How to Create the Perfect Wife (55 page)

176
   
Discussing the vexed question of independence with American friends:
The Middle Temple Buttery Book shows that Day began dining in the hall from April 1774 at the same time as various American students including John Laurens, Thomas Pinckney and John F. Grimké. MT Buttery Book 3, 1773–76, MT7/BUB/3.

176
   
hundreds of thousands of slaves were working cotton:
Rakove, p. 206.

176
   
Many of the most prominent Americans lobbyingfor independence:
Ferling,
Setting the World Ablaze,
pp. 44, 48 and 54; Bernstein, R. B.,
Thomas Jefferson
(New York, 2003), p. 111. Re Jefferson see also
http://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-brief-account
.

176
   
walking the streets of Georgian London with black slaves:
For fascinating background on Americans living in London in the eighteenth century and specific details on their ownership of slaves see Flavell, p. 91 and passim; and Gerzina. Also see Flavell, Julie, “A New Tour of Georgian London’s Fleet Street Shows: Its mixed race American side” at
http://yalepress.wordpress.com/2011/ll/16/
.

177
   
reprint of the popular poem:
TD and JB,
The Dying Negro
(2nd edn., London, 1774). And see Carey, pp. 73–84. Day wrote 44 of the extra 54 lines and Bicknell 10. The preface to the 1793 edition states that Day wrote the entire dedication, but it seems likely that he consulted Bicknell, judging from his references to it in his letter to JB from The Hague, which is included in the third edition. TD and JB,
The Dying Negro
(3rd edn., London, 1793).

178
   
she had “gained the esteem” of her teachers:
Seward (1804), p. 36; AS states that Sabrina was at school for three years.

178
   
Instead Day brusquely informed her:
TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13. There is no trace of any Parkinsons working as dressmakers in surviving records. My thanks to archivists of the Victoria and Albert Museum for checking. For background information on the work of mantua-makers see Buck, Anne,
Dress in Eighteenth-century England
(London, 1979); and same, “Mantuamakers and Milliners: women making and selling clothes in eighteenth-century Bedfordshire,” in
Bedfordshire Historical Miscellany,
72 (1993), pp. 142–55.

179
   
Day made plain both to Sabrina and to the Parkinsons:
TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13. The following quotes are all from this letter, which was probably a draft.

179
   
According to Seward, Sabrina had matured:
Seward (1804), p. 36.

180
   
“a beauty” in the words of Dr. Small:
William Small to James Watt, October 19, 1771, Soho archives: Boulton Papers, MS 340/17.

181
   
Sending letters back to Bicknell and his mother:
TD to JB, August 4, 1774, printed in TD and JB,
The Dying Negro
(3rd edn., London, 1793), pp. v–viii; TD to Jane Phillips (his mother), August 10, 1774, printed in Lowndes (1825–27), vol. 2, pp. 3–5.

182
   
they published a satirical attack on plans to provide music lessons:
Collier, Joel (pseudonym for John Bicknell),
Musical Travels through England
(London, 1774); Lonsdale, Roger, “Dr. Burney, ‘Joel Collier,’ and Sabrina,” in Ribeiro, Alvaro and Wellek, René, eds.,
Evidence in Literary Scholarship: essays in memory of James Marshall Osborn
(Oxford, 1979), pp. 281–308. In this fascinating essay, Lonsdale suggests that Bicknell alone wrote the first and second editions, on the basis that Day was abroad when they were published, and that the pair collaborated on the third edition. A friend of Bicknell, Francis Douce, however, stated that Day and Bicknell wrote the tract together. Since the pamphlet smacks so plainly of their combined views, it seems highly likely it was a collaboration in some form.

184
   
“a spirit of discord pervading the country”:
Williams, p. 17.

184
   
John Laurens enrolled as a student at Middle Temple:
John Laurens to Henry Laurens, January 20, 1775, in Laurens, vol. 9, pp. 587–88; vol. 10, p. 34. John Laurens described Charles Bicknell as “the merest machine in the world—the most barren in Conversation and least calculated to improve, of any Man I ever was connected with” but he found John Bicknell far more likable. “The elder brother is a sensible Fellow, and I cultivate his acquaintance as much as possible.” When Henry Laurens arrived in London in 1771, he brought a slave called Scipio, who changed his name to Robert to blend in better with English domestic life. Other information on Henry and John Laurens is from Laurens; Jones, E. Alfred,
American Members of the Inns of Court
(London, 1924); Massey, Gregory D.,
John Laurens and the American Revolution
(Columbia, SC, 2000); Stockdale (2005), Stockdale and Holland; Flavell, pp. 7–113; Rakove, pp. 198–238, especially pp. 200–218.

185
   
In an eloquent and forceful letter to Henry Laurens:
TD,
Fragment of an Original Letter on the Slavery of the Negroes, written in the year 1776
(London, 1784). This tract was published by Day’s usual publisher John Stockdale. The recipient of Day’s letter is anonymous. In the preface Day wrote that he was induced to write the letter by John Laurens to an American slave owner. It seems most likely that it was Henry Laurens.

185
   “
America is our child”:
Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Vesey, February 3, 1776, in Montagu, Elizabeth,
Mrs. Montagu “Queen of the Blues”: her letters and friendships from 1762 to 1800,
ed. Blunt, Reginand (London, 1923), vol. 1, p. 139.

186
   
Day told Boulton to “give a sigh to the dead”:
TD to Matthew Boulton, March 17, 1775, Soho archives: Boulton Papers, MS 3782/12/81/84.

186
   
“My loss is as inexpressable”:
Matthew Boulton to James Watt, February 25, 1775, Soho archives: Watt Papers, MS 3219/4/62 and MS 3219/4/66; Keir, pp. 92–93; Uglow, pp. 249–50.

186
   
Finding himself dazed and adrift in Lichfield, after Small’s funeral:
Edgeworth states that Day reignited his relationship with Sabrina before Small died, but he was almost certainly trying to blur events to protect Day’s reputation in view of his later marriage. Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 332. Day told Sabrina that he revived their relationship “upon the death of Doctor Small.” TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13.

186
   
Day would refer to them when writing to Sabrina as “your friends”:
TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13. The ensuing quotes are from this letter, which was probably a draft.

188
   
“I therefore determined,” wrote Day:
TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13. The details of this final trial are taken from the letter from Day to Sabrina in which he describes his whole experiment on her, Edgeworth’s memoirs and the description of Sabrina’s story by Fanny Burney, written as a French exercise for her husband. Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 332–35; Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).

189
   
Seward noted that Day:
Seward (1804), p. 37.

189
   
Sabrina would later regard the Keirs “with great resentment”:
ME to Frances Edgeworth, October 15, 1818, in Edgeworth, M (1971), p. 122.

189
   
She was either pregnant:
JK to Charles Darwin (ED’s son), May 2, 1776, in Moilliet, A., p. 54. Keir refers to “your godson.” The baby died in infancy. Day was still spending much of his time at his law studies in London; records show him dining in Middle Temple Hall with Bicknell, William Jones and John Laurens on numerous occasions in 1775. MT Buttery Book 3, 1773–76, MT7/BUB/3.

190
   
As Eliza miserably told Professor Higgins:
Shaw, p. 101.

190
   “She surpassed all his ideas”: Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).

191
   
Since there were few neighbors and fewer diversions:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 326–29.

191
   
“If it is happy for us, which it certainly is”:
Honora Edgeworth to Mary Powys, May 5, 1775, Edgeworth Papers, MS 10, 166/9.

191
   
Life was not quite so joyful:
Butler, HJ and HE, p. 159. The sofa belonged to her Aunt Fox, RLE’s eldest sister.

192
   
Edgeworth had seriously doubted she could ever become “sufficiently cultivated”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 332–35. Succeeding quotes by RLE are from these pages.

193
   
“I studiously avoided the word marriage to you”:
TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13.

193
   
“He finally explained to Sabrina”:
Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg).

195
   
It was a “trifling” consideration:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 334–35.

195
   
“She completely disappeared for a few hours”:
Burney, French Exercise Book (Berg). FB may well be embroidering events here. She said that Sabrina had run off to get married to Bicknell although this only happened many years later.

196
   
He dispatched Sabrina immediately to a boardinghouse:
Seward (1804), p. 36. Picard gives the annual wage of a housemaid as between
£6
and £8; the American law student John Dickinson estimated £120 was needed to live frugally. Picard, Liza,
Dr. Johnson’s London
(London, 2000), p. 297; Colbourn, H. Trevor, “A Pennsylvanian Farmer at the Court of King George: John Dickinson’s London Letters, 1754–1756,” in
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography,
86, no. 3 (1962), pp. 241–85, specifically p. 275.

196
   
“my checker’d & adventurous history”:
Sabrina Bicknell to ME, October 29, 1818, Edgeworth Papers, MS 22470/15.

197
   
Edgeworth would feel concerned that he had somehow “betrayed”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 345–46.

CHAPTER 9: ESTHER

199
   
Clever, amiable and wealthy, at twenty-three, Esther Milnes:
lnformation on the Milnes family is from Walker, John William,
Wakefield, Its History and People
(Wakefield, 1934), pp. 345 and 397–98; Burke, vol. 2, pp. 868–69; Glover, Stephen,
The History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby
(Derby, 1831), p. 323; Betham, William,
The Baronetage of England
(5 vols., London, 1803–5), vol. 5, p. 449–50; TD and Esther Day (1805). Much of the family history information in printed sources is inaccurate; for example, Elizabeth was not the eldest daughter. Esther was baptized on October 15, 1752: Chesterfield parish records. My thanks to Jacky Worthington for help in tracing the Milnes nephews.