800 Years of Women's Letters

by Olga Kenyon

  Though women were more vulnerable financially than men, they complained little about money. The Ladies of Llangollen, for example, though from wealthy aristocratic families, were given only £100 a year – because they refused to marry. But they turned their penury into a model of subsistence living, sharing work in kitchen and garden, and studying daily together.

  More typical of the nineteenth century is the real misery of the Brontës, exploited and undervalued as governesses. I also include one of the very few letters available from an American factory girl.

  Social work became a lifelong mission for Harriet Martineau and Florence Nightingale. Their Victorian seriousness is echoed in what George Sand and George Eliot say about their work as writers.

  WORK ON THE PASTONS’ ESTATE

  Margaret Paston writes to her eldest son, Sir John Paston, about work she is carrying out on the estate. She allows herself to express irritability at her son for leaving her so much to oversee financially.

  [Norwich]

  15 July 1470

  I greet you well and send you God’s blessing and mine, letting you know that your farmers have brought me a great bill for repairs, which I send you, together with 60s. in money. I would have the rest of the money from them but they said that it was in your agreement that these repairs should be done and allowed for in this payment, and so I could get no more money from them. And they say that the parson [Thomas Howes] was aware of the repairs. If you were thus agreed and will have the repairs examined you may send word, but I wish you would settle your affairs as hastily as you may, and come home and take heed to your own [property], and mine as well, otherwise than you have done before this, both for my profit and yours. Or else I shall arrange otherwise for myself in haste, in a way that, I trust, shall be more to my ease and profit and no ease nor profit to you in time to come. I have yet little help nor comfort from any of you, God give me grace to have more hereafter. I would that you should consider whether it would not be more profitable to serve me than to serve such masters as you have served before this . . . I pray God we may be in quiet and rest with our own property from henceforth. My power is not as great as I would wish it for your own sake and for others, and if it were, we should not for long be in danger. God bring us out of it, who have you in His keeping.

  Written without ease of heart the Monday next after Relic Sunday.

  By your mother.

  ED. ALICE D. GREENWOOD, SELECTIONS FROM THE PASTON LETTERS (1920)

  EVICTION BY A RAPACIOUS CLERGYMAN

  Margery Clerke, a well-born woman, wrote to Thomas Cranmer to protect herself and her five children, after they had been evicted.

  1526

  To Thomas, Archbishop of York and Chancellor of England

  It is the humble complaint of your beadswoman Margery Clerke of Cheshire, once the wife of William Clerke that, although her late husband and his ancestors had for many years enjoyed undisturbed tenancy of a property in the parish of St Werberga, at the discretion of the Abbot of St Werberga in Westchester, according to the immemorial tradition, at an annual rent of forty shillings, John, the late abbot, although there had been nothing done to forfeit the tenancy and though there was no other reason, in the eighth year of the current reign sent certain of his servants to the said property and evicted from it your present petitioner, her late husband, and five small children, this being the coldest part of the winter. They were forced by necessity to go to their parish church for relief and remained there for three weeks, as they had no house to stay in, until the abbot, out of his yet further malice, ordered the vicar of the church to evict them from there as well.

  The same servants took all the farm stock, and they took all the furniture and household effects and threw it into a deep pond. As a result of brooding about this her husband fell into depression and shortly died.

  Your petitioner has complained about this to your highness on various occasions, and your grace has appointed certain gentlemen to examine her case, and bring it to a conclusion, as their commissions direct; but the said abbot has delayed and extended the investigation by improper means, so that the said commissioners were unable to conclude it. And now the said abbot has recently resigned from his post, and another has been elected. Your petitioner has made representations to him, but he refuses redress unless ordered to make it by the King’s writ, which your beadswoman has not the ability or power to deploy against him, she being an poor woman and he a great lord in these parts, high in both rank and office.

  ED. C. MORIARTY, THE VOICE OF THE MIDDLE AGES (1989)

  FROM ELIzABETH I TO HENRY IV OF FRANCE

  Henry IV was an able man, who reunited France after civil war. Though a Protestant, he decided to become a Catholic in order to gain, and retain, the loyalty of leading French families. It is believed he said ‘Paris vaut bien une messe’ (It’s worth saying a Mass to gain Paris). Elizabeth I, now more isolated in her Protestant faith, complained to him:

  1593

  My God! Is it possible that worldy considerations can so erase the fear of God which threatens us? Can we in reason expect any good result from an act so impious? He who has supported and preserved you through the years, can you imagine that he will forsake you in time of greatest need? Ah! It is dangerous to do evil, even for a good end. I hope that you will return to your senses. In the meantime I shall not cease to put you foremost in my prayers, that the hands of Esau do not snatch away the blessing of Jacob. And as for promising me all amity and faithfulness, I have merited it dearly; I have not tried to change my allegiance to my father. For I prefer the natural to the adopted parent, as God well knows. May He guide you back to the right way. Your most assured sister, if it is after the old manner, for with the new, I have nothing to do.

  E.R.

  MARIA PERRY, THE WORD OF A PRINCE: A LIFE OF ELIZABETH I (1990)

  Despite his defection, Elizabeth remained in firm alliance with Henry IV. Although she had worked to dissuade him, she was skilful enough to accept defeat in that area. She then turned her pen to support her religion. In the autumn of 1593 she translated De Consolatione Philosophiae (The Consolation of Philosophy) by Boethius. Half in prose, half in verse, partly in her own erratic hand and partly dictated, she succeeded in only seventeen days in rendering the Latin into ‘antique English’ to widen the reading available to her subjects.

  WORKING WOMEN’S DEMANDS BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

  Working women petitioned to improve their situation at the beginning of the French Revolution. Notable are the dignified tone and unpretentious demands, in spite of their proclamation of women’s suffering in so many areas, from education to old age. This letter is addressed to Louis XVI of France in 1789, in a Petition from the Women of the Third Estate to the King:

  Sire,

  All women of the Third Estate are born poor. Their education is either neglected or misconceived. At the age of fifteen or sixteen, girls can earn five or six sous a day . . . They get married, without a dowry, to unfortunate artisans and drag out a gruelling existence . . . producing children whom they are unable to bring up . . . If old age overtakes unmarried women, they spend it in tears and as objects of contempt for their nearest relatives. To counter such misfortunes, Sire, we ask that men be excluded from those crafts and practising work that are women’s prerogative.

  We ask, Sire, to be instructed and given jobs, not that we may usurp men’s authority, but so that we might have a means of livelihood.

  This was a mild request, since they were suffering from invasion of their traditional crafts by men already earning an average of 30 sous, for jobs which paid women only 14 or 15 sous a day.

  NINETEENTH-CENTURY FACTORY LIFE

  There is little information about the attitudes of women to work in the first half of the nineteenth century. This letter, to a former co-worker, H. Robinson, is valuable, as it gives insights into reactions to work in a factory.

  Sept. 7, 1846, Lowell, Mass.

  Dear Harriet,

  With
a feeling which you can better imagine than I can describe do I announce to you the horrible tidings that I am once more a factory girl! yes; once more a factory girl, seated in the short attic of a Lowell boarding house with a half dozen of girls seated around me talking and reading and myself in the midst, trying to write to you, with the thoughts of so many different persons flying around me that I can hardly tell which are my own. . . . My friends and my mother had almost persuaded me to stay at home during the fall and winter but when I reached home I found a letter which informed me that Mr Saunders was keeping my place for me and sent for me to come back as soon as I could and after reading it my Lowell fever returned and, come I would, and come I did, but now, ‘Ah! me. I rue the day’ although I am not so homesick as I was a fortnight ago and just begin to feel more resigned to my fate. I have been here four weeks but have not had to work very hard for there are six girls of us and we have fine times doing nothing. I should like to see you in Lowell once more but cannot wish you to exchange your pleasant home in the country for a factory life in the ‘great city of spindles.’ I hope you will learn to perform all necessary domestic duties while you have an opportunity for perhaps you may have an invitation from a certain dark eyed gentleman whom you mentioned in your letter to be mistress of his house his hand and heart and supposing such an event should take place then I will just take a ride some pleasant day and make you a visit when I will tell you more news than I can write – but I will not anticipate.

  I almost envy your happy sundays at home. A feeling of loneliness comes over me when I think of my home, now far away; you remember perhaps how I used to tell you I spent my hours in the mill – in imagining myself rich and that the rattle of machinery was the rumbling of my chariot wheels but now alas that happy tact [?] has fled from me and my mind no longer takes such airy and visionary flights for the wings of my imagination have folded themselves to rest; in vain do I try to soar in fancy and imagination above the dull reality around me but beyond the roof of the factory I can not rise. . . .

  I have no more that you would be interested in, to write. When you receive this letter I shall expect that long one you promised me do write it wont you.

  Your friend H.E. Back

  H. ROBINSON PAPERS, A. & E. SCHLESINGER LIBRARY, RADCLIFFE COLLEGE, U.S.A.

  A WRITER IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY RURAL SPAIN

  Work in the north of Spain, in Galicia, in the nineteenth century, was frequently tough, often left to overburdened women. The poet Rosalía de Castro (1837–85) loved her region and its language so much that she seldom went to Madrid, though life among Madrid intellectuals would have helped to sell her work. In this open, prefatory letter, she describes why she writes about peasant women.

  1880

  In my new book I gave preference to those poems which tried to express the misfortunes of those I saw suffering, over those poems which could be called personal.

  And there is so much suffering in our beloved Galician land! Entire books could be written about the eternal misfortune that afflicts our villagers and sailors, the only true workers in our country. I saw and felt their sorrows as if they were mine. But what has always moved me, and consequently finds an echo in my poetry, are the innumerable sufferings of our women. They are creatures who are loving to their family and to strangers, full of feeling, strong of body but soft of heart, and unfortunate because it seems they were born only to bear all the troubles that afflict the weaker and more naive half of humanity. In the fields they do the same share of heavy work as their men and, at home, they valiantly endure the worries of motherhood, housework, and the barrenness of poverty. Alone most of the time, having to work from sunrise to sunset, without help to support their children and perhaps a sickly father, they seem condemned to find rest only in their grave.

  Immigration and the King are forever claiming their lovers, brothers, or husbands – the main support of families that are always large. Left behind to cry helplessly, women spend a bitter life amidst uncertain hope, dark loneliness, and the worries that constant misery brings. The greatest heartbreak for them is that all their men leave: some by force, some by need, some by greed. They leave mothers of numerous children, too small to fathom the unhappiness of the orphanage to which they are being condemned.

  EDS. AND TRANS. ALDAZ, GANTT, POEMS OF ROSALÍA DE CASTRO (1991)

  WORK AS A GOVERNESS

  The first mention of a governess is in the letters of St Jerome. He recommends that a Christian Lady Laeta, in Rome, should educate her daughter for a religious life with an ‘honest woman of sad age’. She should be grave and pale, like the despondent looking governesses in Brontë novels so many centuries later. There were a few ‘maistresses’, as Chaucer called them, in lively Plantagenet and troubadour courts. By the end of the fifteenth century more aristocratic girls were being educated, including Lady Jane Grey, and Henry VIII was enthusiastic about education both for himself and his daughters. The Court’s example was followed in many a new manor house, where girls might share the classical education of their brothers and all could learn music. A Tudor governess may have been a poor relation, but would have been paid and respected for her learning or her devotion.

  A GLORIOUS EMPLOYMENT

  One of the best-known governesses is Elizabeth Elstob (1683–1756). Brought up by a narrow-minded uncle, but with an aunt who fortunately encouraged her love of languages, she wrote an English Saxon Grammar which brought her fame and the nickname ‘Saxon Lady’. She went to live for a happy thirteen years with her beloved brother, Vicar of St Swithin in London, but after his death, like so many single women, she was destitute. She founded a village school in Evesham where she charged only one groat per pupil and suffered from ‘Nervous Fefer from which I despair of ever being free’. Friends tried to help, but she wrote ‘it is as Glorious an Employment to instruct Poor Children as to teach the Greatest Monarch’.

  In 1739 the Duchess of Portland was persuaded to employ her, to teach her four children ‘in the principles of religion, and cultivate their minds as far as their capacity will allow, to keep them company in the house, and when her strength and health permit to take the Air with them.’ As Elstob loved teaching, she was happy with the children, but like many governesses, allowed very little of the adults’ company, as she relates in this letter:

  I want nothing here to make my happiness complete as this world can make it, but the pleasure of seeing Mrs Delany oftener, who is entirely engrossed by Her Grace. I can send you nothing new from hence; Mrs Delaney can do it better, who hears and sees more than I do . . . We begin to talk of going to Bulstrode, where I long to be because I hope to have the honour of more of her Grace’s company – for it is impossible to have any of it here.

  However, she soon wrote happily to her friend George Balland:

  My charming little Ladies take up my time so entirely that I have not the least leisure to do anything from the time they rise till they go to bed, they are so constantly with me, except when they are with her Grace, which is not long at a time.

  B. HOWE, A GALAXY OF GOVERNESSES (1954)

  THE GOVERNESS AS GENTLEWOMAN

  It was considered bad manners to be rude to the governess during the eighteenth century; nor was she slighted in public by her pupils, unlike the Victorian governess. Maria Edgeworth informed readers in her letters on education, how ‘in her time, the Governess was no longer treated as an Upper Servant but as a Gentlewoman’. In the recently published Heber Letters (1782–1832) the Reverend Reginald Heber, Rector of Malpas and Parson of Hodnet, was told by his sister in a letter dated 1798:

  We will make all the enquiries we can after a governess for little Mary, but such as are in every respect eligible are difficult to be met with and their terms very high. There are plenty of emigrant ladies, some of the rank of Viscountess, to be had, but I think you would not prefer a Frenchwoman, and I am sure would not take a Roman Catholic into your House. We have just hired a governess for Mary Ann, her wages or salary is to be forty guineas a
year, her washing is done at home or paid for, and she is to eat at their own table. She undertakes to instruct her pupil in English, French, Geography, Music, Writing & Arithmetic. The wages are now, it seems, thought low, fifty or sixty pounds or guineas being frequently given.

  HEBER LETTERS (1950)

  A BETTER POSITION

  The rising middle class offered employment to educated young women as governesses. Some were well treated, but most overworked and ill-appreciated, even publicly humiliated, as here, and in Jane Eyre.

  Nellie Weeton (1776–1844) lost her father at five. Her asthmatic mother opened a small school where Nellie had to help with all the teaching and all the housework. Yet both overburdened sickly women supported the fortunate son Tom in his law studies. He helped to find her a position considered better by society, after the mother’s early death. She was paid 30 guineas a year.

  Jan. 26, 1810

  Dear Brother,

  The comforts of which I have deprived myself in coming here, and the vexations that occur sometimes during the hours of instruction with a child of such a strange temper to instruct, would almost induce me to give up my present situation, did not the consideration which brought me here, still retain me. O Brother! Sometime thou wilt know perhaps the deprivations I have undergone for thy sake, and that thy attentions have not been such as to compensate them. For thy sake I have wanted food and fire, and have gone about in rags; have spent the flower of my youth in obscurity, deserted, and neglected; and now, when God has blessed me with a competence, have given up its comforts to promote thy interest in the world. Should I fail in this desire, should I not succeed – what will recompense me? – God perhaps will bless me for the thought that was in my heart; and if I am rewarded in heaven – I am rewarded indeed! I will be patient – I will be resigned, and – with the help of the Power around me, I will persevere.