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1831 to 1840

1831

born

..... Helen Blavatsky ..... who arrived in America in 1873, a Russian emigrée whose language was coarse, smoked cigarettes and hashish  and kept her co-lodgers enthralled with stories of her past, most of it far from the truth. Eventually she became part of the American spiritualist scene and as there was a great deal of interest in the occult at the time with séances being very fashionable she soon made an impact with her powers as a medium and her mystic talk of truths learned from Indian and Tibetan 'masters'.  In 1875 she began to write her beliefs and 'astral' experiences and in time Isis Unveiled - A Master Key To The Mysteries of Ancient And Modern Science And Theology was published in two large volumes. Although it was lambasted by most of the critics it sold out in ten days.  With Colonel Harry Olcott, who had left his wife for her, she founded the Theosophical Society for the study and dissemination of the hidden knowledge that had been imparted to them and in 1879 they went to India where they were warmly received. The Colonel spent most of his time addressing meetings and making converts  and she concentrated on establishing a central shrine for the society where she organised spirit 'manifestations' and where messages from her spiritual master or mahatma, Koot Hoomi, were received. As 'high priestess of Isis' she enjoyed popular adulation and a considerable degree of comfort for six years until she was eventually exposed and forced to flee India. She travelled through Europe and died in England in 1891

born

..... Isabel Burton - Lady neé Nellie Bass .....  daughter of Lord Burton of the famous firm of Bass. In 1894 she married a wealthy Scotsman James Baillie. With Lady Kathleen Pilkington she is credited with having started the boom in French bulldogs which are much smaller than the British variety. Her Cochin-Chinas and Black Orpingtons were famous. She died in 1896

born November 7th

..... Melanie Calvat ..... known as the ‘ little shepherdess of La Salette’, she was born in France, the daughter of a stonemason. On September 19th 1846 she revealed that the Holy Virgin had appeared and spoken to her and that her message concerned the decline of spiritual life and the corruption of the clergy. She foretold of terrible, sometimes fratricidal wars, the coming of the anti-Christ, the destruction of many cities including Paris and Rome and of major upheavals in Rome itself

1832

England

..... Reform Bill – for the first time the parliamentary franchise was actually recorded as being limited to men only, because of the insertion of the phrase ‘ male person’

....  a petition by Miss Mary Smith, a wealthy landowner from Yorkshire, was laid before the House of Commons. Miss Smith argued that if a woman, by the ownership of property, was qualified to vote then she should also have the right to vote 

..... the knowledge of the varying forms of the living Mollusks, of their habits and powers, has been increased, and is likely to be materially advanced, by the rapidly extending practice of preserving them in confined spaces of sea or fresh water. Poli, Montagu, and before them probably other lovers of nature, resident near the sea, availed themselves of large vessels to keep alive, in frequently renewed sea-water, the marine animals in the study of which they were interested. But to Madame Jeannette Power (nee* de Villepreux), according to the testimony of Professor Carmelo Maravigna, in the Journal du Cabinet Litteraire de I'Academia Gioenia, of Catania , for December 1834, ought to be attributed, if to any one individual, the invention and systematic application of the receptacles now called Aquaria, to the study of marine, and principally of molluscous animals. Madame Power invented three kinds: one of glass, for preserving and studying living Mollusca in a room; another, also of glass, for small Mollusks, protected by an external cage of bars, in which they could be kept submerged in the sea, and withdrawn at will for inspection; and a third kind of cage for larger Mollusks, which could be sunk and anchored at a given depth in the sea, and raised, when required, for the purpose of observation and experiment. With these different kinds of molluscous menageries, of which the first answers to our present improved and enlarged aquaria, Madame Power carried on her observations and experiments from the year 1832 to 1842 at Messina in Sicily. She determined the question of the true relation of the Argonauts, or Paper Nautilus, to the delicate boat-like shell which it inhabits. She first showed that the so-called "sails" were normally applied over the exterior of the shell, and proved experimentally that they were the organs which formed and repaired the shell. She proved that the Bulla lignaria preyed upon, and by its strong gizzard ground down and digested, the Dentalium entale. She described the curious manoeuvres by which the Astropecten aurantiacus seized and conveyed to its mouth and stomach small Naticae. And many other interesting facts were brought to light by this persevering and ingenious observer, through the application of the "Gabioline alia Power", as her aquaria were termed by the Gioenia Academy, some years before the practice of so studying aquatic animals was introduced and diffused in this country ( from Introduction to Mollusca by Professor Richard Owen - sent to me by e-mail  cl-arnal@club-internet.fr)

born 

..... Angelique Cottin ..... in 1846,when she was fourteen years old, the practical control of electricity was still thirty years in the future and therefore the sudden appearance of what seemed to be uncontrolled electrical energy in her was both mystifying and terrifying. For ten weeks Angelique appeared to be ‘charged’. Her touch sent heavy furniture flying across the room, people could not grasp any object she held and compasses went mad when in her presence. Sometimes these powerful seizures brought her to the edge of convulsion and she often ran away at the first indication of an attack. Her case was reported by the French physicist Francois Arago and she became one of a handful of historical figures known as ‘electric people’ victims of something called ‘high voltage syndrome’.  Other women reported with this condition were Jennie Morgan of Missouri and Caroline Clare of Canada whose condition included acute magnetisation of her body

born

..... Louisa May Alcott ...... whose ambition was to be an actress, but during the Civil War she became a nurse in a Union hospital and remained until her health eventually failed. She began writing and her first novel Moods was published in 1865. She toured Europe and in 1867 became editor of a juvenile magazine. Her most famous book Little Women was a cheerful account of her early life in New England and in it she portrays herself as Jo. This book was published in 1868 and brought her family financial security as she was the sole earner. She continued to write along similar lines Little Men (1871) An Old Fashioned Girl (1870) and in the same year revisited Europe. On her return to Boston she participated in such reform movements as temperance, woman suffrage and black rights. Her feminist novel Success eventually appeared as the quasi-autobiographical Work – A Story of Experience(1873) She died in Boston in 1888 on the day her father was to be buried

born

..... Mary Ann Cotton neé Robson ..... who was executed on March 24th 1873, in an execution which was bungled and which took her three minutes to die. She was found guilty of the murders of fifteen people and a possible total of 21 making her Britain’s greatest mass killer. She was brought up a strict Methodist and was married at the age of 20 and had five children of whom three died. The remaining family returned to the North East to Devon where she had three more children. They also died as did her husband. In 1865 she married again and was married for fourteen months before her second husband also died. She then worked as a housekeeper to John Robinson before becoming his wife. His three children and his mother also died but for some reason John remained alive. She then met Margaret Cotton and married her brother Frederick, bigamously and soon he too was dead

1833

America

.....  the first women's college to admit full time students was Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded by Theodore Weld and a number of colleagues who wished to establish a college with neither sex or colour discrimination. It was the first college to admit negro students and the first to give degrees to women and it became one of the fountainheads of the feminist movement

..... Prudence Crandall admitted black students to her girls school at Canterbury, Connecticut but as it was illegal to provide a free education for black students she was imprisoned

1834

England

..... the following item was printed in The Pioneer and signed ‘ a straw bonnet worker’……. Come to the Union sisters old and young, rich and poor, if you love liberty, study to deserve it. Let us set your wits to work, ‘ tis right against might. Children yet unborn have to remember, there was woman as well as man in the Union”….. 1834 was also an important year in the history of women and the trade unions. Early in the year five or six hundred women marched with 1300 men around local villages to demonstrate solidarity of their defiance to employers after being locked out by them for refusing to sign a ‘bond’ or ‘document’ renouncing any part in supporting the trade unions. Of the 2400 women, children and men originally locked out , 1000 were back at work by early May without agreeing to give up the union. Women trade unionists made their own protests in the other trade union ‘ cause celebre’ of 1834. This was the case of the six Dorchester farm workers sent for transportation to Australia for trying to organise the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Indeed it was a woman who gave the alarm when they were arrested

 ..... the newly formed Institute of British Architects changed the practice of architecture into a profession and women were at once excluded, although they continued to work in the amateur field

born

..... Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall ..... who was the wife of Dante Gabriel Rosetti, the pre-Raphaelite painter and poet, and the inspiration for many of his works in the 1850s. She was discovered working in a milliners shop and quickly established herself as his favourite model, then mistress and finally in 1860 his wife. She produced a small number of drawings and poems of her own and Ruskin, who was an admirer of hers, agreed to buy her complete output. On February 10th 1862 she was found dead from an overdose of laudanum and although a verdict of accidental death was returned, the possibility of suicide was never disproved. Rosetti placed all the manuscripts of his poems on her coffin when she was buried but was persuaded to have them exhumed a few years later

born November 21st

..... Hetty Green ...... in New Bedford, Massachusetts, one of the richest and meanest women who ever lived. By the age of six she was reading the stock market reports for pleasure. Known as ‘ The Witch of Wall Street’ she added a new dimension to the word miserly. As her profits multiplied, she lived with her two children in a series of squalid boarding houses, washed her own clothes, lived on cold porridge and chewed onions for her health. When her son had an infected leg she dragged him around free clinics rather than pay for proper treatment. His leg was eventually amputated. She also stuffed her children’s clothes with newspapers to keep them warm. When she died in 1916 she left more than 100m dollars

1835

1836

born

..... Isabella Mary Beeton ..... neé Mayson, writer of the most famous English book on cookery and household management. She was born in London but was educated in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1856 she married Samuel Beeton who published a number of her articles in his magazine The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. In 1861 these were published in book form as the Book of Household Management . It contained hints on many domestic matters, over 4000 recipes and gives  a fascinating insight into the way in which middle class Victorians lived and it took her four years to write it. She died aged 29 in 1865

1837

England

 ..... on June 20th Queen Victoria came to the throne after her uncle William 1V died and reigned until her death in 1901

.....  the first Chartist petition was prepared by William Lovett of the London Working Men’s Association. This included female suffrage but this clause was later dropped. However, in the late 1830s, Female Political Associations were formed in various towns and continued to demand an extension of women’s rights

..... Caroline Norton wrote The Separation of Mother and Child by the Law of Custody Considered and later that year, largely as a result of her endeavours, the Infants Custody Act became law. This made it possible for children under seven to stay with their mother, if the Lord Chancellor agreed to it and if the mother was considered to be of good character. In 1857, also partly as a result of her persistence, the Matrimonial Causes Act was passed. Although it did not bring about any major changes in the position of women it did make provision for a deserted wife to keep her own earnings. It also enabled women to sue and be sued in court, as well as allowing them to inherit and bequeath property.  Unfortunately she did not live to see a far more substantial Married women's Property Act in 1882 which finally gave women equal property rights and enabled them, in some circumstances, to seek divorce, although women could not obtain a divorce on the same terms as men until 1923

1838

America

.....  feminist and social reformer Sarah Moore Grimke lectured on women's emancipation and the abolition of slavery and proposed that women became ministers of religion

born

..... Aganice Ainianos ..... in Athens. She was a Greek poet who studied classics, French and painting and who dared not publish any of her work as she was despised by her fellow writers because of her unconventional style, using the Greek vernacular instead of ‘pure’ Greek. It was only after her death in 1892 that her talent became widely known and appreciated. She was once involved in an uprising against the tyranny of King Otto and had to live in hiding for some years in the countryside. Here she came to understand the people and their struggle to survive and this experience helped her when writing poetry

1839

America

 .....  the first Married Woman's Property Law was passed in Mississippi allowing wives to hold property and income in their own names

England

..... the ‘bedchamber crisis’ was a dispute that followed the resignation of Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s trusted Whig Prime Minister. The Tory leader, Peel , proceeded to form a government and asked the Queen to dismiss those of her ladies of the bedchamber whose husbands were Whigs. The Queen refused and finding Peel unsympathetic she appealed to Melbourne to continue in office. This he did and the dispute was finally resolved in 1841 when Melbourne’s government fell and under the moderating influence of Prince Albert, Victoria eventually dismissed three of her ladies

..... Caroline Norton's spirited pamphlets and influential contacts resulted in the Infant Custody Bill, which improved the legal status of women in relation to infant custody

Norway

.....  the way was opened for “feeble women over the age of 40, who were otherwise unable to make a living” to become master craftsmen

born

..... Frances Elizabeth Willard ..... American reformer who was born in New York and was first known for her teaching and other work on behalf of women’s education in Illinois. In 1860 she began to teach in Evanston and served as President of the Evanston College for Ladies from 1871 to 1874. She became a leader of the temperance movement and from 1879 was President of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She was also one of the organisers of the Prohibition party and participated in the women’s suffrage movement. Two of her books are Woman and Temperance (1883) and Glimpses of Fifty Years (1889). She died in 1898

born

..... Marie Louise de la Ramée ..... popular authoress of romantic novels who, despite her name, was English, the daughter of a French language teacher who settled in Suffolk.  Her father filled her head with romantic notions and apparently there was a certain amount of mystery about him.  He claimed to be a personal representative of Louis Napoleon and was away from home a lot but when he was at home he took Marie out to London and the countryside and all the time told her stories of intrigue and romance. When her father was away on his trips Marie began writing and made up her own exciting and romantic tales. She also began writing a full-length history of England.  The family moved to London when she was eighteen and she set about trying to get some of her work published.  She met the historical novelist William Harrison Ainsworth and through him succeeded in having some work published in Bentley's Miscellany, a popular weekly. She wrote under the pen name of Ouida and soon built up a following. In 1863 she wrote and published a full length novel and over the next quarter of a century wrote forty five more.  Her success brought her money and enabled her to meet with the great and famous and she thrust herself into London high life and eventually moved to the Continent where she settled in Florence in Italy.   During the good years her extravagance kept pace with her considerable income but as her popularity decreased so did her income and throughout the 1880s she was dogged by financial difficulties. She was forced to leave her fine Florentine villa and move to a modest house in Lucca where she died in 1908

1840

England

.....  Queen Victoria married Prince Albert and went against convention by wearing a white dress, thereby starting a new trend

..... Jane Loudon's pioneering book Gardening for Ladies was published

..... the world's Anti-Slavery Convention in London saw women members of the U.S delegation refused a place on the convention floor

..... the Queen's Army Schoolmistresses were formed to teach the children of soldiers serving overseas in garrison schools throughout the world. It was effectively disbanded in 1947 when the last teachers were recruited and in 1919 the first annual reunion was held.  In 1989 the 20 or so members left in the group met for the last time and sang the words of "The Link" for the last time .....

British Isles, East and West

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