Women of letters by Leonie Hannan

Author:Leonie Hannan [Hannan, Leonie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Modern, 17th Century, Social Science, Women's Studies, Europe, Renaissance
ISBN: 9781784998134
Google: P3a5DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2016-06-01T03:15:27+00:00

This comment also demonstrated that Frances Taylor expected her daughters to receive an education through the rigours of independent ‘book learning’ as well as with the guidance of teachers. Despite the apparent criticisms of her daughter’s written skills and propensity to study, her letter-writing was whole-heartedly encouraged: ‘we desire that you or your sister will write once a week, write every little thing that comes into your head, it will keep your hands in writing & it will give pleasure to your pappa & mamma.’13 Elizabeth Petty (c. 1636–1708/10) – wife of the natural philosopher and administrator, William Petty – encouraged her children likewise: ‘yu must always read yr Letters iust before yu answer ym, & yn yu will be able to answer to every particuler.’14 Writing from the family home in Dublin to her husband’s residence in Piccadilly, London, where the children were staying, she hoped to encourage them in this habit by suggesting that ‘Mr Banworth take Care to biy yu good Inke Paper, Penns, & wax. & yn yu will take pleasure in writeing, I wld have yu tell me every thing yu hear, & wher yu goe, & who Comes to see yu, & wt Cloths yu have, & wt yr Bro: Harry does’.15 Later the same month, she chided: ‘yr Unkle & Aunt takes it ill yt yu doe not Mention ym in yr Letters, so does yr Brother, don’t forget it for ye future.’16 It seemed that the regular rebukes for not mentioning particular events or people in letters were even imitated by the young Anne Petty, who wrote a neat and polite letter to her aunt, Bridget Cadogan, but complained ‘I would know how all my Cousen does, for you never spake of them me thinks if you spake of none elce you should of little Cousen Lopy’.17 Alongside criticism, the Petty children did receive some positive encouragement about their epistolary style, their mother commenting: ‘I Likt yr Last Letter very well becaus it gave me an acco[un]t. of many particulers.’18

The fact of writing letters, and gaining practice at doing so, appeared to be paramount. These mothers’ statements reveal an emphasis on attaining the habit of writing letters over and above any need to communicate a particular message. An indication of the Taylors’ privileged position in society was the implicit understanding that the cost of postage was an affordable and acceptable expense even for practice letters of little communicative value. Likewise, the Petty family encouraged a regular traffic of letters between their homes in Dublin and London, both to keep in touch with their children and also to educate them in this important social practice. These examples show correspondence was used as an explicitly educational exercise for girls and young women, and one that paved the way to adult competence in social life. Similar evidence is detectable in family correspondences across England. A small, stitched exercise book belonging to Henry Shirley of the Manor House at Brailsford in Derbyshire dedicated half its pages

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