Crime and Punishment
In the July “newsletter” of The National Archives came several announcements of the digitization of criminal records, beginning c1770. Off-site availability are typically through FindMyPast.
NB: there’s a Smith & Gosling pedigree (open to public viewing) on FindMyPast!
The Smiths and Goslings actually appear a few times (on the “right” side of the law) in court proceedings. But the deepest “mystery” I’m currently trying to unravel concerns Lady Elizabeth Compton – family letters make one reference, in May 1817: “The result of the proceedings concerning Shaw is entirely satisfactory“. But I’ve no idea who “Shaw” was, nor anything about the extent of his “molestation” that led to incarceration, for the letter mentions the future possibility of Shaw “being let out”. My assumption is that this case took place in Northamptonshire – but of that, even, I am currently unsure. Perhaps these records will help!
Click on the photo to read the e-newsletter in its entirety.
Articles @ Academia.edu
A reminder for some, and a “poke” for those new to the SMITH & GOSLING blog: I post “original” articles on Academia.edu, a website dedicated to papers, books, classes, etc. relating to academics and independent scholars.
These currently include:
Combine Jane Austen, Eliza Chute, and “Sense and Sensibility” with a true-life courtship and abandonment. Mrs. Wheeler, a woman taken in by the Chutes of The Vyne, left an orphan daughter, Hester, who left deep impressions on both Caroline Wiggett and Caroline Austen.
The flower painter Margaret Meen also taught painting: pupils included Queen Charlotte and the Royal Princesses; the four Smith sisters of Erle Stoke Park: Maria, Eliza, Augusta and Emma. Little about Meen’s life has been uncovered — until now. Four letters lead to some surprisingly-full biographical details of the life of a woman artist in Georgian England.
{NB: “Miss Meen” appeared in the July/August 2014 issue No. 70 of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine as “Flowering in Four Letters”. The link, above, is the original article submitted to JARW. To purchase the magazine, please go to BACK ISSUES on the JARW website}
Links to ACADEMIA articles can always be found in the navigation at right.
And, soon, these two articles will be joined by a new treatise!
Early in the history of this blog, I dangled the idea that JAMES BOSWELL was one of the “famous” names connected with the Smiths & Goslings. So watch my Academia page for the upload (coming shortly) of “Boswell’s ‘Miss Cunliffe’: Augmenting James Boswell’s missing Chester Journal“.
Academia.edu will ask you to sign in to view articles (Google and Facebook are two alternatives to creating an Academia account); articles are PDF.
History’s Eyes on Soo
On Broadway, she’s played, sung, “lived and breathed,” Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, now Phillipa Soo puts pen to paper – writing the foreword to a new book about the wife & widow of Alexander Hamilton.
Woo-HOO! Right?
Alas, the projected bio is to be a children’s picture book: “Eliza: The Story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton”, by Margaret McNamara (Schwartz & Wade, fall 2017).
Great for youthful readers (for whom, I guess, the “clean” Broadway cast album has been produced – since the play has become a hit with school teachers), but what about the rest of us?! _I_ cannot be the only reader interested in hearing more about “The Schuyler Sisters”: Angelica, Eliza – and Peggy.
Their history is particularly relevant to those of us in the north-east U.S., so close to the action of Albany, New York, where Philip J. Schuyler (a “Revolutionary War general, U.S. Senator, and business entrepreneur”) lived in a lovely mansion that still exists — and can be visited.
Schuyler Mansion – a New York State Historic Site
Described on the website as, “The Georgian structure, reflecting Schuyler’s English tastes – was built on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River,” the house is open from May through October. Cost (in 2016 dollars) is a very reasonable $5.00 ($4 Seniors & Students; free for children under 12) [for groups, see their rate sheet]
- NB: Combined tickets can be had for Crailo, the Van Rensselaer mansion, across the river.
Of course the main topic targeted is the life of Philip and Catharine (Van Rensselaer) Schuyler. ALTHOUGH there is a *special* tour offered this year (on selected days), “When Alexander Hamilton called Albany Home”. Surely, among the moments recounted will be Alexander’s marriage to Elizabeth – which took place here in 1780. [NOTE: THIS focus-tour is by reservation only]
Maybe next year the Schuyler mansion will highlight Eliza Schuyler instead of Alexander Hamilton. One news story, about Phillipa Soo, highlights one reason I find Hamilton such a compelling listen:
“As Eliza, she’s got a trip through the ringer as the shy middle child of the wealthy, covetable Schuyler sisters; by falling for Hamilton in the first place, her fate is already sealed for a whole spectrum of heartbreak, including infidelity and, of course, death. She emerged as a key reason for the show’s emotional resonance, most especially delivered in her final-scene solo, in which she recounts Eliza’s accomplishments after her husband’s death, redeeming a somewhat lost historical figure through tears. It was the most notable part of Hamilton, for me—that Lin-Manuel Miranda would end the show by righting the essential erasure of a woman who was key to the creation of America”
— Julianne Escobado Shepherd
History finally has its eyes on you, Eliza! The lyrics to “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” is an astonishing move for a play about Alexander Hamilton, bringing Elizabeth Hamilton fully into the spotlight. It would be nice to page through 800-pages of Ron Chernow’s Hamilton biography in order to pluck out of it Eliza’s story – but here’s hoping some one takes the baton from Margaret McNamara and delves deeper into the lives of the Hamilton women. As Shepherd quotes Soo saying upon first working on Hamilton, “‘Oh, I don’t really know that much about Alexander Hamilton, and who is this Eliza person that I’ve never heard about?’”
“History waiting to be unlocked,” is Soo’s understated summation of her involvement in the play. “I think it just reminds us that women have such a huge place in history but their voices weren’t necessarily as loud.”
Anyone following Hamilton will know that three leads ended their performances last night (July 9th). The New York Theater website has a concise history for the trio on the occasion of the “original cast” breaking up, including a link to Facebook footage of the “final curtain call” – which already has well over a MILLION views.
Soo moves on to another new musical – based on the de-light-ful French film, Amelie!! (If you’ve never watched the movie, run to get a copy; you’ll be ready to book a flight to Paris soon afterwards…)
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Two personal notes: _I_ just love how a history-slash-biography BOOK can make a name (and money) for its author a decade after its publication. Writers dream of film and/or TV – few would dream of their work being the basis for a stage musical. Still, Hamilton shows what FRESH ideas can do for any industry.
Also, I have my father to thank for a LOT of my interest in Hamilton. Last summer (June, 2015) I dragged him down to New York City. A three-month, temporary job had just ended and I had LONGED to visit two archives, which, indeed, have given me SO MUCH Smith & Gosling material.
Everything fell so perfectly into place – I got a seat in the archive for the entire week; and found a place to live, a new Air B&B listing in Weehawken, New Jersey – just a bus ride through the Lincoln Tunnel, which offered parking (for we drove down from Vermont).
Although not affecting me (except when walking from/to the subway stop), the rain was so bad that parts of nearby New Jersey sustained flood damage. Yet, the rain kept my father – who wasn’t inclined to visit Manhattan on his own – close to “home”.
It was he who discovered, just around the corner, near THIS FABULOUS view of Manhattan, this historic marker:
July 11, 1804
The most famous duel in American History took place on this date at the dueling grounds in Weehawken, between political rivals, General Alexander Hamilton and sitting Vice-President of the United States, Colonel Aaron Burr. Hamilton fell mortally wounded, and died the next day in New York City.
Tragically, Hamilton’s son Philip had also met his death here in a duel in 1801.
Dedicated on July 11, 2004, the 200th Anniversary of the Duel.
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Just for fun:
- “original” Got Milk? commercial, featuring a HAMILTON scholar
- Leslie Odom, Jr’s Got Milk? parody, featuring BURR, of course
At Home – with Jane & Lucy
2017 – the bicentennial of Jane Austen’s death – will see a *new* biography published by none other than Lucy Worsley.
We all know Worsley’s work from her many TV specials – “Tales from the Royal Wardrobe”, “Tales from the Royal Bedchamber”, “The First Georgians”, “A Very British Murder”, “Harlots, Housewives & Heroines”, etc. etc. I have certainly enjoyed her book The Courtiers: Splendour and Intrigue in the Georgian Court at Kensington Palace, which brought some refreshing storytelling.
In its early stage provisionally entitled AT HOME WITH JANE AUSTEN (which already exists among the “Jane Austen” series of books by Kim Wilson), the biography tell Jane Austen’s “story through the rooms, spaces, possessions and places which mattered to her”. Says Worsley’s editor: “Lucy’s knowledge of the period makes her the perfect biographer and her wonderful writing style will truly bring Jane Austen and her world to life.”
Worsley used a Kensington Palace painting to open the oft-told history of the first Hanoverian King George. What will she use for Jane Austen? Will it look at Steventon, which is no longer existing, as well as Chawton and Bath? Chawton is a source for many items that belonged to Austen – for instance, her jewelry. Her writing slope is also on public display.
- Jane Austen’s Writing Habits
- The History of Jane Austen’s Writing Desk (PDF)
- Jane Austen @ The British Library
“… an everyday object that had been
important to her writing life.”
Paula Byrne’s book, The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, sought a similar approach away from the typical cradle-to-grave biography. It will be *fun* to see how Worsley works out the lack of any new discoveries. Will she recreate some of the homes, spaces, and places that Austen knew? Perhaps readers of If Walls Could Talk will have advance knowledge of the Worsley’s approach. Worsley has already been caught rubbing elbows with Regency dandies. And she’s even got a work of fiction, as well as her TV-tie-ins, on bookstore shelves. Lucy Worsley is one of four writers who back in April (2016) discussed Lizzy & Darcy and themselves.
The Hodder & Stoughton website gives the following information:
- title (revised from above): Jane Austen at Home
- projected pagination (nicely hefty): 352 pages
- release date (it’ll be here before we know it): 18 May 2017
Founding Father in London
A perfect “4th of July” read for anyone interested in the “founding fathers” and the ties that continue to bind the U.S. to the U.K. : George Goodwin’s Benjamin Franklin in London.
I have acquired and enjoyed books on Franklin’s sister – Jill Lepore’s 2014 Book of Ages and Carl Van Doren’s 1950 Jane Mecom – so Franklin in London seemed a good off-shoot (as Jane’s life is typically told through the remnants that exist, and they pretty much deal with her famous brother).
Also, not too long ago, I saw a FASCINATING PBS show, part of the series SECRETS OF THE DEAD, entitled Ben Franklin’s Bones – which uncovered the ‘secret’ behind skeletal remains unearthed in Franklin’s Craven Street House (now a Franklin Museum, which offers architectural tours and also “historical experience” tours).
There is a ‘bridge’ section in Goodwin’s book between the voyage to England Franklin took as a young man and the long stay later in life. So readers do get a rounded idea of Franklin throughout life, not just the years lived abroad.
One source for Goodwin is the 3-volumes of biography by J.A. Leo Lemay; the full “life of Franklin,” in twice as many volumes, was cut short by Lemay’s death in 2008.
Franklin’s stay in Craven Street gives a slice of life in London not often gleaned – he was an important personage who was sought after by many. For those of us with an affinity to the European years (ie, Abigail Adams in France & England), Goodwin’s Benjamin Franklin in London is an excellent addition to any bibliophile’s library.
Ann Lewis fecit
Hopefully you can read the artist’s signature: Ann Lewis facit, in this 1802 drawing. Alas! although the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (or LACMA) owns these DELIGHTFUL fashion plate paintings by Ann Frankland Lewis, they are, sadly, NOT ON DISPLAY!
So the next best thing is a cyber visit to Dames a la Mode – where the many works of Miss Lewis can be enjoyed over two pages.
Surely based on existing fashion plates, Ann Lewis’ drawings are colorful and wonderful, and have (obviously) given costumers some great ideas.
LACMA has only one image, and woefully LITTLE information on the artist, or their holdings. If anyone reading this knows more – please say! Two Nerdy History Girls has a lovely little write-up.
- June 2018 UPDATE: there are 32 images online. You can even make a “book” of these LACMA images for yourself.
As a group they evidently date from 1774 to 1807. The BLUE dress (above) dates from 1803. And this ‘head’ from 1806.
Now, if only the museum would put these items on display – or in a special exhibit!
Two Teens in the Time of Austen 