Marianne Francis

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Marianne Francis (1790–1832) was an English evangelical, now known principally as a correspondent of Hester Piozzi and Sarah Wesley. She has been called an "evangelical bluestocking", and is recognised as a significant participant in debate about religious enthusiasm.[1]

Early life[edit]

She was the daughter of Clement Francis (died 1792), a physician and medical writer, and his wife Charlotte Ann Burney, daughter of Charles Burney and sister of Frances Burney.[2] Her mother married, secondly, in 1798, Ralph Broome (1742–1805), against her father's wishes.[3]

Marianne early studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. She showed mathematical ability, and undertook a wide course of reading. She wrote hymns, at least from age ten.[4] She "impressed all she knew by her linguistic ability, learning, and brilliant performances on the pianoforte."[5] Charles Burney, himself a musician, wrote to his daughter Frances that Marianne was a "marvellous performer":

She may perhaps be styled a Bravura performer. But her courage & persistence in attacking difficulties of all kinds, is unparalleled, so that in spite of my civility to her countenance, I pronounce her to be—a monster.[6]

In Bath in 1805, Marianne met Hester Piozzi, and an extensive correspondence ensued.[7] The Francis family shortly moved to Exmouth, in 1806, and kept in touch.[8] Marianne's diaries 1803–9, and 1820–1, are extant.[9]

Wilberforce and Young[edit]

Introduced to William Wilberforce at Gore House, Marianne became a classical tutor and secretary in the family, and came to know the Clapham Sect more generally, including the Thornton family.[10] She told Barbara Wilberforce (1799–1821), daughter of the house and a reluctant pianist, that "you may, by practising an hour a day be able to manage a hymn & any simple melodies" without a musician's dedication.[11]

Her mother's life was now itinerant: to Richmond, Surrey to stay with her daughter Charlotte Barrett; at Brighton for the sea air; much time on the continent of Europe with her invalid son Clement who had become a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. This nomadic existence, however, did not suit Marianne.[12]

In early 1811 Marianne underwent painful eye treatment in London under Jonathan Wathen Phipps, and Piozzi's friend Sir William Pepys, 1st Baronet kept her company as she recovered.[13] Later that year, she went with her mother on a visit to Bradfield Hall, Essex, with the aging Arthur Young; a close friendship resulted with Young, who died in 1820.[14] She acted as secretary to Young, who suffered from cataract, and lost his sight.[7] An account of the Bradfield Hall household when Marianne was a visitor, sleeping over the servant's hall, including Young's French secretary St Croix, was given by Young's daughter in a letter of 1814.[15]

Young's son the Rev. Arthur Young (1769–1827) owned an estate in the Crimea, near Kaffa, and in June 1817 Young told Francis he had heard from him. A month or so later Lewis Way enquired of Young about the estate, Karagos, as a potential community for Jewish converts to Christianity.[16] Francis visited the Poune's Court synagogue in Brighton, for Yom Kippur (20 September 1817).[17][18] In a letter of February 1818 to Piozzi, she gave an account of Hebrew tuition she had there from a German Jew named Fishel; whom she asked to read the New Testament.[19]

Francis engaged in Wilberforce's philanthropic work with the poor.[20] She taught in charity schools, including Young's near Bradfield Hall where she introduced the monitorial system;[4][21] she visited workhouses and prisons.[10]

Later life[edit]

Marianne Francis had religious views in common with her cousin Frances (Fanny) Raper, who followed "enthusiastic" and Irvingite preachers;[22] her own mother and sister came to think she took too much account of Irvingite views, and wished to include them.[23] She predeceased her mother, dying on 15 March 1832, aged 42.[24]

"Evangelical bluestockings"[edit]

It has been noted of the literary circle around Sarah Wesley, of which Marianne Francis was a member, that they circulated writings privately, rather than published them. Others in the group were Elizabeth Benger, Agnes Bulmer, Maria Spilsbury and Mary Tighe.[25] They debated in particular "whether or not religious enthusiasm, properly regulated, had a place in social and religious life and particularly whether women had a role in securing this place."[26]

Correspondence[edit]

  • An Edition of the Letters of Marianne Francis (1790–1832) to Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741–1821), 1808–10 (1975), editor Diane Menagh.[27] Almost all that survives of the Francis–Piozzi correspondence consists of Marianne's letters to Hester.[7] Hester mentioned Marianne in letters to Thomas Sedgwick Whalley, including a conversation of Marianne with Hannah More at Wilberforce's house in 1813.[28]

As part of a larger correspondence between the Burney and Wesley families, Marianne was in touch with both Sarah Wesley and her brother Samuel Wesley.[29]

The Burney Papers collection of New York Public Library holds more than 100 letters from Arthur Young to Marianne.[30] There are also family letters at the NYPL and the British Library, from Marianne to her sister Charlotte Barrett.[31][32]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Winckles, Andrew O. (1 June 2018). "Sisters of the Quill: Sally Wesley, the Evangelical Bluestockings, and the Regulation of Enthusiasm". Women's Literary Networks and Romanticism: 16–46. doi:10.5949/liverpool/9781786940605.003.0002. S2CID 191987825.
  2. ^ "Letters from Marianne Francis - Thrale-Piozzi Manuscripts - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk.
  3. ^ Rogers, Pat. "Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances [Fanny] (1752–1840)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/603. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ a b Clark, Lorna (9 December 2020). "Growing Up Burney". Journal of Juvenilia Studies. 3 (1): 10. doi:10.29173/jjs46. S2CID 230581121.
  5. ^ Burney, Fanny (1975). The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame D'Arblay).: France 1803-1812, letters 550-631. Vol. VI. Clarendon Press. p. 634 note 2. ISBN 978-0-19-812467-2.
  6. ^ Hemlow, Joyce (1958). The History of Fanny Burney. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 327 and note 4, 328.
  7. ^ a b c Piozzi, Hester Lynch (1989). The Piozzi Letters: 1805-1810. University of Delaware Press. p. 203 note 2. ISBN 978-0-87413-393-6.
  8. ^ Burney, Sarah Harriet (1997). The Letters of Sarah Harriet Burney. University of Georgia Press. p. 75 note 3. ISBN 978-0-8203-1746-5.
  9. ^ British Diaries: An Annotated Bibliography of British Diaries Written Between 1442 and 1942. Univ of California Press. 28 May 2021. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-520-36395-3.
  10. ^ a b New York Public Library (1977). Bulletin of the New York Public Library. New York Public Library. p. 325.
  11. ^ Stott, Anne (15 March 2012). Wilberforce: Family and Friends. OUP Oxford. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-19-969939-1.
  12. ^ Hemlow, Joyce (1958). The History Of Fanny Burney. pp. 417–418.
  13. ^ Piozzi, Hester Lynch (1989). The Piozzi Letters: 1811-1816. University of Delaware Press. p. 75 note 6. ISBN 978-0-87413-394-3.
  14. ^ Burney, Sarah Harriet (1997). The Letters of Sarah Harriet Burney. University of Georgia Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8203-1746-5.
  15. ^ Young, Arthur (1889). Travels in France During the Years 1787, 1788, 1789. George Bell and Sons. p. xlviii–xlix.
  16. ^ Gazley, John G. "The Reverend Arthur Young, 1769-1827: traveller in Russia and farmer in the Crimea, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 1956;38(2):360-405" (PDF). escholar.manchester.ac.uk. pp. 398–399.
  17. ^ "The synagogues of brighton - C - Articles - Brighton and hove - Trails - Anglo-Jewish History - JTrails.org.uk". www.jtrails.co.uk.
  18. ^ "Jewish Calendar 1817 Diaspora, Hebcal". www.hebcal.com.
  19. ^ Piozzi, Hester Lynch (1989). The Piozzi Letters: 1817-1821. University of Delaware Press. p. 172 note 1. ISBN 978-0-87413-395-0.
  20. ^ Chisholm, Kate (31 May 2011). Fanny Burney: Her Life. Random House. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-4464-7631-4.
  21. ^ Gazley, John G. "Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 1954, vol. 37, pp.419-421" (PDF). escholar.manchester.ac.uk.
  22. ^ Burney, Fanny (1984). The Journals and Letters: Mayfair 1818-1824: letters 1180-1354. Vol. XI. Clarendon Press. p. 51 note 5. ISBN 978-0-19-812563-1.
  23. ^ New York Public Library (1976). Bulletin of the New York Public Library. New York Public Library. p. 322.
  24. ^ Burney, Sarah Harriet (1997). The Letters of Sarah Harriet Burney. University of Georgia Press. p. 364. ISBN 978-0-8203-1746-5.
  25. ^ Winckles, Andrew O.; Rehbein, Angela (1 June 2018). Women's Literary Networks and Romanticism: "A Tribe of Authoresses". Oxford University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-78694-832-8.
  26. ^ Winckles, Andrew O. (31 October 2019). Eighteenth-Century Women's Writing and the Methodist Media Revolution: 'Consider the Lord As Ever Present Reader'. Oxford University Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-78962-018-4.
  27. ^ Menagh, Diane (1975). An Edition of the Letters of Marianne Francis (1790 - 1832) to Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741 - 1821), 1808 - 10. City University of New York.
  28. ^ Whalley, Thomas Sedgwick (1863). Journals and correspondence of Thomas Sedgewick Whalley;. Vol. II. London: R. Bentley. p. 866.
  29. ^ Rogal, Samuel J. (1992). "For the Love of Bach: The Charles Burney – Samuel Wesley Correspondence". Bach. 23 (1): 31–37. ISSN 0005-3600. JSTOR 41640368.
  30. ^ American Philosophical Society (1956). Year Book - The American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. p. 264.
  31. ^ New York Public Library (1976). Bulletin of the New York Public Library. New York Public Library. p. 344.
  32. ^ "Barrett Collection. Vol. XLII (ff. 292). Miscellaneous letters and literary papers of members of the Barrett and Francis families. Viz.:- (1) Letters ... - British Library". searcharchives.bl.uk.
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