AN UNRECOGNIZED NOVELIST: FRANCES

JACSON (1754-1842)

JOAN PERCY

ACCORDING to its General Catalogue the British Library possesses among its holdingsof late eighteenth-century/early nineteenth-century novels seven by the minor writerAlethea Lewis. On their acquisition they were entered by title only as of uncertainauthorship, but subsequently all were attributed to her. In reality, Alethea Lewis is theauthor of just two, Vicissitudes in Genteel Life (1794) and The Microcosm (1801)/ theother five being the work of Frances Jacson (fig. i),^ a writer of much greater merit. Itis the purpose of this paper to re-establish her as a novelist, to provide a biographicalsetting and to give some assessment of her achievement, particularly in relation to MrsLewis.

The five anonymously published novels in question are: Plain Sense (1795),Disobedience (1797), Things by their Right Names (18x2), Rhoda (1816) and Isabella(1823). Frances Jacson's claim to their authorship is based on family records and on acontemporary reference. There survives in manuscript, though apparently from itscareful revision with an intention of publication, her great-nephew's 'Family Memorials'(see fig. 4). Charles Roger Jacson (1817-93) in these six leather-bound volumes with theirmarbled endpapers gives the history of the main branches of the family and includes anoutline of Frances Jacson's life and writings, together with extracts from her earlierdiaries. Charles Roger was a respected local figure in Barton, Lancashire; he hadinherited his father's estate nearby and was J.P. for the area.^ His father was a favouritenephew of Frances, visiting her and corresponding regularly and there is no reason toquestion Charles Roger's references to his great-aunt, a number of which can be checkedfrom her own statements.^ He lists her five books and their dates of pubhcation, providedfor him by Anne Atherton, the niece who lived with Frances for many years, removingto Chester only on the latter's death in 1842. There is no evidence, he says, as to whenthe books were actually written; their publication, as can be seen above, spans a longperiod, the last appearing when Frances was already sixty-eight.

The contemporary reference is Maria Edgeworth's. She and her family were readingthe newly published Rhoda in 1816;^ two years later in a letter to Elizabeth Wallerwritten when she was staying with the Sneyds at Byrkley Lodge near Lichfield, shewrote: 'We have paid only one visit to the Miss Jacksons. Miss Fanny, you know, is theauthor oiRhoda - Miss Maria Jackson the author o{ Dialogues on Botany and a little book

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Fig. I. Frances Jacson; a water-colour by Henry Edridge, 1814

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^. 2. A double page from Frances Jacson's diary, 9-18 Dec. 1822, inserted in Charles RogerJacson's 'Family Memorials'

of advice about a gay garden'.^ The certitude of her remarks suggests that the authorshipwas an open secret with the Sneyds and those she knew in Lichfield and it would beremarkable if it were not so. Edward Sneyd was Maria Edgeworth's uncle by marriage;Frances and her sister were distantly related through his wife and regularly exchangedvisits with the Sneyds. Both sisters were on the edge of the Erasmus Darwin circle whichincluded Maria Edgeworth's father; Darwin's death in 1812 was a great blow especiallyto Maria whose writing he had supported.^ What is perhaps more surprising is theapparent absence of any further connection between Miss Edgeworth and the Jacsons.

The anonymity of Frances Jacson's novels seems otherwise to have been very wellpreserved. Rhoda was admired by Sydney Smith, who had had it recommended by afriend and in turn suggested that Lady Holland would enjoy it. He writes, ' I presumeyou have read Rhoda., if not, read it at my peril. I was pestered into reading it and feltmyself very much obliged to my persecutors'.^ He makes no mention of the author. Ifan outside corroboration of Charles Roger's list of Frances's books were required,however, the other four soon fall into place with Rhoda. The custom on the title pageof attributing anonymous books to 'the author of...' links her five together. Thus:''Rhoda - By the author of Things by their Right Names and Plain Sense'; ' Isabella - Bythe author of Rhoda^; ''Disobedience - By the author of Plain Sense\

It is worth emphasizing this evidence as the one source where information would beexpected is Frances's diaries. She kept a diary, her great-nephew tells us, from 1790 until

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October 1837 but she was most disappointingly silent about her books. There is one;fleeting, inconclusive reference to her last novel when she is noting a relative's state ofihealth. She is staying with the Knights of Nottinghamshire in December 1822 and!writes, 'Mrs Knight still so indifferent as to make me apprehensive of mischief-shedined with us but looked deplorably - much absorbed in Isabella which she was readinga second time' (fig. 2).^ It is tantalizing that there is nothing else and that for this and;for some other short passages up to 1829 we are dependent on Charles Roger's extracts, ja few of which are actual pages from his great-aunt's diary. There seems to be no traceof the earlier diaries but those from 1829 were preserved among the papers of her;brother Roger and assumed until recently to be his. They are day-to-day brief entries of jher activities and those of her many connections, more like engagement diaries, with Ioccasional more interesting comments. Nevertheless, with these small notebooks and the'Family Memorials' we can piece together an outline of her social milieu and form some jidea of her life and personality. i

Frances was the third of Simon Jacson's five children who survived into maturity,Roger (1753-1826) being the heir. A younger son, Shallcross, was far from exemplary, iBoth sons, Uke their father, entered the Church. Of the three daughters, Anne, theoldest, married John Atherton of Walton Hall, Lancashire, but Frances and Maria |remained single, living at home and caring for Simon in his last years after his wife's ideath, when he was totally blind and infirm. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, ihe had become rector of Bebington in Cheshire where he stayed until 1777. In that year |he relinquished the living in favour of Roger, a gift which with its gardens, orchards and Ithirty acres of land apart from conimon land, must have been most acceptable. After a:period in Stockport where he lived privately, he took on the church at Tarporley untilhis death in 1808. The family circumstances seem to have remained comfortable ratherthan affluent and the gabled three-storeyed rectory, described by George Ormerod as:^antient but commodious',^" was obviously sufficient for the household with its four;adults, their servants and their visitors. Visitors and visiting - relatives and friends - ••.played a large part in Frances Jacson's life. Typically of such members of the landed 1gentry, the Jacsons had wide connections through intermarriage, ranging, in the main, iover the north Midland counties. Simon had a further link with the Somersal Herbert;and Tissington Fitzherberts in Derbyshire when he married Anne Fitzherbert in 1749. ;Thus, although there are glimpses of Frances at home (too unwell to attend on her father, •sharing the reading aloud to him in his blindness, taken with a fever), it is not to be:supposed that she was limited to the domestic role. For example, in 1795 after herjmother had died, Frances with Maria and her father set off for Walton Hall where theyjstayed for eleven weeks. Later she herself went for an extended stay to Ashbourne whereshe was received with 'affectionate hospitality'. She journeyed to London at least twice:and on the second occasion in 1814, she 'heard Mr Henderson preach and most!extraordinary of all, I sat for my picture' (see fig. i)}'^ There are, too, the morning or'day calls she records and rarely does she write * Alone'. Apart from her Fitzherbert:relations, the Vernons at Sudbury, the Boothbys, the Cavendishes are just a few of the

f?. J. Somersal Herbert, 1835; by Elizabeth Hart, afterwards wife of the Hon. RichardCavendish

families that figure frequently in her later years when she had settled with her sister inDerbyshire.

The year of their father's death had been a turning-point for Frances and Maria asthey entered on their 'orphaned existence' (as Frances put it, aged fifty-four) and hadto make a new life for themselves. No firm plans seem to have been thought of beforethis juncture and on removal from Tarporley their first stay was at their brother Roger'sat Bebington. Kind though he was, his second wife was most unwelcoming^^ and thesisters could not bear to remain. For sixteen months they lived with friends or relatives,more particularly with the Knights at Langold/'* who also lent them Firbeck for a time.Then Lord St Helens,^^ to their great delight, offered them one of the Fitzherberthouses, Somershall- Somersal Herbert (fig. 3). They knew it of old as it had been thehome of their much-loved Fitzherbert aunt and uncle; though standing empty for awhile it was in better condition than Frances had dared to hope when they arrived at the'dear old mansion' in November 1809. 'Blessed be God for all his mercies', wrote therelieved and grateful Frances in her diary. This beautiful old house, looking now muchas it did in her day in its peaceful surroundings, was to be her home for the rest of herlong Hfe. There she brought out the last three of her novels and in 1816 a pamphlet.Every Day Christianity^^ dedicated to her aunt, 'the bright exemplar of every precept

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that is here wished to be inculcated.' There she returned bereft on the death of her sisterin 1829 and there in due course she took up again the usual tasks of a countryhouseholder. She records the harvesting and the quality of her hay crop, killing the pig,improving the dove-cote, planting four dozen tulip roots, sending and receiving gifts ofplants, poultry and game.^^

Very evident also is the great care and attention she gave to her 'family' of servantsand the time and pleasure she spent in bringing up her ward - her dear little girl, Fanny- and her love for Nanny (her niece, Anne). The afFectionate person that emerges fromthe diary pages is also someone who held strong opinions and unswerving moral views.Charles Roger felt that her portrait showed both these aspects of her personality: 'avenerable lady with a pleasing expression of countenance and rather large but veryintelligent features, displaying real strength of character combined with a degree offeminine gentleness'. In the few more expanded entries something of her un-compromising outlook may be found. This is evident in her mention of the King,William IV. Always interested in politics and a firm Whig, she thought the failure of theSeptember 1831 Reform Bill, which was lost in the Lords, deplorable. ' I pray God thatmy fears of the evil consequence of rejection may be ill-founded', she writes and inMay 1832 when the Ministers resigned she described the situation as 'a disastrous eventfor the country brought about by the poltroonry of the King and such duplicity in theTories as shocks every moral feeling'.

She shows the same plain-speaking and a little of the novelist's eye when she depictsthe new rector. She finds him a 'most unpromising specimen of what a respectableclergyman ought to be... untidy and unclean looking. I trust that we shall find theinternal better than the external.' They do not. 'His manner is undignified, his languageconfused and his argument, if any he had, incomplete', she writes. 'He preachesextemporary or at the most with the help of brief notes and then appears to be short-sighted'. She hopes that if she concentrates on the Church service she will suffer lessdiscomposure from the 'strange rhapsodys pronounced from the pulpit'. She becomesa httle more resigned to him as a person but hopes that his words will pass by her 'likean unheeded breeze', finding him 'neither instructive nor clerical'.^®

It is impossible not to enjoy these comments but she does feel real pain at the services'deficiences, so inimical to her naturally devout nature. It is clear that in all her troublesshe tries to submit to the will of God with patience, believing that 'every incident isunder the guidance and the appointment of providence'. Her sister's death brought outall her determination to try to bear her sorrow as she should; it also gives a rare instanceof almost lyrical writing as she remembers times past: 'how the returning beauties ofSpring, the successive opening of the beauties of Nature, how they press upon my heart... ' and again: ' a long Walk, not a yard of ground over which I passed, not the minutestobject on which my eye fell but brought back with it a recollection of those who are nomore on earth - when I too lie down in the grave, this beloved Place and all that oncemade it dear will be looked on as common ground - mine are the last eyes that will evernow appreciate it as it has been appreciated - my heart the last heart in which this

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M e m o r i a l s ' " ' " ' " ' "

revered and beloved habitation will be held while life remains. All will be passed awayhere as [if] it had never been'. With its depth of feeling and rhythmical power it standsout among all the little notes of the writer's daily engagements.^^

Not a great deal more can be gathered of Frances Jacson's life and personality fromher later diaries. She obviously enjoyed reading but there is little indication of whatbooks interest her; the one or two mentioned are all serious in nature; for example,Archbishop Whately's Sermons.^^ Why, on the other hand, did she take to authorship?Ann Shteir suggests that the reason was financial, pointing out that by the terms of herfather's will the sisters were to receive only ;(]i,5oo, which invested could not provide agreat deal of income. ^ It is a good conjecture but from Charles Roger we learn of thespecific financial need, and this is supported by his extracts from Frances's earlierdiaries: the family had to help their wayward brother Shallcross. He writes, ' I rememberto have heard that the two first of the novels of the former [Frances] were written to assistin the extrication of her unfortunate brother from his pecuniary embarrassment duringher residence at Tarporley'. As a minister of the Church from a respected clerical familyhis career must have been especially distressing. He was, apparently, a man of largeproportions, untidy in his dress, wearing leather breeches and top boots, 'addicted to thepleasures of the table and deep sleep afterwards' (fig. 4). Shallcross *kept a stud' andspeculation and drinking appear to have been his downfall.

Frances and Maria Jacson both turned to their pens. Their writings cover the sameperiod, the mid 1790s to the 1820s, when their financial difficulties were the most acute.Maria's first essay was the already mentioned manual of 1797. She had always beeninterested in botany and used her specialist knowledge to write her Botanical Dialoguesbetween Hortensia and her Four Children. The moralistic Hortensia imparts a great dealof information to her not entirely receptive offspring:

Harriet: O, Charles, I wish we had all been as attentive as Henry and Juliette, we should haveknown all this now and made experiments like Mamma. •*Hortensia. The past cannot be recalled, be industrious henceforward...

By Dialogue the Fifth they have progressed to the twenty-third class of plants andshortly after take a (surely much needed) month's holiday."^

None of Maria's three botany books was reprinted but her garden book. The FlorisfsManual {1S16), went to a third edition. This is much more atti^active and found a readyreadership, though still stilted in style and solemn in tone."^ We see the same seriousnessin Frances Jacson's novels but she, of course, has a sense of humour not evident inMaria's writing.

The money they earned between them was welcome. By 1818 Shallcross had run upbad debts. He went to stay with Frances and Maria at Somersal suffering severely fromgout and causing them much alarm. They and Roger do their best to clear the owing£i,'j6o and arrange an insurance to provide him with an income, each sister contributing£2^0. He is confined for a short time in an asylum in Liverpool and Frances records in1820 that his circumstances were too miserable to go into. 'He had previously past [sic]

a fortnight with us, God knows, little to our satisfaction, so insensible does he still seemto all that has been done and suffered for him and by him. Fearfulness and tremblingare upon my mind'. Luckily for all, the cloud was hfted by the following year when hedied, but the strain had been great.

Turning to consider Frances Jacson's achievement in her novels, one sees first that,having found a useful formula, she builds upon it in successive books. Despite theirpublication straying into the second decade of the nineteenth century they are all of apiece and show no discernible influence from a younger generation. There is littlevariation in character type or narrative scope. The stories follow well-used paths in plot,with the usual stratagems and coincidences and sprinkling of villains. If the booksstopped there it would not be worth adding another name to the minor talents of the erabut what becomes increasingly evident is the author's creative insight into motive andthe growing self-awareness of her heroines. Minor characters can be presented witheffective irony and situations with considerable humour. Such characteristics should earnher a place in any history of the novel of the time.

All the books are in the multi-volume format favoured by the circulating libraries, thefirst two in fact being pubhshed by the doyen of libraries, William Lane, at the MinervaPress. They could, like many another contemporary novel, benefit from cutting,especially in the long introductions of some. All are set in high circles of society, movingbetween London (temptation and libertinism) and the country estates and parsonages(largely though not entirely beneficial). As indicated by the titles of the last two, Rhodaand Isabella, they take a young woman as heroine, tracing her history throughcircumstances of varying probability. All have as one might expect, especially fromFrances Jacson's own moral seriousness, a strong didactic tone. This can readily be seenfor instance in the preface to Things by their Right Names entitled 'To the DethronedSovereign Truth', which concludes: ' . . . if I have laid open one invidious snare of yourpretended friends or repulsed one rude attack of your open enemies, I have accomplishedmy aim'.

Plain Sense, her first novel, has certainly the slowest start, running to over fifty pages,giving the family background of the main character Ellen Mordaunt, before a word ofdialogue brings any situation to life. Then the rector and his wife, Mr and MrsThornton, are introduced; they are bringing up Ellen and give her father their views onthe prime importance of proper education, a recurring theme in the novels. Ellen istwelve and continues under their tutelage to good effect, 'her passions more undercontroul, good habits converted into virtues and warm affections ripened intobenevolence'.^^ It is as well, as this benevolence is sorely tried.

Unlike most novelists of the time Frances Jacson shows particular interest in themarriage relationship. Ellen marries Sir William Ackland and the events of the secondpart of the book are the results of the marriage breakdown. It has to be admitted thatshe finally marries again - her childhood sweetheart Henry - and the story has theexpected happy ending, but not before much tribulation. Henry's family ambitions hadprevented his union to Ellen in the first place and looking with 'plain sense' for the

second best, Ellen accepts Sir William, a man far her senior, with the full agreement ofher father and the Thorntons. '"Sir William is worthy, is pleasing," said Ellen, "andI shall be happy "'.^^ She draws her conclusions, Frances Jacson suggests, from falsepremisses; indeed, 'none of them penetrated the outward manner of the man'. Ellen seesin him a kind and fatherly support, the Thorntons see him as 'meritorious and eligible',but he has strong emotions, a desire for mastery combined with self-absorption and aftersix months Ellen realizes that the marriage will never succeed. The development of hisjealousy of Ellen's original attachment to Henry makes the beginning of a veryinteresting character study. But it is hardly begun when the novelist loses her confidenceand the story descends into implausibility with trappings of a gothic romance. FrancesJacson's interest in troubled relationships is foreshadowed when Mr Mordaunt, Ellen'sfather, tries to discuss matters with his wife: 'she coldly withdrew her attention whenhe wished to converse \^^ - a faint premonition of George Eliot's Lydgate and RosamundVincy.

After this hesitant attempt Frances Jacson's heroines come ahve. Ellen is never fullyrealized despite her determined nature, but with Mary in her next book as with the otherthree, we are given spirited young women who are a pleasure to meet. In DisobedienceMary is brought up by foster-parents in Wales and in the company of William Chaloner,whom she has grown up with and learnt to love. She is suddenly and harshly separatedfrom her happy surroundings by her real parents who take her to London to be groomedand mix with more suitable society. After some months William contrives to visit her inher fashionable parents' absence and in the short time available before her dancingmaster's arrival they talk of the future. Mary says, ' I ought to be your wife and I willbe your wife, but I will do so in the face of the world, openly and without disguise...I will be twenty-one before I assert my right to chuse for myself that companion withwhom I am to spend my life'. William is astonished at her energy of speech and sherealizes what he is thinking. '"Ah, Wilham", said she, " I see you are surprised, youexpected not so much resolution and thought from me, but I have been much afflictedsince I saw you... Affliction makes us think and having no-one on whom to rely makesus feel our strength. You will find me ready to follow you all the world over'". Williamwould have embraced her , ' " I will have none of that", said she. " I never allowed it andnow I have nobody to take care of me I must take double care of myself". The dancingmaster enters and she greets him. 'And now, William, (speaking in Welch) for jumpingas high as Cader Idris'.^'

This lively scene can be replicated throughout the other books and Frances Jacson'sability to give an ironic twist to a scene also becomes increasingly evident. Caroline, inThings by their Right Names., sensitive but not sentimental, is grieving at her aunt's death,but on her father's and uncle's arrival at the house, does her best to compose herself'toavoid increasing their sorrow, but perceived instantly that her precaution had beenunnecessary'.^^ Later Lord Enville and Mr Fitzosborn have an apparently pleasant talk,touching on Caroline's affairs. 'Then, the two friends parted, each resolved to thwart theother in the favourite project of his heart'.^^

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It is, however, in Rhoda and Isabella, more particularly the former, that FrancesJacson's creative insight matures and provides a convincing and deeply interesting studyof a young v oman reacting to circumstances and of her character evolving through them.She does not free herself from conventional types - the schemer, for example - and reliestoo heavily on moralizing advisers, but nevertheless her achievement is substantial.

Rhoda is seen at the opening of the book with her uncle, who, responsible for herupbringing, has indulged her and knows it. He feels that, despite her lack of fortune, thegrand-daughter of a baronet should never have to maintain herself. They live in thecountry at Byrhley and Rhoda has good friends in the Wyborgs at the vicarage who sether a standard she admires. She possesses a dear companion in the daughter, Frances,and an incipient lover in their friend Mr Ponsonby. On the death of her uncle, MrWyborg writes to Mr Strictland, the relation who, he understood, was to provide forRhoda. Mr Strictland replies in one of the several clever letters that appear in both Rhodaand Isabella: 'My dear Sir, make yourself easy, the girl shall not want a home while Ican give her one. But how this can be construed into a promise to provide for her I amat a loss to understand'. He would not question the obligation if it appeared prudent 'tofollow the inclinations of my heart but to you my dear Sir, I may say that I am not theopulent man that the world supposes me to be'.^^ The inclination of his heart is a nicetouch from a worldly and embittered man dependent on his wife's wealth in a lovelessmarriage. The pleasure Mrs Strictland gains in spending time and money on Rhodawhen she does go to live with them is increased by the annoyance it causes her husband,souring their marriage further.

At each stage of Rhoda's growing worldliness in her new situation we are made awareof the workings of her mind and her knowledge that she could decide otherwise. Beforeshe actually leaves to join the Strictlands in London, she has doubts about the wisdomof the plan. She senses that she would be better and safer at Byrhley and she has by nowthe avowed love of Mr Ponsonby. As to London, she 'dreads its glitter... the world istoo potent an enemy' and she weeps on Mr Wyborg's shoulder.^^ But she dreams ofwider horizons and sets off to the Strictlands as arranged. Once there, she is again verytroubled. The conversation of Mrs Strictland is so unlike anything she has been broughtup to value; her subject is all of'finding husbands', 'taking pains to please' and savingher from rusticating as the wife of some country parson. Rhoda feels again that she hadbetter go back but does not quite make up her mind. Mrs Strictland exercises herconsiderable charm and takes her shopping; Rhoda cannot help but be excited, even ifworried at the expense. The days pass and inevitably Rhoda becomes more involved inMrs Strictland's world. After a five-week gap and when she is confined to her room witha cold, she suddenly realizes that not once has she remembered to write to Frances asat first she did, nor, she thinks, has she made any use of her intellect.^^

Not all her associates are frivolous; she has met Lady Randolf whom she muchadmires. Lady Randolf runs a happy home in the country and even in Londonunusually, finds time for her children. Rhoda sees the happiness she herself could havefrom a simpler life; even without Lady Randolf s resources she could be useful - but

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these are dreams she does not pursue. Lord Randolf counsels her to beware of thesophisticated Lord William de Quentin: * Remember you are more in Lord William'spower than he in yours'. Rhoda is grateful for his advice, ' I will treasure up yourprecepts here', she says impetuously, laying her hand upon her breast but again after alittle, his words lose their force.^^

When, eventually, through Mrs Strictland's manoeuvres Sir James Osbourne (mucholder) proposes to her, her self-questioning is detailed and convincing. Finally the lureof wealth and position conquers. The resulting incompatible marriage is treated with farmore subtlety than in Plain Sense. We see their situation through Sir James's eyes as wellas Rhoda's. She takes more and more pleasure in the social round and he, thinking thatshe will tire of the life as the novelty lessens, bears with it. Left too much to his owndevices, he has to rely on his own resources for diversion. He is surprised to find themso scanty. In the end he talks frankly to her and Rhoda, typically, after replying crossly,admits to the justice of his criticism and apologizes. They come to an understandingwhich is for a while successful, but it does not last.'''*

Eventually, Rhoda pays the price of increasingly careless, vain but never immoralbehaviour and she is disgraced by the provoked Lord William. Sir James, driven beyondendurance, dies at his own hand after an unsuccessful duel with him. The story ends withRhoda, after a sorrowing interval, setting out to rebuild her hfe and regaining acceptancewith the rest of the Osbourne family. She is helped by the Wyborgs and Lady Randolfbut 'she never forgot her folhes and bowed to the chastisement of her heavenly Father'.^^There is an entirely credible inevitability about Rhoda's career in its combination of thefruits of character, early upbringing with its contrary messages, and later circumstances.The important character of Mrs Strictland, who always admitted truth in the abstractand never practised it in detail, is too treated with skill. At first Rhoda thinks she is notserious in some of her remarks. 'Never believe', she instructs Rhoda, 'that you can thinktoo much of your dress, provided the result makes it appear that you have not thoughtat air, but the subsequent shopping expedition confirms that she means all she says.When Rhoda enters the Strictlands' London drawing-room she is attracted to the bookson the shelf as she loves reading. Mrs Strictland calls out, * Don't touch the books'. Theyare placed there as the binding shows off the china. New publications are important: 'aquick eye and a sharp wit will enable you to catch enough at a glance to serve thepurposes of conversation'. 'Is there any pleasure', asks Rhoda, 'in turning over theleaves without understanding the contents.^' 'O, I am not talking of the pleasure ofreading my dear, - there is no time if we live in this world to read half the books it isnecessary to talk of'. ^

It is in satirical passages like these that the superficiality of Mrs Strictland's life andthose of her circle are revealed. She takes Rhoda on a country visit and they stay for atime with Lady Morris who is anxious to show them the 'improvements'. The parsonagehas been turned into the most beautiful menagerie that taste and circumstance combinedever created. Mrs Strictland flippantly asks if the parson's wife has been made the keeperof her turkeys. 'No' , is the reply. 'The luckiest thing in the world happened. In full

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strength and health the parson died'. She was very sorry about his family of course andexplams that a curate about ten miles ofi does his duties.^^

With this level of writing one can only regret the authorial moralizing and theintroduction of the machinations at the end by Lord William. Rhoda and Sir Jamesthemselves so evidently hold the seeds of their downfall that a simpler turn of plot wouldhave served; Lord William, portrayed in places as both charming and acute, is given thevillainous attributes of a Mr Monckton in Fanny Burney's Cecilia. Nevertheless, one canwell appreciate Sydney Smith's recommendation of this novel of true, if of flawed, talent.

Isabella has the same weaknesses in greater evidence but also comparable strengths.The development of the main character is of much interest, showing an originally timidyoung woman growing stronger in aim, saving her marriage and helping her husband toregain his self-respect. Secondary characters, in particular Isabella's mother, Lady JaneHastings, provide the telling humour already met with. Alone of Frances Jacson's books,this one begins directly. ' Isabella was the eldest daughter of Lady Jane Hastings, awidow, whose purposed web of life had been broken to pieces by the unexpected accidentof her husband dying before his father, an untimely and, as Lady Jane always called it,"unnatural event'". Her children had been brought up to obey, to realize the naturalsuperiority of the other sex: 'they were educated for wives'. However, when Isabella'srelationship with her husband, Willoughby, is at breaking-point after he has involvedhimself with her unscrupulous cousin, Charlotte, Lady Jane gives no consideration toany possible loyalty or to any pain Isabella might feel. She writes, when Charlotte leavesthe country, 'My heart bleeds for my poor sister Stanton. And I am the last person inthe world to say a word that would wound her feelings or reflect upon her managementand although I certainly condemned the whole course of the education that she gave toher daughters... but I am wandering from my subject', and she goes on to trust thatIsabella will not give way to romantic leanings and reunite herself with her husband.Isabella, who by then was clear-sighted about her mother's outlook, sadly tore the letterup. Lady Jane, however, exuding self-congratulation, had made a copy and 'put it awaycarefully'.^^

Isabella's recognition of true values had come slowly and her first advance was whenshe realized that her mother's high opinion of Mrs Nesbit, a London friend, to whomshe turns for advice, was quite unfounded. Far from straightforward - and this disgustsIsabella - Mrs Nesbit is also very wearing, with a loquacity well-laced with Scripturalreference. She has eavesdropped on a conversation between Willoughby and Charlotte:'for, my love, for your sake, I think it no shame to lend an attentive ear to what otherwisewould pass without notice... You know Gideon was sent to listen to what was passingin the enemy's camp... and so got the victory. My dear, "the full soul loatheth thehoneycomb" as the wise man says', she adds, suggesting a way to win Willoughby backfrom Charlotte.^^ Isabella finally seeks advice from Lady Rachel Roper, Willouffhbv'saunt and a wise and supporting counsellor. It is through her help that she is able toanalyse her own reactions, lose her concern about other people's opinions of her and erowat peace with herself and hopeful. This is the turning-point from where she begins to live

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as a free spirit and eventually, when Willoughby hides in shame in London, seeingnobody, she finds him, effects a reconcihation and fills him with new confidence. So endsa sensitive account of an attractive character, even if the overdrawing of Lady Roper andother blemishes mean that Rhoda is the better novel artistically.

There are other aspects of the novels that are worth notice, such as the dignity ofordinary country characters - rusticity as against vulgarity - and the tranquillity of thecountry environment. Frances Jacson, too, like Charlotte Smith^^ has the ability to createcountry servants' talk, seen particularly in Things by their Right Names: Jenny, the oldpoultry woman, sees Caroline for the first time since she was grown up. 'What, I warrantyou, they told me I should not know you - not know my own dear Miss Carry? You havea look about you, so commanding, as if you would say, "Jenny, do so", and I have usedto say, "Miss Carry, you must not do so'". She describes her cottage being taken overand turned into a dairy-house, 'but Lord bless you, no more like a dairy. To be sure allthe milk must be in China dishes and the butter on marvel, I think they call it, aye, onmarvel tables'. They see someone there. ' I fackins, madam, she knows you', said Jenny,'but she's not for looking you in the face'.^^

Although Frances Jacson can make use of inert metaphor as when speaking of Rhodaand Sir James, who both ' blindly went into the matrimonial gulph which was to swallowup the happiness of each', or of Lady Pynsynt (Things by their Right Names) who did notallow for the 'uncertain tenure of all sublunary bliss', her writing is more often, as canbe seen in the examples given earlier, fluent and natural in tone - and a world away fromAlethea Lewis's. Of course, this is obvious enough once her books are isolated as a groupand can be compared with the remaining two. Vicissitudes in Genteel Life and TheMicrocosm: 'Unhand me this instant and let me go',*^ cries out Maria Birtles inVicissitudes., who has inspired George on her first appearance with unbridled love. 'Iadore you beyond all women existing', returns George, who pursues her to the aviary.He recounts, for the book is in letter form, that 'every kiss I gave her was a river to myaffection'. Frances Jacson would never write in that way, but then she would never allowsuch freedom to her characters. Neither has she such echoes of other works as in, 'Sheis an angel, Charles. Her lips! I never saw such a pair of beautiful hps in my life. Hereyes!... as to her form - her air - her manner ... '." ^

Alethea Lewis enjoyed introducing echoes of her own reading but rejected theaccusation of plagiarism. In The Microcosm she says, 'We have perused many thousandsof pages and have so insensibly imbibed from early years the images of their authors, wecannot always separate our own native ideas from those'. "^ In the same book she inventsinterruptions from her readers and ripostes, ' Since you have interrupted my discourse,I will interrupt my narrative by finishing my chapter'. There are arbitrary time gaps;two years between chapters VI and VII, six between chapters XXX and XXXI when weare given summaries of the family histories to that point. None of this jaunty and ratherbreathlessly told tale, nor Vicissitudes with its faint echoes of Sterne, its flat charactersand implausible plot, can be compared in any fruitful way with Frances Jacson's books.

From what is said in her thesis by Eliza Pearl Shippen"*' and by the Monthly

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we need not regret that the British Library possesses no more of Lewis's work. A Talewithout a Title is an involved novel of intrigue, telling of a harassed and at one timedrugged heroine, eventually triumphant; Nuns of the Desert is a gothic romance withsupernatural phenomena including an ape in regimentals; the other. The DiscardedDaughter, is described by the Monthly Review as 'in plan absurd and improbable, thenovel abounding in the cant that every fool repeats'.^^

Alethea Lewis shared Frances Jacson's strong religious beliefs and wanted her readersto benefit from her message. 'If by the precepts inculcated ... any individuals shall be ledinto the paths of rectitude, my design will be completely effected', she writes in her longintroduction to The Microcosm. This may be directly compared with the close o(Rhoda:'If this leads one from ways of worldly wisdom and vain glory into paths of Christianmorality or retain them there, I shall have had my reward'. This seems to be the onlycommon aspect of the two authors' work"* and it is not easy to see why there should havebeen the misattribution, presumably in the late 1960s.*^ As far back as 1937 theAmerican critic Robert Heilman assigned Plain Sense and Disobedience to Alethea Lewisbut without giving any reason.^^ Possibly a more knowledgeable reader will be able tohelp over the matter, or when the Library is rehoused and the cataloguing slips becomeavailable again, the problem will be solved.

Meanwhile, perhaps enough has been said to show that Frances Jacson's heroinesdeserve a place among the Emmehnes, the Celestinas, *^ the Miss Milners and indeed theEvelinas and the Cecilias of the time. In the absence of any evidence of specific influenceson her books, it is obvious that her leading characters owe little to Charlotte Smith's.They are certainly not given to much weeping or fainting. The only time that Rhoda, atthe height of her troubles, collapses. Lady Emily cries out, 'My dear creature, be morereasonable, I implore you', and she manages to pull herself together. There is just a dashof Miss Milner in Rhoda^^ but the obvious comparison of Frances Jacson's heroines iswith Cecilia and the novel in date, 1782, would have been much more likely to havebecome a part of her consciousness. They have a common liveliness and independenceand there is a comparable situation too between Caroline and her father in Things by theirRight Names on the one hand and Cecilia and her guardian, Mr Harrel, on the other.Both men are in desperate need of money and work mercilessly on the young women'sfeelings to gain their ends. A similarity between the role of Mr Monckton and LordWilliam has already been noted. All things considered, however, one may conclude thatFrances Jacson owed no specific debt to others. Rather, working within the establishedconventions of the novel, she shows time and again her own unmistakable gifts.

Perhaps some interested publisher might rescue Frances Jacson from oblivion andmake at least some of her work available. As for Alethea Lewis, because of her connectionwith George Crabbe her name has been known and some of her letters preserved, butas a novehst she is rightly ignored.

I am greatly indebted to the Revd. and Mrs Edward and for the time they have so generously given; toJacson for allowing me access to the family archive Mr Nicholas Fitzherbert and Garden History for

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most kindly making the Somersal Hall drawingavailable, and, finally, I must thank Dr ChristopherWright for his most helpful advice over this paper.

Extracts from Frances Jacson's diaries before1829 are taken from her great-nephew's 'FamilyMemorials', and after this date from her actual laterdiaries, now held at the Lancashire Record Office(DX 267-278) and quoted courtesy of the CountyArchivist.

1 The two novels were published anonymously,The Microcosm having on the title-page 'by theauthor of Vicissitudes of Genteel Life\ Under herpseudonym Eugenia de Acton, Alethea Lewisacknowledges Vicissitudes in her Essays on theArt of Being Happy (1803). Later, her identitywas clearly established through her connectionwith George Crabbe. See The Life and PoeticalWorks of George Crabbe by His Son (London,1901), p. 6.

2 The correct spelling Jacson goes back to at leastthe late sixteenth century but has been confusedwith the commoner Jackson, following MariaEdgeworth (see below) and Maria Jacson'spublisher, Henry Colburn.

3 See the Jacson pedigree, though the date of theBarton purchase was two years earlier, 1832(Frances Jacson's later diaries).

4 For example, the sitting for her portrait andreference to Isabella (see below).

5 'The family went on to read Frances Jacson'sRhoda which Maria liked "much - 50% - betterthan Emma'". Marilyn Butler, Maria Edgeworth(Oxford, 1972), p. 445.

6 Christ:ina Colvin (ed.), Maria Edgeworth, Lettersfrom England, 1813-1844 (Oxford, 1971), p. 171.

7 Erasmus Darwin, A Plan for the Conduct ofFemale Education tn Boarding Schools (London,

1797). P- 41-8 Nowell C. Smith (ed.), The Collected Letters of

Sydney Smith (Oxford, 1953), vol. i , p. 259.g Evidently before the first recorded edition

(1823). Mrs Knight died in January 1823.10 George Ormerod, History of the County Palatine

and City of Chester (London, 1819), vol. ii, p.243. The house no longer stands but there is asmall water-colour in 'Family Memorials'.

11 Anne Fitzherbert was the daughter of RichardFitzherbert of Somersal; the TissingtonFitzHcrberts had been established by a Somersalyounger son in the 1400s.

12 A water-colour drawing by Henry Edridge(1769-1821), an artist much in demand at the

time as a portraitist. It was commissioned byHenry Gally-Knight.

13 Perhaps Roger's second wife had sensed hersister-in-law's disapprobation well before this.In 1801 after the bridal pair visited Tarporley,Frances writes in her diary that she finds MissJohnson 'not appealing' and is amazed at herbrother's admiration for his new wife.

14 The Gally-Knights of Firbeck Hall andLangold: see Burke's Landed Gentry (1846).Henry Gally-Knight had married SelinaFitzHerbert in 1784 and their son was FrancesJacson's favourite relation. 'Dearest Henry'figures frequently in her diaries; Mrs Knight,whom she mentions as reading Isabella^ was hiswidowed mother.

15 Alleyne, the youngest son of WilliamFitzHerbert of Tissington. When Lord Vernonbought the Somersal estate in 1806 he allowedLord St Helens to buy the Hall itself with a fewacres of land so that he could have somewhere tostore the incunabula of the family. Thus Lord StHelens was able to offer a home to the Jacsonsisters with some farmed land around it.

16 'Every Day Christianity by the author oi Rhodaetc. etc. e t c ' (London, 1816).

17 Later diaries, passim.18 Ibid., 1832.19 Ibid., 1830.20 Judging by the range of authors quoted in some

of the chapter headings in her books,Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Drayton, forexample, Frances Jacson shows the backgroundof a cultivated lady of her time. ;*

21 Ann Shteir, 'Botanical Dialogues: Maria Jacsonand Women's Popular Science Writing inEngland', Eighteenth-Century Studies., xxiii(1990), pp. 301-17-

22 Botanical Dialogues (London, 1797), pp. 17 and

154-23 For a full account of Maria Jacson's Florist's

Manual, see my article in Garden History (Spring1992), pp. 45-56.

24 Plain Sense, 2nd edn (London, 1796), vol. i, p.75-

25 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 54.26 Ibid., vol. i, p. 23.27 Disobedience (London, 1797), vol. ii, p. 36.28 Things by their Right Names (London, 1812), vol.

i, p. 42.29 Ibid., p. 124.30 Rhoda (London, 1816), vol. i, pp. 72-3.

31 Ibid., p. 197.32 Ibid., vol. ii, part i, p. 233.33 Ibid., part ii, p. 65.34 Ibid., vol. iii, pp.35 Ibid., p. 423.36 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 237 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 323flr. Menageries were often a

combination of a poultry-house and aviary forless common birds in the eighteenth century.The author is ridiculing the often extravagantfashion for 'improvement' as well as satirizingLady Morris's value scale.

38 Isabella, 2nd edn (London, 1823), vol. iii, pp.335ff. The main theme of Every DayChristianity^ the need to replace worldliness inour society by true Christian living, is par-ticularly well exemplified in Isabella; see, too,the next extract.

39 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 98ff, 109.40 See, for example, Lady Adelina's servant in

Emmeline.41 Things by Their Right Names., vol. ii, pp. 224fF.

Like menageries, model dairies were anotherfeature of country estate embellishment.

42 Vicissitudes in Genteel Life (London, 1794), vol.i, pp. 3O2ff.

43 Ibid., p. 8.44 The Microcosm (London, 1801), p. 6.45 Eliza Pearl Shippen, Eugenia de Acton

(Philadelphia, 1945), p. 114.46 Monthly Review (Oct. 1810), p. 209.

47 Even so, the authorial moralizing within AletheaLewis's novels is of a different character andoften far too intrusive.

48 In the blue-pages supplement of books 'receivedin the Library between 1971 and 1975', the laid-down General Catalogue in the Reading Roomhas all Frances Jacson's novels, together withThe Microcosm, listed under Alethea Lewis.Vicissitudes is listed separately under title, butwith the author following, and note, 'addedlater'. The Eighteenth Century Short TitleCatalogue (ESTC) gives Disobedience and PlainSense to Alethea Lewis. It includes Vicissitudesalso under her name. Andrew Block, The EnglishNovel., ij4O-i8so, rev. edn (London, 1961), Hstsall Frances Jacson's novels under title only,correctly assigning to Eugenia de Acton three ofLewis's books. Alphonsus [Montague]Summers, A Gothic Bibliography (London,1940), gives virtually the same information;neither breaks through Lewis's pseudonym.

49 R. B. Heilman, America in English Fiction^I/6Q-I8OO (Baton Rouge, 1937).

50 Charlotte Smith (1749-1806), a prolific andtalented writer. The two eponymous heroines{Emmeline, 1789; Celestina, 1791) are charactersof extreme sensibility and delicacy, but withsome strength of mind.

51 Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821), .4 Simple Story(London, 1791). Miss Milner is similarly sus-ceptible to kindness and good example, and vain.

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