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Why She Lived at the PRO: Mary Anne Everett Green and the Profession of History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2012

Christine L. Krueger
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Journal of British Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 65 - 90
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Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 2003

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References

1 On obstetrics see, e.g., Poovey, Mary, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on reviewing practices and the gendering of the novelist's profession, see Tuchman, Gaye, with Fortin, Nina E., Edging Women Out: Victorian Novelists, Publishers, and Social Change (London, 1989)Google Scholar.

2 Philippa Levine traces the uneven progress of modern history into the Tripos at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and its even more tortured course into the curricula of the newer universities in The Amateur and the Professional: Antiquarians, Historians and Archeologists in Victorian England, 1838–1886 (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 136–39Google Scholar.

3 On gender and the professionalization of history, see Burke, Peter, Varieties of Cultural History (Cambridge, 1997), p. 22Google Scholar; and, Crosby, Christina, The Ends of History: Victorians and “The Woman Question” (New York and London, 1991), pp. 1, 4–5Google Scholar.

4 Purvis, June, ed., Women's History: Britain, 1850–1945 (London, 1995), p. 5Google Scholar.

5 Showalter, Elaine, Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle (New York, 1990), p. 145Google Scholar.

6 Mitchell, Rosemary Ann, “‘The Busy Daughters of Clio’: Women Writers of History from 1820–1880,” Women's History Review 7, no. 1 (1998): 121CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See, e.g., Scott, Joan Wallach, Gender and the Politics of History (New York, 1999)Google Scholar; Smith, Bonnie G., The Gender of History: Men, Women and Historical Practice (Cambridge, Mass., 1998)Google Scholar; Hartman, Joan E. and Messer-Davidow, Ellen, eds., (En)gendering Knowledge: Feminists in Academe (Knoxville, Tenn., 1991)Google Scholar.

8 For a theoretic recuperation of nineteenth-century amateur female historians, see Smith, The Gender of History, pp. 8–9.

9 Rohan Amanda Maitzen notes the self-consciously “transgressive” quality of Green's, Lives of the Princesses of England in Gender, Genre and Victorian Historical Writing (New York and London, 1998), pp. 36–37Google Scholar. See also Thirsk, Joan, “The History Women,” in Chattel, Servant or Citizen: Women's Status in Church, State and Society, ed. O'Dowd, M. and Wichert, S. (Belfast, 1995) pp. 1–11Google Scholar.

10 Maitzen, Gender, Genre and Victorian Historical Writing, p. 3.

11 Looser, Devoney, British Women Writers and the Writing of History, 1670–1820 (Baltimore and London, 2000), esp. pp. 1–9Google Scholar.

12 Langland, Elizabeth, Nobody's Angels: Middle-Class Women and Domestic Ideology in Victorian Culture (Ithaca, N.Y., 1995), p. 72Google Scholar.

13 Levine, The Amateur and the Professional, p. 2.

14 As Levine stresses, the government's motivation was nationalistic and political: only on the basis of a comprehensive review of its historical records could the true worth of the British constitution and form of government be adequately demonstrated (p. 108).

15 Report of the Deputy Keeper, XXIII, 22 February 1862, quoted in Levine, The Amateur and the Professional, p. 111.

16 In 1836, Parliament had disbanded the Records Commission after an investigation revealed that it had spent nearly £400,000 since its establishment and was more than £20,000 in debt, largely as the result of costly publication projects. See F. J. Levy, “The Founding of the Camden Society,” Victorian Studies 7, no. 3 (March 1964): 297.

17 Additionally, the publication of public documents presented an occasion for Romilly, who had succeeded Lord Langdale as Master of the Rolls in 1851, to consolidate his power over record-keeping authorities—notably the State Paper Office (SPO), which was resisting centralization under the PRO. Superintended by Henry Hobhouse, Keeper of State Papers, senior clerk Robert Lemon, who has been credited with conceiving of the Calendars and coining this special usage of the word, was already at work on the papers of Edward IV, Mary I, and Elizabeth under authority of an 1840 order from the queen to the Commissioners for Printing and Publishing State Papers.

18 In his Dictionary of National Biography entry for “Wood,” A. W. Ward reports that among the notables in the Woods' circle was James Montgomery, the newspaperman and poet. Montgomery, who lectured on the use of historical records at the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, among other places, may have introduced the Woods' children to these issues. See, e.g., Holland, John and Everett, James, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of James Montgomery, 7 vols. (London, 1854–56), 5:83, 302–4, 388–89, 393–94Google Scholar.

19 The Wood children's education is described in the anonymously authored Memorial of the Rev. Robert Wood, Wesleyan Minister (London, 1854)Google Scholar, attributed to Mary Anne Everett Green. Odom, W., in Hallamshire Worthies (Sheffield, 1926)Google Scholar, indicates that Green was educated at home; and Men of the Times: a Dictionary of … Biographical Notices … of Both Sexes (1875) declares she “received an excellent education” and that her tastes were fostered by James Montgomery, the “Bard of Sheffield” (British Biographical Index, I.1852:41–42, I.1192:295).

20 John D. Cantwell reports that on 17 May 1845, Palgrave sent his father-in-law, the antiquarian Dawson Turner, Mary Wood's autograph, saying “her knowledge of ancient records etc. is truly wonderful.” Cantwell, , The Public Record Office, 1838–1958 (London, 1991), p. 170Google Scholar.

21 In comparing it with Agnes Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England, Samuel R. Gardiner and J. Bass Mullinger termed Green's Lives a “far more solid and judicious work.” Gardiner, and Mullinger, , Introduction to the Study of English History, 2d ed. (London, 1882), p. 228Google Scholar.

22 Green, Mary Anne Everett, Lives of the Princesses of England, 6 vols. (London, 1849–55), 1:viGoogle Scholar.

23 For a caricature of Agnes Strickland as an historian in a “poke bonnet,” author of “pretty books,” see Oliphant, Margaret, “Modern Light Literature—History,” Blackwood's Magazine 78 (October 1855): 437Google Scholar.

24 For example, Sir Thomas Phillipps, who had accumulated one of the largest and most important private collections of historical documents, was notoriously difficult about allowing researchers access. But, like the Strickland sisters before her, Green had managed it, as his place at the head of her acknowledgments attests.

25 Cantwell, Public Record Office, p. 556.

26 Palgrave to Green, 3 December 1855, Public Record Office (PRO), London, PRO 1/19.

27 Palgrave to Green, 5 December 1855, PRO 1/19.

28 In order to save herself a trip out of London immediately after the birth of her second child, Green had even managed to persuade Sir Thomas Phillipps to send manuscripts from his collection to Sir Frederic Madden at the British Museum so that she could inspect them there. Mitchell, “‘The Busy Daughters,’” p. 113.

29 Quoted in Cantwell, Public Record Office, p. 170.

30 For discussions of the significance of the study as a domestic space of masculine intellectual labor, see Corbett, Mary Jean, Representing Femininity: Middle-Class Subjectivity in Victorian and Edwardian Women's Autobiographies (New York, 1992), p. 63Google Scholar; and Danahay, Martin A., A Community of One: Masculine Autobiography and Autonomy in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Albany, N.Y., 1993), p. 1Google Scholar.

31 Green to Palgrave, 6 December 1855, PRO 1/19.

32 Palgrave to Green, 8 December 1855, PRO 1/19.

33 On the basis of these prefaces, Green would seem to constitute an exception to Mitchell's (“‘The Busy Daughters’”) observation that there were few female successors to Catherine Macaulay in the field of political history until twentieth-century academics.

34 Cantwell, Public Record Office, pp. 170–71.

35 Green to Palgrave, 1 April 1856, PRO 1/20.

36 Cantwell, Public Record Office, p. 171.

37 Bruce to Palgrave, 11 March 1857, PRO 1/21.

38 Ibid.

39 Brewer's report to Palgrave, 12 March 1857, PRO 1/21.

40 Johnson, Charles, in The Care of Documents and Management of Archives (London, 1919), p. 42Google Scholar, listing the qualifications of archivists, began “He must not be afraid of dirt.”

41 Green to Romilly, 24 March 1857, PRO 1/21.

42 “It remains in my room at the office,” Green assured Palgrave of the bundle of papers that had been delivered from the Chapter House, “and I think we all distinctly understand that in reference to the recent transmissions from the Chapter House, the papers are not to be considered incorporated with those in the State Paper Office, but that their ultimate place of deposit shall remain a question for the decision of the Master of the Rolls.” Green to Palgrave, 25 March 1857, PRO 1/21.

43 Palgrave to Lemon, 25 March 1857, PRO 1/21.

44 Evelyn Everett Green (1856–1932), who became a prolific novelist, was the third of Green's four children. A son, Robert, was born in 1847, followed by three daughters: Gertrude, b. 1854, Evelyn, and Constance, b. 1859. Family Records Centre, London, Census Records, 1851, 1861.

45 Palgrave to Longmans, 12 May 1857, PRO 1/21.

46 Green to Palgrave, 3 June 1857, PRO 1/21.

47 Palgrave to Green, 5 June 1857, PRO 1/21.

48 PRO 43/21.

49 Twenty-First Report of the Deputy Keeper, 1860, pp. xix–xx, PRO 42/21.

50 Levine, The Amateur and the Professional, p. 113.

51 PRO 1/21.

52 Green to Romilly, 18 April 1860, PRO 1/24.

53 PRO 1/21.

54 Romilly to Green, 20 April 1860, PRO 1/24.

55 Green to Romilly, 24 April 1860, PRO 1/24.

56 When she applied to Romilly's assistant Charles Roberts for reimbursement for assistance and work she had done at home, Roberts curtly informed her that he had shown the letter to Romilly, who reminded her that he had no authority to pay her in any form other than that approved by Treasury, i.e., per printed sheet. “By the end of the next Quarter,” Roberts remarked in closing, “I hope you will have enough printed off to authorize a payment.” Roberts to Green, 26 June 1860, PRO 1/24.

57 PRO 1/24.

58 Saturday Review, 27 May 1865, PRO 8/14, scrapbook.

59 Saturday Review, 10 November 1866, PRO 8/14, scrapbook.

60 Green, Mary Anne Everett, ed., Calendars of State Papers, Domestic (CSP, Dom.), Elizabeth, 1591–94 (London, 1867), pp. vii–viiiGoogle Scholar.

61 Knighton, C. S., ed., CSP, Dom., Edward VI, 1547–53 (London, 1992), p. viiGoogle Scholar. Knighton also complained of Lemon's tendency to avoid documents presenting paleographic or linguistic difficulties, whereas Green's remain authoritative (p. vii).

62 Review of Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, 1581–1590, ed. Robert Lemon, Examiner, 15 April 1865, PRO 8/20, scrapbook.

63 Saturday Review, 10 November 1866, PRO 8/20, scrapbook.

64 Palgrave to Green, 8 December 1855, PRO 1/19. J. S. Brewer did, in fact, go on to publish his prefaces as a history of the reign of Henry VIII: The Reign of Henry VIII, 2 vols. (London, 1884)Google Scholar.

65 Green, Mary Anne Everett, ed., CSP, Dom., Charles II, 1660–61 (London, 1860), pp. i–iiGoogle Scholar.

66 The Academy, 3 November 1877, p. 422, PRO 8/20, scrapbook.

67 Regarding the controversy stirred by Romilly's appointment in 1858 of William Turnbull, the Scottish antiquary and a Catholic, to calendar state papers from the Reformation to 1688, see Levine, The Amateur and the Professional, pp. 113–14; Cantwell, Public Record Office, p. 240. The Spectator would complain of Brewer's bias as well (18 November 1876, PRO 8/20, scrapbook).

68 The Academy, 20 May 1876, PRO 8/20, scrapbook.

69 CSP, Dom., Charles II, 1660–61, p. x.

70 Ibid., p. xi.

71 Ibid.

72 Green, Mary Anne Everett, ed. CSP, Dom., Charles II, 1666–67 (London, 1864), p. xiiiGoogle Scholar.

73 Masson, David, “Mrs. Green's Last Calendar of State Papers,” The Academy (20 May 1876), pp. 475–76Google Scholar.

74 Several officers at the PRO and historians of seventeenth-century Britain have told me that M. A. E. Green, as she is typically designated in twentieth-century citations to her Calendars, is often assumed to have been a man.

75 Hardy to Welby, 7 March 1870, PRO 1/35, quoted in Cantrell, Public Record Office, p. 246.

76 “Calendars of State Papers,” Times, 30 December 1880, PRO 8/20, scrapbook.

77 Gardiner, S. R. and Mullinger, J. Bass, Introduction to the Study of English History (London, 1881), p. 227Google Scholar. M. A. E. Green's Lives of the Princesses and Letters of Henrietta Maria are also recommended by these authors, as well as her calendars.

78 Saturday Review (12 August 1876), pp. 211–12.

79 Saturday Review (16 September 1876), p. 361.

80 Allibone, S. A., A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, 3 vols. (London, 1859–71)Google Scholar, cited in British Biographical Index I.1192:292–300.

81 Cantwell, Public Record Office, p. 343.

82 George Pycock Green died on 12 July 1893 leaving M. A. E. Green and her unmarried daughter Constance an estate of £3,664.

83 Green, Mary Anne Everett, ed., CSP, Dom., November 1667 to September 1668 (London, 1893), p. vGoogle Scholar.

84 For another example of Green's dramatic narrative, see Green, Mary Anne Everett, ed., CSP, Dom., November 1667 to September 1668 (London, 1893), p. liGoogle Scholar.

85 Perhaps Lomas's mention of her aunt's death in her preface to the last volume of Charles I's reign was the matter-of-fact epitaph Green would most have wanted. Hamilton, William Douglas, F.S.A., and Lomas, Sophia Crawford, eds. CSP, Dom., Charles I; Addenda: March 1625 to January 1649 (London, 1897), p. ixGoogle Scholar.

86 Cantwell, Public Record Office, p. 351.

87 Cantwell remarks on the absence of female employees at the PRO in 1900. Mitchell notes the employment of female history and classics university graduates for the Victoria County History volumes (“‘The Busy Daughters’” [n. 6 above], p. 125).

88 Nor, it should be noted, had there been an outcry over placing the entire PRO under a Jew. Frances Palgrave, the first Deputy Keeper, who had hired Green, was born Cohen, and took the name of Dawson Turner's wife's family when he married Turner's daughter. Only Catholics seem to have been unacceptable historians of the “people's evidences.”

89 Levine, The Amateur and the Professional, pp. 125–27.

90 Cantwell, Public Records Office, reports that in the early 1870s, L. O. Pike, Assistant Keeper, gave evidence to this effect before the Civil Service Inquiry Commission chaired by Lyon Playfair.

91 Levine, The Amateur and the Professional, pp. 129–30. Objections to the Darwinian “survival of the fittest” management philosophy of the PRO were voiced by Yeatman, John Pym, in An Exposure of the Mis-Management of the Public Record Office (Boston, 1882), p. 8Google Scholar.

92 “Calendars of State Papers,” Times, 30 December 1880, PRO 8/20, scrapbook, p. 3; emphasis added.

93 Coincident with the declining prestige of the labor performed by male civil servants at the PRO was the Civil Service's appreciation for tractable, diligent female employees as, e.g., telegraph operators for the post office. See Jordan, Ellen, The Women's Movement and Women's Employment in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London and New York, 1999), pp. 12–13Google Scholar.

94 Bourdieu, Pierre, Language and Symbolic Power, ed. and intro. Thompson, John B., trans. Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge, Mass., 1991 pp. 176–77Google Scholar.

95 A. W. Ward to the Librarian, Peterhouse, 16 October 1919, Cambridge University Library, Add. MSS. 6158. Ward's own luxurious volume, The Electress Sophia and the Hanoverian Succession, published with extensive plates by the fine arts publisher Goupil and Company, had appeared in 1903 with one brief mention of Mrs. Green: “The facsimiles of what, with the late Mrs. Everett Green and Mr. W. H. Wilkins, I believe to be the handwritings of Sophia Dorothea and Königsmarck, were kindly transmitted to me by the Chief Librarian of the University Library at Lund, Dr. Petersen, after I had, many years ago, inspected the correspondence there during the Chief Librarianship of the late Dr. Tegnér” (p. v).