jul 1865; Mary Arnold to JA, 27 May 1865, BCAM. TA’s wavering religious fervour was by no means unusual in the milieu in which he and JA mixed. His old Oxford contemporary Gifford Palgrave, who had converted to Catholicism and had become a Jesuit priest, told him at the same time that he too was about to do a volte-face and, like TA, renounce his Catholicism. (See TA to JA, 1 Jun 1865, BCAM) It was also a time ‘when Bishop Colenso had to go because he couldn’t swallow the Pentateuch whole, when Kensitites pelted Ritualists, when priests renounced their Orders and took to lecturing at the universities …’ see Courtney, The Women of My Time, p. 225. On Newman’s reaction see LJHM, vol. XXIV, p. 34. On Polly’s reaction see LOMHW, p. 18.