800 Years of Women's Letters (28 page)

Surprisingly, the frequent money worries of dependent women are seldom mentioned in their letters. Jane Austen occasionally refers to her mother's income, and her own need to economize on clothes. Eleanor Butler, one of the Ladies of Llangollen, reveals the very real difficulties of even well-born women when they displeased their families.

At a time when the economical Dr Johnson complained that he could not manage on £400 a year, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were ekeing out £100 for their joint household. They wisely kept a cow in their garden, in order to crop the grass and receive fresh milk. The annoyed relations refused to pay more than a paltry allowance. When her wealthy mother, reputed to enjoy £16,000 a year, died, the distraught Butler received almost nothing. Eleanor requested a copy of the will from her sister-in-law:

Dear Lady Ormonde,

Your silence to the recent application I troubled you with the first of this month (an instance of disregard to yourself and me for which I was totally unprepared) will influence my abridging (much as is possible) the present intrusion on your attention.

Last Thursday's post brought a Duplicate of the Will accompanied by your promise of letting me know ‘when' I may be permitted to draw for the One Hundred Pounds my Mother had the goodness to bequeath me. In Seven Weeks from the Event which added so considerably to your already Princely Resources could nothing be afforded except a promise of future information when I might apply for such a sum?

I shall only lead your Observation to the evident, the unmerited cruelty of this treatment! It may indeed be pronounced so unexampled, that with difficulty will it obtain belief. Equally incredible must it appear that my remonstrance to
Your Friendship
and my
Brother's justice
experienced no other return than a
Silent
Contempt. But now (impelled by many powerful motives, independent of my own particular interests) I once more conjure you to bestow even a momentary consideration on the
Moderate Object
of that remonstrance, and the claims I have upon those to whom it was addressed. Let me also remind you that though for near sixteen Years the constant Inhabitant of ‘so remote a dwelling' yet when the Title of Ormonde is pronounced at St James this ensuing Birthday the recollections of a Daughter and Sister of that House will consequently be awakened to the minds of some distinguished Characters in the circle, many of whom, as your Ladyship cannot be ignorant, I have the happiness to count in the list of acquaintance and not a few in that of my
real
friends. If the eyes of these persons should unanimously turn towards you on your first introduction to their majesties, let it be I entreat with that degree of approbation which it shall prove my immediate business to convince them you are entitled to from all who feel an interest in my welfare, if by obtaining me the slender addition of One Hundred a year you at once fulfill my utmost ambition and Secure to yourself my liveliest Gratitude. I have only one additional favour to solicit, it is the Obligation of not being kept in a state of painful suspense, but that whatever may be your determination, you will without delay communicate it to, dear Lady Ormonde,

Your Most faithful and most Obedient Humble Servant,

Eleanor Butler

E. MAVOR,
THE LADIES OF LLANGOLLEN: A STUDY IN ROMANTIC FRIENDSHIP
(1971)

Waverley, 3d March 1842

My dear Sir

It cannot be unknown to you that the unfavourable seasons for some years past, and the almost annual ravages of the Caterpillar have cut short the crop of Sea Island cotton on the coast of Georgia, and in some locations almost destroyed it. My husband has probably been one of the greatest sufferers from these successive disasters. At a time when negroes were selling from five to six hundred dollars round in gangs – he unfortunately purchased largely; relying on the proceeds of his cotton crops to enable him to make payment, but the almost total failure in some years, short crops and low prices in others have prevented him from realizing the means to meet his engagements. The result is that his creditors have seized and taken from him all his property which in the condition of the country and at present Prices will probably not pay his debts: This may render it necessary for me to call on your friendly aid as one of my Trustees, to protect the property bequeathed in my Fathers will for the benefit of myself and the children.

I do not impute any blame, or mismanagement to my husband, nor has his misfortunes, in the slightest degree impaired my confidence in his integrity, or his ability to manage property. Nor is it my desire to give you unnecessary trouble. I simply ask that you will stand the friend of my fathers child in case my husbands creditors shall after taking all his property attempt to seize that upon which I can alone rely for the support of a family of nine children most of them small and at that peculiar age when instruction and parental support are essential and necessary. I do not know that my husbands creditors will disturb me but in case they attempt it I desire permission to call on you and Mr Joseph Jones – my other trustee – to protect my property – as my husband cannot act and I can rely alone upon my Trustees. It is my desire that my husband be left as your or my agent, in the management of my plantations and business generally.

If my memory serves me a copy of my Fathers will was sent to you soon after his decease. If you cannot lay your hand upon it I will send you another immediately.

I send you enclosed, a list of the 50 negroes left to me in the will, with their increase.

Pay let me hear from you as soon as convenient. Direct your letter to Waynesville.

My kind regards to Mrs Couper

Very respectfully
Your obt Servt, Anna Matilda King

EDS. E.O. HELLERSTEIN,
ET AL., VICTORIAN WOMEN
(1981)

Florence Nightingale received an allowance of £500 a year from her father, which she used to support her social work. Although her mother had a generous allowance and two houses, she never ceased to resent her daughter's expenses. In this letter Florence complains to her father.

12 Jan 1857

In a difficult life (and mine has been more difficult than most) it is always better clearly to decide for oneself

you have mentioned and do mention to me the perpetual grievance it is to you to have such expenses in the female part of your family. . .

. London . . . they say they do it on my account. I will just once, say it is
not
so. You say you spent four months in London last year. Did they stay in London on my account while I was in Russia? If they did so it must have been to buy me one bonnet. . . . Everything else was ordered through the post. . . .

I am sure my dear mother has a dim and vague perception of this viz – that her motherly feeling owes me something more (in the way of facilities to carry out those objects which they approve, now, and which the world approves) than £500 and leave to visit at Embley and Lea Hurst. . . . She tries to smuggle my accounts into hers. She tries in various ways to do me a little contraband good – then when you complain of the confusion and extravagance, also too truly, of her accounts, she forgets this and says ‘Oh, it's all Flo's boys' [Miss Nightingale was educating four orphan boys who lived at Embley] or ‘It's all Florence's bills.' And she sits down and writes items against me, almost at random, often over charged. . . .

FAWCETT LIBRARY

The difficulties of writing for money while nursing children are described by Louisa May Alcott, author of
Little Women.

November 1872

Work is my salvation. H.W. Beecher sent one of the editors of the ‘Christian Union' to ask for a serial story. They have asked before, and offered $2,000, which I refused; now the offered $3,000, and I accepted.

Got out the old manuscript of ‘Success,' and called it ‘Work.' Fired up the engine, and plunged into a vortex, with many doubts about getting out. Can't work slowly; the thing possesses me, and I must obey till it's done. One thousand dollars was sent as a seal on the bargain, so I was bound, and sat at the oar like a galley-slave.

F. wanted eight little tales, and offered $35 apiece; used to pay $10. Such is fame! At odd minutes I wrote the short ones, and so paid my own expenses. ‘Shawl Straps,' Scrap-Bag, No. 2, came out, and went well.

Great Boston fire; up all night. Very splendid and terrible sight.

December – Busy with ‘Work.' Write three pages at once on impression paper, as Beecher, Roberts, and Low of London all want copy at once.

(This was the cause of the paralysis of my thumb, which disabled me.)

Roberts Brothers paid me $2,022 for books. S.E.S. invested most of it, with the $1,000 F. sent. Gave C.M. $100 – a thank-offering for my success. I like to help the class of ‘silent poor' to which we belonged for so many years – needy, but respectable, and forgotten because too proud to beg. Work difficult to find for such people, and life made very hard for want of a little money to ease the necessary needs.

– Anna very ill with pneumonia; home to nurse her. Father telegraphed to come home, as we thought her dying. She gave me her boys; but the dear saint got well, and kept the lads for herself. Thank God!

Back to my work with what wits nursing left me.

Had Johnny for a week, to keep all quiet at home. Enjoyed the sweet little soul very much, and sent him back much better.

Finished ‘Work,' – twenty chapters. Not what it should be – too many interruptions. Should like to do one book in peace, and see if it wouldn't be good.

The job being done I went home to take Mary's place. Gave her $1,000, and sent her to London for a year of study. She sailed on the 26th, brave and happy and hopeful. I felt that she needed it, and was glad to be able to help her.

I spent seven months in Boston; wrote a book and ten tales; earned $3,250 by my pen, and am satisfied with my winter's work.

ED. E.D. CHENEY,
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT: HER LIFE, LETTERS AND JOURNALS
(1889)

We have many letters about the work of writing, because women writers were skilled at penning their problems, and had occasional free moments, denied to servants and labourers. Hildegard in the twelfth century expressed humility at the task of describing her visions. She dictated many of her letters, as did Margaret Paston during the Wars of the Roses. These first letters in English are direct, about the affairs of the family and the estate. She mentioned no worries about self-expression nor did the skilful Elizabeth I, whose letters were obviously the product of much thought – she needed skill with words to save her own life, and others. I include the first letter we have about a governess. It is Elizabeth's plea for her beloved governess to be released from the Tower of London. Though only fifteen she had been so well taught that K. Ashley was released.

By the seventeenth century women were beginning to be published. Lady Margaret Cavendish had sufficient means not to worry about sales, and could address her audience with assurance. Aphra Behn, dependent on her pen to make a living, had to use it to persuade, in an amazing range of ways. I include three: to her Spymaster, who failed to pay her; to a ‘sugar-candied reader'; and to a patron. A patron was an essential social and financial support during tough times.

Women were accepted a trifle less ruefully as professional writers by the nineteenth century. George Eliot analyses her work as an editor, and its many drawbacks. Louisa May Alcott gives us invaluable details of the daily life and the financial rewards for a worker-mother. They include being able to send ‘Mary to London for a year of study' and ‘money to ease the necessary needs' of the ‘needy and respectable, forgotten because too proud to beg'.

Edith Wharton, friend of Henry James, and with many of his qualities as novelist, gained fame in her own time, which involved answering letters from other writers, which she did sympathetically. In the letter included here she comforts Bernard Berenson on his writer's block. I end with Dorothy Richardson (novelist and lesbian) on the difficulties of a woman writer, spiritual as well as social.

Elizabeth I was one of the first daughters to have had her own governess in Britain. In 1536, when Henry VIII's second daughter was three years old, Katheryn Ashley was appointed to govern Princess Elizabeth's household. Later she became Elizabeth's tutor. After Henry VIII's death in 1547, the Court was full of intrigue and suspicion. The power-seeking Protector Somerset wished to prevent a marriage between Seymour and Catherine Parr – or Elizabeth. He considered, erroneously, that Katheryn Ashley supported his rival for the highest office, and had her imprisoned with her husband. Elizabeth promptly wrote to Somerset in Ashley's defence. She was fifteen.

I am the bolder to speak for another thing; the other was because peradventure your Lordship and the Council will think that I favour her evil doing whom I shall speak for, which is for Katherine Ashley, that it will please your Grace and the Council to do good unto her. Which think I do not favour her in any evil (for that I would be sorry to do) but for these considerations which follow . . . First because she hath been a long time with me, and many years, and hath taken great labour, and pain in bringing me up in learning and honesty – therefore I ought of my duty to speak for her, for Saint Gregory sayeth that we are more bound to them that bring us up well, than to our parents, for our parents do that which is natural to them, that is, bringeth us into the world, but our bringers up are a cause to make us live well in it . . .

R. WEIGALL,
AN ELIZABETHAN GENTLEWOMAN
(1911)