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Agnes Strickland

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Agnes Strickland (19 August 1796 - 8 July 1874) was an English poet, and a writer of historical biographies and children's literature.

Agnes Strickland by John Hayes

Agnes Strickland (1796-1874). Portrait by John Hayes (1786-1866). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Agnes Strickland
Born August 19 1796(1796-Template:MONTHNUMBER-19)
Died July 8 1874(1874-Template:MONTHNUMBER-08) (aged 77)
Occupation Author
Genres History

Life[]

Overview[]

Strickland, daughter of Thomas Strickland, of Royden Hall, Suffolk, was educated by her fathr, and began her literary career with a poem, Worcester Field, followed by The Seven Ages of Woman and Demetrius. Abandoning poetry she next produced among others Historical Tales of Illustrious British Children (1833), The Pilgrims of Walsingham (1835), Tales and Stories from History (1836). Her chief works, however, are Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest, and Lives of the Queens of Scotland, and English Princesses, etc. (8 volumes, 1850-1859), Lives of the Bachelor Kings of England (1861), and Letters of Mary Queen of Scots, in some of which she was assisted by her sister Elizabeth. Though laborious and conscientious she lacked the judicial faculty, and her style does not rise above mediocrity.[1]

Family[]

Strickland, the 2nd surviving daughter of Thomas Strickland of Reydon Hall, near Southwold, Suffolk, and of his 2nd wife, Elizabeth (Homer), was born in London on 19 August 1796. There were 9 children from the marriage – 5of them besides Agnes distinguished themselves (though in a less degree) by their literary talent. These were Elizabeth (1794–1875), Jane Margaret (1800–1888), Samuel (1809–1867), Susanna Moodie (1803–1885), and Catherine Parr Traill (born 1802), who survived them all.[2]

Their father, Thomas Strickland, was descended from a family of yeomen settled in the Furness district of North Lancashire. The connection, if any, with the Stricklands of Sizergh, to which Miss Strickland constantly referred, is remote, and is unsupported by documentary evidence (Davy's Suffolk Pedigrees, Addit. MS. 19150). Thomas Strickland was in the employment of Messrs. Hallett & Wells, shipowners, and became manager of the Greenland docks. He resided at the Laurels, Thorpe, near Norwich, then at Stowe House, near Bungay, and finally, in 1808, bought Reydon Hall, Suffolk. He also possessed a house at Norwich, where in later life he lived during the winter. He died of gout at Norwich on 18 May 1818, the disease being aggravated by anxiety consequent on the loss of the larger part of his fortune. He was buried at Lakenham.[2]

Youth and education[]

Agnes was born in London on 19 August 1796. Her father took entire charge of the education of his elder daughters, Elizabeth and Agnes, and they early showed a taste for the study of history. The financial situation of the family made it desirable that the sisters, who had already commenced to write, should regard their literary talents as a part of their means of livelihood.[2]

Career[]

Agnes's earliest publication was "Monody upon the Death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales," which appeared anonymously in the Norwich Mercury in 1817. In 1827 she published by subscription Worcester Field, or the Cavalier, a metrical romance, written long before. The Seven Ages of Woman, and other poems followed in the same year (with another edition in 1847).[2]

About 1827, she paid a 1st visit to London and stayed with a cousin, in whose house she met Campbell and Sir Walter Scott. With her cousin she studied Italian, and she sent some translations of Petrarch's sonnets to the New Monthly Magazine.[2]

She now turned her attention to prose, and, in conjunction with her sister Elizabeth, wrote several books for children. The most important were: Historical Tales of Illustrious British Children (1833; there were other editions in 1847 and 1858); Tales and Stories from History (2 volumes, 1836; the 8th edition appeared in 1860, and another in 1870). In addition Agnes contributed to the annuals; published at her own expense in 1833 Demetrius, a poem inspired by sympathy with the Greeks; and in 1835 a series of tales in 2 volumes entitled The Pilgrims of Walsingham.[2]

At this time Elizabeth was editing the Court Magazine, and had written for it some biographies of female sovereigns. It occurred to Agnes that historical biographies of the queens of England might prove useful. The 2 sisters planned a book together, under the title of Memoirs of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest, and obtained permission from the young queen, who had just ascended the throne, to dedicate it to her. But before the 1st volume was published the title was appropriated by another author, Miss Hannah Lawrance (1795–1895), whose Historical Memoirs of the Queens of England appeared in 1839. The Stricklands then changed their title to Lives of the Queens of England, and the 1st and 2nd volumes duly appeared in 1840. Agnes's name was alone given as author on the title-page, Elizabeth having an invincible objection to publicity. Owing to an unbusiness-like agreement with Henry Colburn, the publisher, the authors gained little remuneration, although the book sold well.[2]

Agnes fell ill, and wished to stop the work. But Colburn insisted on its completion, and finally agreed to pay the joint authors £150 a volume. As the prosecution of the work necessitated frequent visits to London, Elizabeth leased a cottage at Bayswater.[2] There Agnes resided when in town. She witnessed the queen's coronation in 1838, and was presented at court in 1840. In that year she wrote at Colburn's request Queen Victoria from Birth to Bridal (2 volumes). The book, which was founded on scanty and untrustworthy material supplied to the author by Colburn, did not find favor with the queen.[3]

Agnes Strickland based her Lives of the Queens wherever possible on unpublished official records, on contemporary letters and other private documents. When preparing the biographies of the consorts of Henry VIII she found it necessary to consult state papers, and applied to Lord John Russell for the required permission, which he refused. However, through the influence of Lord Normanby, the difficulty was overcome, and both sisters were permitted to work at the state paper office whenever they liked.[3]

The Stricklands also visited many of the historic houses of England in order to examine documents. In 1844 Agnes visited Paris, and Guizot, who much admired her work, enabled her to make researches in the French archives. The last of the 12 volumes of the 1st edition of the Lives of the Queens appeared in 1848.[3]

But this great undertaking did not absorb Agnes Strickland's energies. During 1842 and 1843 she edited and published the Letters of Mary Queen of Scots in 3 volumes. The 3rd volume was dedicated to Jane Porter as a tribute of friendship, and in the dedication Miss Strickland acknowledges the assistance rendered by Sir Robert Ke Porter in obtaining transcripts from the royal autograph collection in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg. A new edition in 2 volumes appeared in 1844, and a complete edition in 5 volumes in 1864.[3]

From 1850 to 1859 Strickland was engaged in the writing and publication of the Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Royal Succession of Great Britain, which had a good sale. In 1861 she published Lives of the Bachelor Kings of England, i.e. William Rufus, Edward V, Edward VI. Elizabeth contributed the memoir of Edward V.[3]

After her mother's death on 3 September 1864, Reydon Hall, which had always been her chief home, was sold, and Agnes moved to Park Lane Cottage, Southwold. She had just finished revising the proofs of a new edition of the Queens, which appeared in 6 volumes in 1864-1865. In the latter year she published a novel in 3 volumes, How will it end? for which Bentley paid her £250. It reached a 2nd edition in the same year.[3]

In 1869 she visited Holland in order to collect materials for her Lives of the last Four Princesses of the Royal House of Stuart (published 1872), her last work. At The Hague she had an interview with the queen of the Netherlands.[3]

In 1872 her health gave way; she broke an ankle through a fall, partial paralysis supervened, and she died at Southwold on 13 July 1874. She was buried in the churchyard of Southwold.[3]

Elizabeth Strickland[]

Strickland's fame as author and historian rests on the Lives of the Queens of England, which was the joint work of herself and her sister Elizabeth. The lives contributed by Elizabeth, whose style is more masculine than that of Agnes, were those of Adelicia of Louvain, Eleanora of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Isabella of Valois, Katherine of Valois, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, Katharine of Arragon, Jane Seymour, Mary Tudor, Anne of Denmark, Henrietta Maria, Mary II, and Anne. To the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Royal Succession of Great Britain Elizabeth contributed Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia, and Sophia, electress of Hanover. Elizabeth Strickland also wrote the lives of the Duchess of Suffolk, Lady Jane Grey, Lady Katharine Grey, and Lady Mary Grey in the Tudor Princesses (1868), and those of Lloyd and Trelawney in the Seven Bishops (1866), both books, as usual, being given to the public as the sole work of Agnes. Elizabeth conducted the greater part of the business arrangements connected with their joint literary work.[3]

Elizabeth died at Abbot's Lodge, Tilford, Surrey, 30 April 1875.[3]

Writing[]

The Lives of the Queens of England was very successful and popular. By 1854 it was in a 4th edition, which was embellished by portraits of each queen. In 1863 Agnes Strickland bought from Mrs. John Forster (the sole executrix of Mr. Colburn) the copyright of the book for £1,862.15s.6d. Strickland bequeathed the property to her sister, Catherine Parr Trail, who sold it to Bell & Daldy in 1877 for £735. (cf. Mrs. Traill, Pearls and Pebbles, 1894). Of the edition in 6 volumes published in 1864-1865 over 11,000 copies were sold. An abridged edition, intended for use in schools, appeared in 1867.[3]

Strickland was laborious and painstaking, but she lacked the judicial temper and critical mind necessary for dealing in the right spirit with original authorities. This, in conjunction with her extraordinary devotion to Mary Queen of Scots and her strong tory prejudices, detract, from the value of her conclusions. Her literary style is weak, and the popularity of her books is in great measure due to their trivial gossip and domestic details. Yet in her extracts from contemporary authorities she amassed much valuable material, and her works contain pictures of the court, of society, and of domestic life not to be found elsewhere (cf. Letters of Mary Russell Mitford, ed. Chorley, 2nd ser. ii. 25-26).[4]

Strickland took her work and her reputation very seriously. On one occasion she wrote to The Times to complain of the plagiarisms of Lord Campbell in his Lives of the Chancellors, and on another gave emphatic expression, also in the Times, to her indignation at Froude's description of the death of Mary Queen of Scots.[4]

She was a welcome guest in the houses of many distinguished persons, and her warm heart and conversational powers won for her many friends. With the exception of Jane Porter, whom she visited at Bristol, and with whom she carried on a frequent correspondence, and a casual meeting with Macaulay, whom she found uncongenial, she came little in contact with the authors of her day.[4]

Other works by Agnes Strickland are: 1. Floral Sketches, Fables, and other Poems, 1836; 2nd edition 1861. 2. Old Friends and New Acquaintances, 1860; 2nd series 1861. She also edited Fisher's Juvenile Scrap-Book, in conjunction with Bernard Barton, from 1837 to 1839, and contributed 2 tales to the ‘Pic-nic Papers,’ edited by Charles Dickens (1841).[4]

Recognition[]

On 3 August 1870 Strickland was granted a pension of £100 from the civil list (cf. Colles, Literature and the Pension List, 54).[3]

Strickland's portrait was painted in June 1846 by J. Hayes. By her will she bequeathed the picture to the nation, and it is now in the National Portrait Gallery. It is a 3/4 length representing a woman of handsome appearance and intelligent expression, with pale complexion and black hair and eyes. The painting was engraved by S.C. Lewis, and forms the frontispiece to Historic Scenes and Poetic Fancies (1850), and to the 1851 edition of the Lives of the Queens of England. It was again engraved in 1857 by John Sartain of Philadelphia for the New York Eclectic Magazine (volume xlii.). There is another engraved portrait in the Life written by her sister, Jane Margaret Strickland (1887), which may be from the half-length in watercolor by Cruikshank mentioned in that book. A miniature painted by her cousin and a bust by Bailey are also referred to there.[4]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

Novels[]

Short fiction[]

  • The Tell-Tell: An original collection of amusing stories. London: Harris, 1823.
  • Old Friends and New Acquaintances. London: Simpkin, Marshall / Ipswich, UK: J.M. Burton, 1860.
    • Second series. London: Simpkin, Marshall / Ipswich, UK: J.M. Burton, 1861.

Non-fiction[]

Juvenile[]

Edited[]


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]

The_Seven_Ages_of_Women_by_Agnes_Strickland_Poetry,_Romance_Full_AudioBook

The Seven Ages of Women by Agnes Strickland Poetry, Romance Full AudioBook

See also[]

References[]

  •  Lee, Elizabeth (1898) "Strickland, Agnes" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 55 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 48-50  . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 7, 2018.
  • "Stickland, Agnes." British Authors of the Nineteenth Century New York: H.W. Wilson, 1936.

Notes[]

  1. ↑ John William Cousin, "Strickland, Agnes," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 364. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 8, 2018.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Lee, 48.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 Lee, 49.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Lee, 50.
  5. ↑ Susanna Moodie – Bibliography of Major Works, Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill, Library and Archives Canada, CollectionsCanada.gc.ca, Web, Apr. 8, 2012.
  6. ↑ Search results = au:Agnes Strickland, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 25, 2013.

External links[]

Poems
Books
About

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Strickland, Agnes

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