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Blue Stockings Society (England)
Encyclopedia
The Blue Stockings Society was an informal women's social
and educational movement in England
in the mid-18th century. The society emphasized education and mutual co-operation rather than the individualism which marked the French version.
The Society was founded in the early 1750s by Elizabeth Montagu
, Elizabeth Vesey
and others as a women's literary discussion group, a revolutionary step away from traditional, non-intellectual, women's activities. They invited various people to attend, including botanist, translator and publisher Benjamin Stillingfleet
. One story tells that Stillingfleet was not rich enough to have the proper formal dress, which included black silk
stocking
s, so he attended in everyday blue worsted
stockings. The term came to refer to the informal quality of the gatherings and the emphasis on conversation over fashion.
and Elizabeth Vesey
. The women involved in this group generally had more education and fewer children than most English women of the time. During this time period only men attended universities and women were expected to master skills such as needlework
and knitting
: It was considered “unbecoming” for them to know Greek
or Latin
, almost immodest for them to be authors, and certainly indiscreet to own the fact. Mrs. Barbauld
was merely the echo of popular sentiment when she protested that women did not want colleges. “The best way for a woman to acquire knowledge”, she wrote, “is from conversation with a father, or brother, or friend.” It was not until the beginning of the next century—after the pioneer work of the bluestocking
s, be it observed — that Sydney Smith, aided, doubtless, by his extraordinary sense of humour, discovered the absurdity of the fact that a woman of forty should be more ignorant than a boy of twelve." (XV, Cambridge History of English and American Literature). The group has been described by many historians and authors such as Jeanine Dobbs as "having preserved and advanced feminism" due to the advocacy of women's education, social complaints of the status and lifestyle expected of the women in their society, seen in the writings of the Blue Stocking women themselves:
The name "Blue Stocking Society" and its origins are highly disputed among historians. There are scattered early references to bluestocking
s including in the 15th-century Della Calza society in Venice, John Amos Comenius in 1638, and the 17th century Covenanter
s in Scotland. The society's name perhaps derived from the European fashion in the mid-18th century in which black stockings were worn in formal dress and blue stockings were daytime or more informal wear. Blue stockings were also very fashionable for women in Paris at the time, though many historians claim the term for the society began when Mrs. Vesey first said to Benjamin Stillingfleet
, the aforementioned learned gentleman who had given up society and did not have clothes suitable for an evening party, to "Come in your blue stockings". Mr. Stillingfleet became a popular guest at the Blue Stocking Society gatherings.
The New York Times
archives contain an article published on 17 April 1881 which describes the Blue Stockings Society as a women's movement away from the "vice" and "passion" of gambling which was the main form of entertainment at higher society parties. "Instead however, of following the fashion, Mrs. Montagu and a few friends Mrs. Boscawen and Mrs. Vesey, who like herself, were untainted by this wolfish passion, resolved to make a stand against the universal tyranny of a custom which absorbed the life and leisure of the rich to the exclusion of all intellectual enjoyment... and to found a society in which conversation should supersede cards." (1881, The New York Times).
Many of the Blue Stocking women supported each other in intellectual endeavors such as reading, artwork, and writing. Many also published literature. More notably, author Elizabeth Carter
(1717–1806), was a Blue Stocking Society advocate and member who published essays and poetry, and translated Epictetus
. Contemporary author Anna Miegon compiled biographical sketches of these women in her Biographical Sketches of Principal Bluestocking Women.
, James Beattie
, Frances Boscawen, Henrietta Maria Bowdler
, Edmund Burke
, Frances Burney, Elizabeth Carter
, Margaret Cavendish-Harley
, Hester Chapone
, Mary Delaney, Sarah Fielding
, David Garrick
, Samuel Johnson
, Ada Lovelace
, Catharine Macaulay, Elizabeth Montagu
, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
, Hannah More
, William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath
, Clara Reeve
, Sarah Scott
, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Catherine Talbot
, Hester Thrale
, Elizabeth Vesey
, Horace Walpole, and Anna Williams
were all part of the Bluestocking circle at one time or another.
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
and educational movement in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the mid-18th century. The society emphasized education and mutual co-operation rather than the individualism which marked the French version.
The Society was founded in the early 1750s by Elizabeth Montagu
Elizabeth Montagu
Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonist, literary critic, and writer who helped organize and lead the bluestocking society...
, Elizabeth Vesey
Elizabeth Vesey
Elizabeth Vesey was a wealthy English intellectual who is credited with fostering the Bluestockings, a society of women which hosted informal literary and political discussions of which she was an important member.-Life:Her girlish figure and flirtatious wit earned her the nickname of Sylph...
and others as a women's literary discussion group, a revolutionary step away from traditional, non-intellectual, women's activities. They invited various people to attend, including botanist, translator and publisher Benjamin Stillingfleet
Benjamin Stillingfleet
Benjamin Stillingfleet was a botanist, translator and author. He is said to be the first Blue Stocking, a phrase from which is derived the term bluestocking now used to describe a learned woman.-Life:...
. One story tells that Stillingfleet was not rich enough to have the proper formal dress, which included black silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
stocking
Stocking
A stocking, , is a close-fitting, variously elastic garment covering the foot and lower part of the leg. Stockings vary in color, design and transparency...
s, so he attended in everyday blue worsted
Worsted
Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...
stockings. The term came to refer to the informal quality of the gatherings and the emphasis on conversation over fashion.
History
The Blue Stockings Society of England emerged in about 1750, and waned in popularity at the end of the 18th century. It was a loose organization of privileged women with an interest in education to gather together to discuss literature while inviting educated men to participate. The Blue Stockings Society leaders and hostesses were Elizabeth MontaguElizabeth Montagu
Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonist, literary critic, and writer who helped organize and lead the bluestocking society...
and Elizabeth Vesey
Elizabeth Vesey
Elizabeth Vesey was a wealthy English intellectual who is credited with fostering the Bluestockings, a society of women which hosted informal literary and political discussions of which she was an important member.-Life:Her girlish figure and flirtatious wit earned her the nickname of Sylph...
. The women involved in this group generally had more education and fewer children than most English women of the time. During this time period only men attended universities and women were expected to master skills such as needlework
Needlework
Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...
and knitting
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
: It was considered “unbecoming” for them to know Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
or Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, almost immodest for them to be authors, and certainly indiscreet to own the fact. Mrs. Barbauld
Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Anna Laetitia Barbauld was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and children's author.A "woman of letters" who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a successful writing career at a time when female professional writers were rare...
was merely the echo of popular sentiment when she protested that women did not want colleges. “The best way for a woman to acquire knowledge”, she wrote, “is from conversation with a father, or brother, or friend.” It was not until the beginning of the next century—after the pioneer work of the bluestocking
Bluestocking
A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman. Until the late 18th century, the term had referred to learned people of both sexes. However it subsequently was applied primarily to intellectual women, and the French equivalent bas bleu had a similar connotation. The term later developed...
s, be it observed — that Sydney Smith, aided, doubtless, by his extraordinary sense of humour, discovered the absurdity of the fact that a woman of forty should be more ignorant than a boy of twelve." (XV, Cambridge History of English and American Literature). The group has been described by many historians and authors such as Jeanine Dobbs as "having preserved and advanced feminism" due to the advocacy of women's education, social complaints of the status and lifestyle expected of the women in their society, seen in the writings of the Blue Stocking women themselves:
The name "Blue Stocking Society" and its origins are highly disputed among historians. There are scattered early references to bluestocking
Bluestocking
A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman. Until the late 18th century, the term had referred to learned people of both sexes. However it subsequently was applied primarily to intellectual women, and the French equivalent bas bleu had a similar connotation. The term later developed...
s including in the 15th-century Della Calza society in Venice, John Amos Comenius in 1638, and the 17th century Covenanter
Covenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...
s in Scotland. The society's name perhaps derived from the European fashion in the mid-18th century in which black stockings were worn in formal dress and blue stockings were daytime or more informal wear. Blue stockings were also very fashionable for women in Paris at the time, though many historians claim the term for the society began when Mrs. Vesey first said to Benjamin Stillingfleet
Benjamin Stillingfleet
Benjamin Stillingfleet was a botanist, translator and author. He is said to be the first Blue Stocking, a phrase from which is derived the term bluestocking now used to describe a learned woman.-Life:...
, the aforementioned learned gentleman who had given up society and did not have clothes suitable for an evening party, to "Come in your blue stockings". Mr. Stillingfleet became a popular guest at the Blue Stocking Society gatherings.
Purpose
The Blue Stocking society had no membership formalities or fees but was conducted as small to large gatherings in which talk of politics was prohibited but literature and the arts were of main discussion. Learned women with interest in these educational discussions attended as well as invited male guests. Tea, biscuits and other light refreshments would be served to guests by the hostesses.The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
archives contain an article published on 17 April 1881 which describes the Blue Stockings Society as a women's movement away from the "vice" and "passion" of gambling which was the main form of entertainment at higher society parties. "Instead however, of following the fashion, Mrs. Montagu and a few friends Mrs. Boscawen and Mrs. Vesey, who like herself, were untainted by this wolfish passion, resolved to make a stand against the universal tyranny of a custom which absorbed the life and leisure of the rich to the exclusion of all intellectual enjoyment... and to found a society in which conversation should supersede cards." (1881, The New York Times).
Many of the Blue Stocking women supported each other in intellectual endeavors such as reading, artwork, and writing. Many also published literature. More notably, author Elizabeth Carter
Elizabeth Carter
Elizabeth Carter was an English poet, classicist, writer and translator, and a member of the Bluestocking Circle.-Biography:...
(1717–1806), was a Blue Stocking Society advocate and member who published essays and poetry, and translated Epictetus
Epictetus
Epictetus was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia , and lived in Rome until banishment when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece where he lived the rest of his life. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses...
. Contemporary author Anna Miegon compiled biographical sketches of these women in her Biographical Sketches of Principal Bluestocking Women.
Notable members
Anna Laetitia BarbauldAnna Laetitia Barbauld
Anna Laetitia Barbauld was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and children's author.A "woman of letters" who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a successful writing career at a time when female professional writers were rare...
, James Beattie
James Beattie (writer)
Professor James Beattie FRSE was a Scottish poet, moralist and philosopher.He was born the son of a shopkeeper and small farmer at Laurencekirk in the Mearns, and educated at Aberdeen University. In 1760, he was appointed Professor of moral philosophy there as a result of the interest of his...
, Frances Boscawen, Henrietta Maria Bowdler
Henrietta Maria Bowdler
Henrietta Maria Bowdler , commonly called Mrs. Harriet Bowdler, was an author and expurgator.-Life and works:Bowdler was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, and sister of John Bowdler the elder and Thomas Bowdler the elder...
, Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
, Frances Burney, Elizabeth Carter
Elizabeth Carter
Elizabeth Carter was an English poet, classicist, writer and translator, and a member of the Bluestocking Circle.-Biography:...
, Margaret Cavendish-Harley
Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland , styled Lady Margaret Harley before 1734, Duchess of Portland from 1734 to her husband's death in 1761, and Dowager Duchess of Portland from 1761 until her own death in 1785...
, Hester Chapone
Hester Chapone
Hester Chapone , writer of conduct books for women, was born on 27 October 1727 at Twywell, Northamptonshire,The daughter of Thomas Mulso , a gentleman farmer, and his wife , a daughter of Colonel Thomas, Hester wrote a romance at the age of nine, 'The Loves of Amoret and Melissa', which earned...
, Mary Delaney, Sarah Fielding
Sarah Fielding
Sarah Fielding was a British author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding. She was the author of The Governess, or The Little Female Academy , which was the first novel in English written especially for children , and had earlier achieved success with her novel The Adventures of David Simple...
, David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
, Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine...
, Catharine Macaulay, Elizabeth Montagu
Elizabeth Montagu
Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonist, literary critic, and writer who helped organize and lead the bluestocking society...
, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
The Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an English aristocrat and writer. Montagu is today chiefly remembered for her letters, particularly her letters from Turkey, as wife to the British ambassador, which have been described by Billie Melman as “the very first example of a secular work by a woman about...
, Hannah More
Hannah More
Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
, William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, PC was an English politician, a Whig, created the first Earl of Bath in 1742 by King George II; he is sometimes stated to have been Prime Minister, for the shortest term ever , though most modern sources reckon that he cannot be considered to have held the...
, Clara Reeve
Clara Reeve
Clara Reeve was an English novelist, best known for her Gothic fiction work The Old English Baron .Reeve was born in Ipswich, England, one of the eight children of Reverend Willian Reeve, M.A., Rector of Freston and of Kreson in Suffolk, and perpetual curate of St Nicholas...
, Sarah Scott
Sarah Scott
Sarah Scott was an English novelist, translator, and social reformer. Her father, Matthew Robinson, and her mother, Elizabeth Robinson, were both from distinguished families, and Sarah was one of nine children who survived to adulthood...
, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Catherine Talbot
Catherine Talbot
Catherine Talbot was an English author and member of the Blue Stockings Society.-Life:Born in May 1721, was the posthumous and only child of Edward Talbot, second son of William Talbot, bishop of Durham, and his wife Mary , daughter of George Martyn, prebendary of Lincoln. Her uncle Charles...
, Hester Thrale
Hester Thrale
Hester Lynch Thrale was a British diarist, author, and patron of the arts. Her diaries and correspondence are an important source of information about Samuel Johnson and 18th-century life.-Biography:Thrale was born at Bodvel Hall, Caernarvonshire, Wales...
, Elizabeth Vesey
Elizabeth Vesey
Elizabeth Vesey was a wealthy English intellectual who is credited with fostering the Bluestockings, a society of women which hosted informal literary and political discussions of which she was an important member.-Life:Her girlish figure and flirtatious wit earned her the nickname of Sylph...
, Horace Walpole, and Anna Williams
Anna Williams (poet)
Anna Williams was a poet and companion of Samuel Johnson.-Early life:She was born at Rosemarket, Pembrokeshire to Zachariah Williams and his wife, Martha. Her father provided her with a wide artistic and scientific education, including Italian and French...
were all part of the Bluestocking circle at one time or another.
External links
- Details on origin of term at World Wide Words
- Bluestocking Archive
- Mrs. Vesey, Cambridge History of English and American Literature
- Brilliant Women exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery