by Wendy Moore
228 “the subject of his own pleasantry”: Keir, p. 27.
228 thinking of adopting a peasant boy: TD to RLE, two letters, n.d., in Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, pp. 95–100.
CHAPTER 10: VIRGINIA, BELINDA AND MARY
229 she obtained work as a lady’s companion: Seward, p. 36; Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, p. 109. The subsequent quote by Seward is from here.
229 Day had felt the need to write a will: Will of Thomas Day, May 26, 1780, probate 11/1188.
230 “We are unable to fix the time till Sabrina comes”: John Saville to Henry White, August 16, 1780, SJBM, 2001.71.30. Baptism register, Lichfield, St. Mary’s, August 25, 1780, LRO. Eliza had married Thomas Smith in Lichfield Cathedral on November 25, 1777, with her father’s consent. Marriage register, The Close, Lichfield, November 25, 1777, LRO.
230 Sabrina received a marriage proposal from an eligible young suitor: TD to Sabrina Sidney (n.d.), acrostic and draft letter, ERO, D/DBa C13. The letter must have been sent before 1783. There is no trace of Wardley’s acrostic, only Day’s draft reply. Wardley’s details are from the apprentice register, Newport, Shrop-shirejanuary 3, 1771. The letter from Darwin is ED to Mr [Jarvis] Wardley, November 28, 1786, in King-Hele (2007), pp. 263–64.
231 Sabrina grew close to a young woman: Schimmelpenninck, p. 10; Jean-André de Luc, sometimes spelled Deluc, visited Soho in 1782 when he was shown around by Watt. The following year he performed some experiments with Watt. Schofield, pp. 240–41. Fanny arrived from Switzerland in 1783. De Luc told a friend he was going to visit his daughter in Birmingham in February 1783. De Luc to Gen Haldimand Courlet, February 16, 1783, BL Add. MS 21731 f 29. My thanks to Lorna Clark for mutual detective work to track down Fanny.
232 The expanding city that she could see from the windows: Background on eighteenth-century Birmingham is from Skipp, Victor, A History of Greater Birmingham: down to 1830 (Birmingham, 1980); Hutton, William, An History of Birmingham (2nd edn., Birmingham, 1783); Langford, John Alfred, A Century of Birmingham Life (Birmingham, 1870); Hutton, William, The Life of William Hutton, ed. Chinn, Carl (Studley, 1998).
233 “man of shining talents”: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, pp. 110–13; Seward (1804), pp. 37–38.
233 At one point he won a “considerable fortune”: Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).
233 Day suggested his stock remedies of fresh air: TD to JB, n.d., cited in European Magazine, 2 (1795), pp. 21–22.
233 Bicknell had taken scant interest in Sabrina: The story of Bicknell’s proposal to Sabrina is told in Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, pp. 110–13 and Seward (1804), pp. 37–38.
234 Bicknell was “the man of her dreams”: Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).
235 Day’s reply, on May 4, 1783: TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13. This letter was probably a draft as it contains various crossings-out and amendments.
237 Sabrina walked up the aisle of St. Philip’s Church: Marriage register, St Philip’s Church, Birmingham, April 16, 1784, Birmingham record office. Bicknell’s application for a marriage license, which enabled the couple to marry without the usual church bans being read, was cosigned by William Withering, the physician who later discovered digitalis in foxgloves, who had recently joined the Lunar Society. John Bicknell, marriage license application, April 16, 1784, Lichfield RO. Bond between JB and TD, April 16, 1784, ERO, D/DBa L86.
238 Sabrina gave birth to two sons: The exact date and place of birth of John Laurens Bicknell is unknown. He later stated that he was born in Middlesex. JLB was said to have been “almost one year old” and HEB was “only just born” in March 1787. Henry Edgeworth Bicknell was baptized on April 2, 1787, when his name was misspelled as Henry Edgeworth Bricknell and his date of birth given as December 18, 1786, in St. Paneras Church. St. Paneras baptism register 1783–93, X102/074, LMA. He may have been named Henry after Henry Laurens, the father of John Laurens. Curiously, Henry was baptized on the same day that his father was buried but in a different church on the northern edge of London. The timing may have been due to differences with the Bicknell family or to Sabrina’s own illness.
238 “with all the delight of the most happy husband and father”: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, p. 113.
238 “could hardly have been happier with the man of her dreams”: Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).
238 When Boswell visited the King’s Bench in 1786: Boswell, James, Private Papers of James Boswell from Malahide Castle, ed. Scott, G. and Pottle, Frederick A. (18 vols., New York, 1928–34), vol. 17, p. 11.
238 subscribers to the first collection of poems: List of subscribers in Williams, Helen Maria, Poems (2 vols., London, 1786).
239 a small mention in the London newspapers: Whitehall Evening Post, April 3, 1787; European Magazine, April 1787, p. 296.
239 Bicknell was buried in the family vault: Burial register, St. Dunstan-in-the-West, April 2, 1787, LMA.
239 Bicknell had left no will: No will has been discovered. It is likely he did not feel the need to write one since he was in such dire financial straits.
239 “She had absolutely nothing”: Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).
240 “To have been more bounteous”: Seward, p. 38.
240 This sum was matched by Edgeworth: RLE to Sabrina Bicknell, August 28, 1808, BL Add. MS 70949 f. 280; Esther Day to RLE, January 21, 1790, Edgeworth Papers, MS 22470.
240 Mrs. Bicknell “always refused to love” her: Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).
241 Burney had been admitted to Cambridge at nineteen: Venn, J. A., Alumni Canta-brigienses, part II, 1752–1900 (Cambridge, 1953), p. 459;Troide, Lars, “Burney, Charles (1757–1817),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) online edn., accessed April 14, 2008; Scholes, Percy A., The Great Dr. Burney (Oxford, London, New York, Toronto, 1948), pp. 344–48. Hester Thrale later asked Burney Senior whether a scene from his daughter’s novel Evelina, describing an attempted suicide, had been “founded on fact.” The doctor had “changed Colour” at the assertion. Thrale, Hester Lynch, Thraliana: the diary of Mrs Hester Lynch Thrale (later Mrs Piozzi) 1776–1809, ed. Balderston, Katherine C. (Oxford, 1942), vol. 1, p. 360.
241 Her reply to Burney: Sabrina Bicknell to Charles Burney, May 16, 1787, Burney Family Collection, The James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
242 “more graceful, more attractive, much more eloquent than ever”: AS to Sophia Weston, February 4, 1789; and AS to George Hardinge, October 19, 1788, November 19, 1788, and March 5, 1789, Seward (1811), vol. 2, pp. 234, 176, 195 and 250. The story of Seward’s prompting to raise funds through Hardinge is told through the above letters.
243 He grumbled incessantly to Edgeworth: TD to unknown correspondent (part of letter), n.d. (after 1782), BL Add. MS 70949, ff. 275–78; TD to Mary Evans, July 29, 1787, BL Add. MS 52540, ff. 25–28; and TD to MB, June 8, 1785, Soho Archives, Boulton Papers MS 3782/12/115.
243 Day even lashed out at his publisher, John Stockdale: TD to John Stockdale, July 28, 1789, cited in Stockdale (2005), pp. 205–6; Keir to TD, September 29, 1789, in Moilliet, A., p. 100.
243 he was thrown from his horse and killed: Keir, pp. 97–98; Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, pp. 103–5.
243 she was “overwhelmed” by the “weight of sorrow”: Esther Day to RLE, January 21, 1790, Edgeworth Papers, MS 22470.
244 According to one report Esther never again enjoyed: Death notice of Esther Day, Gentleman’s Magazine, 1792, p. 581; Seward (1804), pp. 35–36. It was not, in fact, true that Esther never left her house again; she met with the Edgeworths in later years.
244 “He was dear to me by many names”: ED to Robert Darwin, in Darwin, p. 81.
244 When Edgeworth received the news: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, pp. 103–5. Elizabeth Edgeworth was on the point of giving birth to RLE’s twelfth child. They named the baby Thomas Day Edgeworth.
244 the only will that could be found: Notes by Milnes Lowndes on finding Da
y’s will, ERO, D/DBa L96/10. JB’s brother, Charles Bicknell, was also involved in looking for Day’s will, presumably as TD’s lawyer.
244 Esther explained that Day had not been “lavish”: Esther Day to RLE, January 21, 1790, Edgeworth Papers, MS 22470/3.
245 One obituary described him as “the advocate of human kind”: Gentleman’s Magazine, 1789, p. 958.
245 an anonymous correspondent wrote to the General Evening Post: Anon (AS) to the Editor of the General Evening Post, October 11, 1789. The letter is given in full in Seward’s collected letters so presumably it was found among her papers after her death. Seward (1811), vol. 2, pp. 329–31.
245 “I propose publishing Mr Days life”: RLE to Margaret Ruxton, n.d. (1789), Edgeworth Papers, MS 10166/65.
245 The rival biographers exchanged notes: RLE to ED, 1790, in Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, pp. 133; RLE to JK, January 6, 1790, and March 31, 1790, and RLE to Esther Day, December 18, 1790, Edgeworth Papers, MS 22470/1, 5 and 8.
246 “a great omission” in a biography of Day: JK to RLE, March 31, 1790, Edgeworth Papers, MS 22470/5 [citing Darwin’s view]; JK to ED, March 15, 1790, in Moilliet, A., pp. 108–9.
246 Keir admitted that obfuscating the truth: Notes on manuscript, ERO, D/DBa F68/4. Esther further amended Keir’s draft to remove a reference to “one pupil”—Lucretia—having married “without consulting her protector” and to Bicknell having been “entrusted from the beginning with the secret of the intention & execution of the experiment on female education.” Any mention of a secret plan would have indicated that Day had fully intended to marry one of the girls.
247 As the poet Robert Southey would later remark: Rowland, p. x.
247 “I think with you that she died of a broken heart”: John Stockdale to JK, 15 June 1792, cited in Moilliet, A., p. 115; Gentleman’s Magazine, June 12, 1792, p. 581.
248 “I love all of that breed”: Samuel Johnson to Hester Thrale, November 14, 1781, in Johnson, vol. 3, p. 373; Hester Thrale cited in Burney, Charles, The Letters of Dr. Charles Burney, ed. Ribeiro, Alvaro (Oxford, 1991), vol. 1, p. xxv. General background on Fanny Burney and the Burney family is from Harman, Claire, Fanny Burney, a biography (London, 2000) and Chisholm, Kate, Fanny Burney, her life (London, 1999).
248 “His wife was here on Sunday, with Mrs. Bicknell”: FB to Charlotte Ann Francis (her sister; later Broome), October 10, 1791, in Burney, vol. 1, p. 70. The postscript is in FB to CB, June 16, 1803, in Burney, vol. 6, p. 474.
248 Frequently ill with a series of vague symptoms: For references to Rosette’s illness see Burney, vol. 7, p. 52n; vol. 1, pp. 81–82 and 82n; and vol. 2, pp. 378–79.
249 When Sarah Harriet called on Charles: Sarah Harriet Burney to Mary Young, August 2–4, 1793, in Burney, SH, pp. 9–10.
249 “I shall always love Mrs. Bicknel”: FB to CB, August 8, 1793 in Burney, vol. 2, p. 182.
249 In a postscript on a letter to Rosette: Charles Parr Burney to Rosette Burney with postscript from CB to Sabrina, January 17, 1799, Burney Family Collection, The James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, OSB MSS 3, box 7.
249 When the artist Joseph Farington came for dinner: Farington, vol. 6, p. 2054.
250 “living all but openly with a woman in his own house”: Hester Lynch Piozzi (née Thrale) to John Salusbury Piozzi Salusbury (her stepson), July 27, 1810, in Piozzi, vol. 4, pp. 296 and 298n. Mrs. Piozzi wrongly believed that CB was editor of the European Magazine, which had published gossip about her. She also described CB as “a habitual Drunkard.” The editors of her letters erroneously suggest that Sabrina went to live with CB and Rosette after his retirement to Deptford rectory in 1813. She remained at the Burney School.
250 “They understood between them very well”: Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).
250 A sleepy town beside the Thames: Background on Greenwich history is from Platts, Beryl, A History of Greenwich (London, 1986); Lysons, Daniel, The Environs of London (London, 1792); Aslet, Clive, The Story of Greenwich (London, 1999); Silvester-Carr, Denise, Greenwich: a history and celebration of the town (Salisbury, 2005).
250 Situated in a redbrick mansion: Background information on the Burney School is from various documents in the Burney School Folder at Greenwich Heritage Centre. The fees are mentioned in a letter from James Watt to James Davies Kington, October 17, 1811, copy GHC. The reference to birch rods is from Farington, vol. 3, p. 35n.
251 On the ground floor and upper levels: Details of the house are from descriptions by Fanny Anne Wood, CB’s granddaughter, and an auction catalog of 1839 before the house was demolished. The latter is within an album of Greenwich archive material held in the British Library (Rare Books). The catalog was available from John Laurens Bicknell, among others. Miscellaneous papers relating to Greenwich, BL; Wood, p. 61.
251 Bills that survive for two pupils: CB to Robert Gray, December 28, 1805, in George IV, The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales, 1770–1812, ed. As-pinall, A. (8 vols., London, 1970), vol. 5, pp. 285–87. The two boys were orphans whose tuition was paid by the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV.
251 she complained that she could not take a day off: Sabrina Bicknell to Frances Edgeworth, June 9, 1813 and same to Maria Edgeworth, October 29, 1817, Edgeworth Papers, MS 22470/9 and 15.
252 she should translate from French a new book: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, pp. 341–43. The book was Adèle et Théodore, ou les Lettres sur l’Éducation, by Madame de Genlis. Genlis’s book had been acclaimed as a more moderate version of Rousseau’s educational ideas. The poem ‘Advice to a Lady” is by George, Lord Lyttelton. See Lyttelton, George, The Poetical Works of George Lord Lyttelton (London, 1801), pp. 56–62.
253 a short story, “Forester”: Edgeworth, Maria, “Forester” in Moral Tales for Young People (London, 1801), pp. 1–258. For more discussion about Day’s effect in stifling ME’s writing career see Myers. Myers describes Day as “the patriarch who stopped the young woman’s career cold” until ME was “freed” by Day’s fall from his horse. Myers also provides an illuminating portrait of Day’s wife-training experiment. For further discussion of Day’s influence on ME see Butler, M.
253 Maria Edgeworth’s first “society” novel, Belinda: Edgeworth, Maria, Belinda (first pub. 1801; Oxford, 1999). The quotes are from pp. 362–77.
254 Maria Edgeworth made no secret of the inspiration: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, p. 349.
254 it was Belinda that firmly established Maria Edgeworth’s literary career: Butler, Marilyn, Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries: English literature and its background, 1760–1830 (Oxford, 1981), p. 96.
254 Fanny decided to improve her French by writing some short compositions: Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).
255 Trollope would tell a similar story: Trollope, Anthony, Orley Farm (2 vols., London, 1935). The quotes are from vol. 1, pp. 176, 330, 226 and vol. 2, p. 137. In a key element of the plot, Graham is also thrown from his horse although, unlike Day, he survives with just a broken arm. My thanks to Tilli Tansey for drawing my attention to Trollope’s book.
CHAPTER II: GALATEA
257 the British had lived with the fear of invasion: Information on the expected French invasion is from Fortescue, Sir John William, A History of the British Army (13 vols., London, 1910), vol. 5, pp. 167–244; Schom, Alan, Trafalgar: Countdown to Battle 1803–1805 (London, 1990); Pocock, Tom, The Terror before Trafalgar (London, 2002).
257 he picked up the book Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin: It is not possible to date exactly when John Laurens Bicknell read Seward’s biography of Darwin and wrote to her—his letter has not survived—but she referred to his letter in January 1805. AS had been away from Lichfield for five months up to December 1804. It has also not been possible to date his birth precisely, but he was born in the winter of 1785–86. The descriptions and quotes relating to Day in Seward’s memoir are from Seward (1804), pp. 12–38.
258 In law, as John would ha
ve known, illegitimate children: William Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, states that an illegitimate child “can inherit nothing, being looked upon as the son of nobody.” Blackstone, William, Commentaries on the Laws of England (2 vols., London, 1765–69), vol. 1, p. 447. Literary references are from Zunshine, pp. 133–34. Fanny Burney, in her novel Evelina, wrote that illegitimacy would bring “shame and dishonour” on her heroine. Fanny Burney, Evelina (first published 1778; Oxford, 2008), p. 337.
259 “such a state of irritation”: Sabrina later described her son’s reactions to ME who related the story to her stepmother. ME to Frances Edgeworth, October 13 and 15, 1818, in Edgeworth (1971), pp. 121–22.
259 “the dearest friend I had on earth”: AS to R. Fellowes, August 31, 1803, Seward (1811), vol. 6, p. 101.
259 forced by his family to issue a retraction: Robert Darwin to AS, March 5, 1804, LRO, D262/1/34; Darwin, pp. 70–75.
259 “a base and surely most unprovoked attack”: AS to Rev. Thomas Sedgewick Whalley, January 22, 1805, in Whalley, vol. 1, pp. 263–64. AS describes her reply to JB in her letter to Whalley.
260 reviewers of Darwin’s biography savaged Seward: Annual Review, January 1804; Universal Magazine, April 1804; British Critic, October 1804.
261 “a half true, half false history:” ME to Frances Edgeworth, October 13 and 15, 1818, in Edgeworth (1971), pp. 121–22.
261 Sabrina would later confess that her elder son’s ailments: Sabrina Bicknell to RLE, April 21 and May 13, 1817, Edgeworth Papers, MS 22470/10 and 12.
262 Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, who was suspected: Peach, Annette, “Wainewright, Thomas Griffiths (1794–1847),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) online edn., accessed December 29, 2011.
262 more than forty boys barricaded themselves: John Graham to his mother, Mrs. Graham, February 24, 1808, transcript at GHC. Twenty years later, CB’s sister, Sarah Harriet, met one of the boys involved in the riot, Willoughby Crewe, who had become a curate. See SHB to Charlotte Barratt and Charlotte Broome, February 17, 1828, in Burney, SH, p. 273. Background on the rebellions in other schools is from Moncrieff, pp. 210–11. Riots erupted at Winchester, Rugby, Harrow and Eton schools on a number of occasions during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Charles Dickens did not exaggerate when he created the sadistic Wackford Squeers as headmaster of Dothe-boys Hall in Nicholas Nickleby. Squeers was based on a real headmaster, William Shaw, who was prosecuted when several boys in his school, the Bowes Academy in Yorkshire, went blind due to the unhygienic and inhumane conditions.