Review of Trailblazing Women of the Georgian Era, by Mike Rendell, pub. Pen & Sword History 2018

“By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage […] a man cannot grant any thing to his wife, or enter into covenant with her, for the grant would be to suppose her separate existence.”

Blackstone’s Commentaries, explaining succinctly the nature of legal “coverture” and why the best, in fact almost the only plan for a woman in the Georgian era who wanted to make a success in life was to be unmarried or a widow. Many of those here discussed were one or the other, and those who were married often had husbands who left them, drank their profits or were otherwise more of a hindrance than a help. Women like Anna and Elizabeth Fry, belonging to the Society of Friends, were fortunate in that the Friends were far less apt to see women as adjuncts of men.

The other huge disadvantage women faced was their relative lack of education.  By a deft if immoral circular argument, men dismissed the importance of education for women on the ground that they had no role in affairs, while denying them such a role on the ground that they were not educated for it. As the anonymous “Sophia” wrote, “The Men, by thinking us incapable of improving our intellects, have entirely thrown us out of all the advantages of education, and thereby contributed as much as possible to make us the senseless creatures they imagine.” Most, though not all, of the successful women here discussed had a better education than was usual for their time.

One of the most admirable, indeed, was Jane Marcet, with the advantage of a Swiss father of progressive ideas who had her educated alongside her brothers. When she married a physician and chemist, she developed an interest of her own in science, absorbing knowledge by attending scientific lectures. But her real innovation was to hit on the idea of writing a basic science textbook aimed at children, girls in particular, in the form of a conversation between two girls and their teacher, Mrs Bryan. “Not only was it intended to be read by girls, but it introduced to those girls the idea that the person imparting the scientific knowledge could be female.” It was not only girls who read it, though, as that most generous-natured of scientists, Michael Faraday, acknowledged; “Mrs. Marcet’s ‘Conversations on Chemistry’ ... gave me my foundation in that science […] hence my deep veneration for Mrs Marcet.”

Widows often took over their late husband’s business and there showed their aptitude for another field supposedly outwith their capabilities. Hester Bateman became a noted silversmith and established a long-lasting family business; this happened quite often in silversmithing families. Mrs Clements, another widow, developed a new and highly profitable method of milling mustard. Anna Fry, after the death of her husband Joseph, carried on the family chocolate business. Many wives, like printer and printshop owner Mary Darly, must have been equal partners in business with their husbands, but because of coverture we do not know of most of them, whose husbands were not as honest as Josiah Wedgwood in admitting their debt: “I never had a great plan that I did not submit to my wife”.

However, one of the most outstanding female successes of the Georgian business world stayed single. Eleanor Coade tapped into the growing market for an artificial stone that could be used to mass-produce architectural details like scrolls and carvings and which would withstand weather. Previous attempts had failed. Eleanor was a keen clay modeller (she had exhibited at the RSA) and may have experimented with her own mixes. At any rate, she came up with a product she named “lithodipyra” – twice-fired stone. It wasn’t the most catchy name, but architects like Adam and Nash could not get enough of it. It was light, easy to work and extremely durable, so much so that it can still be seen in features on Buckingham Palace and the Brighton Pavilion. It was also exported, going as far as the USA, the West Indies and St Petersburg. It became known as Coade stone, which seems only fair, and though over 650 items in it have been identified, thousands more exist; they simply have never had occasion to be repaired. She was also a good businesswoman and died wealthy: “Eleanor left much of her money to various charities, and to specific female friends on condition that the gifts were not to be controlled by their husbands. It revealed the feminist beliefs held by Eleanor – she regarded coverture as iniquitous.” No wonder she never married.

There are more famous examples recounted here – Hannah More, Mary Wortley Montagu, Elizabeth Fry, Mary Wollstonecraft – but in some ways the less well-known, like those above and others, are the most fascinating. But I’ll let you meet them for yourself.