William Gaskell
Encyclopedia
The Reverend William Gaskell (Latchford
, Cheshire
, 24 July 1805 – 12 June 1884) was an English Unitarian
minister, charity worker and pioneer in the education of the working class. The husband of novelist and biographer Elizabeth Gaskell
, he was himself a writer and poet.
His personal theology was Priestleyan rationalism
; he rejected the doctrine of original sin
, believing humans to have an innate capacity for good, and this belief seems to have underpinned his lifelong commitment to charitable and educational projects. Unlike many of his Manchester
contemporaries, Gaskell always favoured social and educational work above political lobbying for free trade
or factory reform. His personal philosophy can perhaps be summarised in his dedication of his poetry collection Temperance Rhymes: 'to the working men of Manchester ... in the hope that they may act as another small weight on the right end of that lever which is to raise them in the scale of humanity.'
, the eldest of six children. The Gaskell family were prominent Dissenter
s. His father, also William, was a sailcloth manufacturer with a business on Buttermarket Street and also a Unitarian theology teacher; according to one source, his mother, Margaret Jackson, was a housemaid. He was tutored by local minister, the Reverend Joseph Saul. Barred as a non-conformist from attending Oxford
or Cambridge
, Gaskell studied at Glasgow University
(1820–25), taking his BA and MA in 1825. He then trained for the Unitarian ministry at Manchester New College
(1825–28), at that time located in York
, where his tutors included Charles Wellbeloved
and James Turner.
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Gaskell became the minister of Cross Street Chapel
in Manchester in 1828, a position he held for sixty years. Founded in 1694, Cross Street was the major Unitarian chapel of the city, and its congregation contained many influential Manchester figures, at one time including five MPs. The prominent public health reformers James P. Kay
(later Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth), Benjamin Heywood
and Samuel
and William Rathbone Greg
were all associated with the chapel. Contemporaries considered Gaskell to be a brilliant preacher, though he never spoke extemporaneously; he was certainly a hard-working one, often preaching three times on Sundays.
He came to be numbered among the most prominent Unitarians in the country; in 1859, he was offered the ministry at Essex Street Chapel in London
, the leading post in the British Unitarian ministry, but turned it down, preferring to remain at Cross Street. From 1865, he served as President of the Assembly of Presbyterian and Unitarian Ministers of Lancashire and Cheshire. In 1861, Gaskell co-founded the Unitarian Herald, a publication aimed at the working-class audience, and was an editor until 1875.
and typhus
. During the 1830s–1860s, some of the worst conditions for the poor in England were to be found in Manchester. In 1845, Engels described one of the poorest slums, not far from the Gaskells' house:
It was also a city of extreme social inequality between the so-called 'millocracy' and the workers; Elizabeth Gaskell once described an acquaintance attending a ball wearing £400 of lace and £10,000 in diamonds. The Gaskell family moved between the two worlds, allowing Gaskell not only to collect charitable subscriptions from their wide circle and promote longer-lasting changes from within the local bureaucracy, but also to understand the real concerns of those living in poverty, with whom he was probably more at ease. In 1833, he helped to found the non-denominational Manchester Domestic Home Mission, and he acted as its secretary for many years. Inspired by a visit from Boston
minister Joseph Tuckerman, the mission gave practical assistance such as food and blankets to the poor. He was also active in the District Provident Society, an organisation founded by James Kay and William Langton with similar pragmatic aims. Gaskell supported public health
measures and housing reform, sitting on the committee of the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, as well as another to regulate beer halls.
report of 1834 showed that, with the exception of Manchester Grammar School
and Chetham's Hospital, the main establishments involved in educating the poor were Sunday Schools. These schools gave children of 5–15 years a few hours of education each Sunday, with two-thirds of children benefitting. Two-thirds of the Sunday Schools worked outside the Church of England
.
Both the Gaskells taught at the two Mosley Street Sunday Schools, which instructed young mill workers. Lessons covered basic numeracy and literacy in addition to traditional Biblical teaching, and Gaskell defended the practice of giving non-religious instruction on a Sunday, saying that they were doing 'their Father's business' by teaching reading. In 1832, he and others lobbied successfully for the two schools to be moved to improved premises, and four hundred pupils were enrolled by 1847.
.jpg)
In 1836, Gaskell started to give evening classes at the Manchester Mechanics' Institute, which was later to become the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Founded in 1824, the institute was the first of its kind in the country and taught the very poorest mill workers. Its principal goal was to give mill workers sufficient knowledge that they could keep pace with the rapid technological progress of the time. From the first, however, Gaskell seems to have embraced the idea of a broader education: his initial lecture series was entitled 'The Poets and Poetry of Humble Life'. Elizabeth Gaskell wrote that her husband's lectures aimed to increase appreciation of 'the beauty and poetry of many of the common things and daily events of life in its humblest aspect'. The lectures proved highly popular, and Gaskell repeated them in many other venues. Which 'humble poets' Gaskell chose to lecture about has been lost, but he is known to have studied J. F. Bryant, and many contemporary poets were living in Manchester, including the Gaskells' friend, Samuel Bamford
. Gaskell became renowned for his reading, which a former student described as 'clear and sweet'; his reading of poetry was recalled to have 'a peculiar charm, for while he had a keen ear for the subtleties of rhyme, rhythm and metre, nothing was ever lost of the meaning or the beauty of the words'.
Gaskell lectured on literature at the Manchester New College when it moved to Manchester in 1840; in 1846, he was appointed Professor of history, English literature and logic. (Another professor was Gaskell's contemporary from his studies at York, the prominent Unitarian James Martineau
.) When the college later moved to London, he served as Chairman of the Trustees. He also lectured at the Owens College, founded in 1846 with a legacy from John Owens (it became the Victoria University of Manchester
in 1904). From 1858, Gaskell taught literature at the Manchester Working Men's College. He also gave private tuition, both to men and to women; notable pupils included hymn translator Catherine Winkworth
and her sister, the translator Susanna Winkworth.
In 1854, with John Beard
, Gaskell founded the Unitarian Home Missionary Board, which trained working-class Unitarian ministers. He taught not only literature but also history and New Testament Greek, initially from his study at Plymouth Grove
. He became its Principal in 1874.
In addition to all his tuition and lecturing, Gaskell campaigned for better education for the working classes, co-founding the Lancashire Public Schools Association in 1847. He served on the committee of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
, which gave public lectures and campaigned for social change; in 1849, he also became the Chairman of the Portico Library
, a subscription lending library. In 1861, he helped to organise a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
which brought scientists from across the world to Manchester.
He appeared to relish the immense teaching burden he accumulated in later life. Elizabeth Gaskell complained that 'you might as well ask St Pauls to tumble down, as entreat him to give up this piece of work; which does interest him very much, & which no one could do so well certainly[.]' Though she referred specifically to his Owens College lectures, he seems to have diligently pursued all his various projects, and found excuses to avoid giving up any obligation he had once started.
dialect
. Extracts from his lectures on dialect were published in the Examiner
, and the 1854 edition of Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton
, was accompanied by his notes on dialect. He also published numerous pamphlets and sermons, and wrote or translated over seventy hymn
s, some of which are still sung.
His poem, 'Sketches among the Poor, No. 1' (co-written with his wife in the manner of Crabbe
), was published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1837, and his poetry collection Temperance Rhymes (1839) won the approval of Wordsworth
. His poetry varied in form, but always employed plain language and attempted sensitive portrayals of characters drawn from the working classes. The poem 'Manchester Song' supplies two of the chapter epigraphs to Mary Barton.
Gaskell married Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson, daughter of a former Unitarian minister, in 1832. The couple had four surviving daughters.
Despite differences in personality, the couple seem to have had a strong relationship, although they frequently spent long periods apart, and Elizabeth Gaskell's biographer Jenny Uglow
describes her as breathing more freely when William was away. Unfortunately, none of Elizabeth's many letters to him survive.
Gaskell is said to have encouraged his wife to write her first novel as a distraction from her grief at the death of their infant son from scarlet fever
in 1845. Elizabeth Gaskell's industrial novel
s Mary Barton and North and South
were directly inspired by her experiences as a minister's wife in the cotton
-manufacturing city of Manchester. Gaskell always encouraged his wife's writing, advising her on dialect, editing her manuscripts and acting as her literary agent. He also supported her when some of her novels, particularly Mary Barton and Ruth
, drew strong criticism for their radical views, as well as through the threatened law suits over her biography of Charlotte Brontë
.
Elizabeth died suddenly in 1865. William Gaskell survived his wife by almost two decades, working full time until six months before his death, aided by his two unmarried daughters. He died of bronchitis in Manchester in 1884, and is buried beside Elizabeth at Brook Street Chapel
, Knutsford
.
in the Granada
television mini-series, God's Messengers (1994).
Latchford
Latchford is a suburban district and electoral ward of the unitary borough of Warrington, in Cheshire, England. It is around one mile south of Warrington town centre and has a total resident population of 7,856....
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, 24 July 1805 – 12 June 1884) was an English Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
minister, charity worker and pioneer in the education of the working class. The husband of novelist and biographer Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
, he was himself a writer and poet.
His personal theology was Priestleyan rationalism
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
; he rejected the doctrine of original sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
, believing humans to have an innate capacity for good, and this belief seems to have underpinned his lifelong commitment to charitable and educational projects. Unlike many of his Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
contemporaries, Gaskell always favoured social and educational work above political lobbying for free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
or factory reform. His personal philosophy can perhaps be summarised in his dedication of his poetry collection Temperance Rhymes: 'to the working men of Manchester ... in the hope that they may act as another small weight on the right end of that lever which is to raise them in the scale of humanity.'
Early life and education
Gaskell was born in Latchford, a suburb of WarringtonWarrington
Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...
, the eldest of six children. The Gaskell family were prominent Dissenter
English Dissenters
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....
s. His father, also William, was a sailcloth manufacturer with a business on Buttermarket Street and also a Unitarian theology teacher; according to one source, his mother, Margaret Jackson, was a housemaid. He was tutored by local minister, the Reverend Joseph Saul. Barred as a non-conformist from attending Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
or Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, Gaskell studied at Glasgow University
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
(1820–25), taking his BA and MA in 1825. He then trained for the Unitarian ministry at Manchester New College
Harris Manchester College, Oxford
Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Formerly known as Manchester College, it is listed in the University Statutes as Manchester Academy and Harris College, and at University ceremonies it is called Collegium de Harris et...
(1825–28), at that time located in York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, where his tutors included Charles Wellbeloved
Charles Wellbeloved
Charles Wellbeloved was a unitarian divine and archaeologist.-Life:Charles Wellbeloved, only child of John Wellbeloved , by his wife Elizabeth , was born in Denmark Street, St Giles, London, on 6 April 1769, and baptised on 25 April at St. Giles-in-the-Fields...
and James Turner.
Ministry
Cross Street Chapel
Cross Street Chapel is a Unitarian church in Manchester, England, famous in civic and national life for its contributions to piety and civil society. Jane Barraclough currently serves as minister at Cross Street, having been inducted in September 2008...
in Manchester in 1828, a position he held for sixty years. Founded in 1694, Cross Street was the major Unitarian chapel of the city, and its congregation contained many influential Manchester figures, at one time including five MPs. The prominent public health reformers James P. Kay
James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth
Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, 1st Baronet was a British politician and educationalist.-Early life:He was born James Kay at Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of Robert Kay...
(later Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth), Benjamin Heywood
Benjamin Heywood
Sir Benjamin Heywood, 1st Baronet FRS was an English banker and philanthropist.Born in St Ann's Square, Manchester, grandson of Thomas Percival, son of Nathaniel Heywood and Ann Percival, and brother to Thomas Heywood and James Heywood...
and Samuel
Samuel Greg (junior)
Samuel Greg was an English industrialist and philanthropist.Born in Manchester, the son of the elder Samuel Greg, the creator of Quarry Bank Mill, he was brother to William Rathbone Greg and Robert Hyde Greg. Influenced by the religious beliefs of his mother Hannah, he attended a Unitarian school...
and William Rathbone Greg
William Rathbone Greg
William Rathbone Greg was an English essayist.Born in Manchester, the son of Samuel Greg, the creator of Quarry Bank Mill, he was brother to Robert Hyde Greg and the junior Samuel Greg. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. For a time, he managed a mill of his father's at Bury, and in...
were all associated with the chapel. Contemporaries considered Gaskell to be a brilliant preacher, though he never spoke extemporaneously; he was certainly a hard-working one, often preaching three times on Sundays.
He came to be numbered among the most prominent Unitarians in the country; in 1859, he was offered the ministry at Essex Street Chapel in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the leading post in the British Unitarian ministry, but turned it down, preferring to remain at Cross Street. From 1865, he served as President of the Assembly of Presbyterian and Unitarian Ministers of Lancashire and Cheshire. In 1861, Gaskell co-founded the Unitarian Herald, a publication aimed at the working-class audience, and was an editor until 1875.
Charitable works
Throughout his life, Gaskell worked for numerous local charitable concerns to alleviate poverty, improve living conditions and reduce the transmission of disease, particularly epidemic choleraCholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
and typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
. During the 1830s–1860s, some of the worst conditions for the poor in England were to be found in Manchester. In 1845, Engels described one of the poorest slums, not far from the Gaskells' house:
'ruinous cottages behind broken windows, mended with oilskin, sprung doors, and rotten doorposts, [...] dark wet cellars, in measureless filth and stench[.]'
It was also a city of extreme social inequality between the so-called 'millocracy' and the workers; Elizabeth Gaskell once described an acquaintance attending a ball wearing £400 of lace and £10,000 in diamonds. The Gaskell family moved between the two worlds, allowing Gaskell not only to collect charitable subscriptions from their wide circle and promote longer-lasting changes from within the local bureaucracy, but also to understand the real concerns of those living in poverty, with whom he was probably more at ease. In 1833, he helped to found the non-denominational Manchester Domestic Home Mission, and he acted as its secretary for many years. Inspired by a visit from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
minister Joseph Tuckerman, the mission gave practical assistance such as food and blankets to the poor. He was also active in the District Provident Society, an organisation founded by James Kay and William Langton with similar pragmatic aims. Gaskell supported public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
measures and housing reform, sitting on the committee of the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, as well as another to regulate beer halls.
Education and societies
Gaskell was a gifted teacher and lecturer, with a lifelong determination to expand the educational opportunities available to the working classes in Manchester. These were very limited in the 1830s; a Manchester Statistical SocietyManchester Statistical Society
Manchester Statistical Society is a learned society founded 1833 in Manchester, England. It claims to be "the first organisation in Britain to study social problems systematically and to collect statistics for social purposes" and in 1834 to be "the first organisation to carry out a house-to-house...
report of 1834 showed that, with the exception of Manchester Grammar School
Manchester Grammar School
The Manchester Grammar School is the largest independent day school for boys in the UK . It is based in Manchester, England...
and Chetham's Hospital, the main establishments involved in educating the poor were Sunday Schools. These schools gave children of 5–15 years a few hours of education each Sunday, with two-thirds of children benefitting. Two-thirds of the Sunday Schools worked outside the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
.
Both the Gaskells taught at the two Mosley Street Sunday Schools, which instructed young mill workers. Lessons covered basic numeracy and literacy in addition to traditional Biblical teaching, and Gaskell defended the practice of giving non-religious instruction on a Sunday, saying that they were doing 'their Father's business' by teaching reading. In 1832, he and others lobbied successfully for the two schools to be moved to improved premises, and four hundred pupils were enrolled by 1847.
Samuel Bamford
Samuel Bamford , was an English radical and writer, who was born in Middleton, Lancashire.-Biography:...
. Gaskell became renowned for his reading, which a former student described as 'clear and sweet'; his reading of poetry was recalled to have 'a peculiar charm, for while he had a keen ear for the subtleties of rhyme, rhythm and metre, nothing was ever lost of the meaning or the beauty of the words'.
Gaskell lectured on literature at the Manchester New College when it moved to Manchester in 1840; in 1846, he was appointed Professor of history, English literature and logic. (Another professor was Gaskell's contemporary from his studies at York, the prominent Unitarian James Martineau
James Martineau
James Martineau was an English religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College, the principal training college for British Unitarianism.-Early life:He was born in Norwich,...
.) When the college later moved to London, he served as Chairman of the Trustees. He also lectured at the Owens College, founded in 1846 with a legacy from John Owens (it became the Victoria University of Manchester
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester was a university in Manchester, England. On 1 October 2004 it merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to form a new entity, "The University of Manchester".-1851 - 1951:The University was founded in 1851 as Owens College,...
in 1904). From 1858, Gaskell taught literature at the Manchester Working Men's College. He also gave private tuition, both to men and to women; notable pupils included hymn translator Catherine Winkworth
Catherine Winkworth
Catherine Winkworth was an English translator. She is best known for bringing the German chorale tradition to English speakers with her numerous translations of hymns.-Biography:...
and her sister, the translator Susanna Winkworth.
In 1854, with John Beard
John Relly Beard
John Relly Beard was an English Unitarian minister who wrote more than thirty books in his lifetime.-Life:He was born in Portsmouth on 4 August 1800, the first child of a tradesman, John Beard, and his wife Ann Paine. Afer schooling in Portsmouth and in France he went joined Manchester College,...
, Gaskell founded the Unitarian Home Missionary Board, which trained working-class Unitarian ministers. He taught not only literature but also history and New Testament Greek, initially from his study at Plymouth Grove
84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester
84 Plymouth Grove is a Grade II* listed neoclassical villa in Manchester, England, which was the residence of William and Elizabeth Gaskell from 1850 till their deaths in 1884 and 1865 respectively. The Gaskell household continued to occupy the villa after the deaths of Elizabeth and William...
. He became its Principal in 1874.
In addition to all his tuition and lecturing, Gaskell campaigned for better education for the working classes, co-founding the Lancashire Public Schools Association in 1847. He served on the committee of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as the Lit & Phil, is a learned society in Manchester, England.Established in 1781 as the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, by Thomas Percival, Thomas Barnes and Thomas Henry, other prominent members have included...
, which gave public lectures and campaigned for social change; in 1849, he also became the Chairman of the Portico Library
Portico Library
The Portico Library on Mosley Street, Manchester is a subscription library built in the Greek Revival style between 1802-1806. It is a Grade II* listed building as at 25 February 1952....
, a subscription lending library. In 1861, he helped to organise a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
British Association for the Advancement of Science
frame|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...
which brought scientists from across the world to Manchester.
He appeared to relish the immense teaching burden he accumulated in later life. Elizabeth Gaskell complained that 'you might as well ask St Pauls to tumble down, as entreat him to give up this piece of work; which does interest him very much, & which no one could do so well certainly[.]' Though she referred specifically to his Owens College lectures, he seems to have diligently pursued all his various projects, and found excuses to avoid giving up any obligation he had once started.
Literature and writings
Gaskell had a fascination with language and was an expert on the LancashireLancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
. Extracts from his lectures on dialect were published in the Examiner
Examiner
The Examiner was a weekly paper founded by Leigh and John Hunt in 1808. For the first fifty years it was a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles, but from 1865 it repeatedly changed hands and political allegiance, resulting in a rapid decline in readership and loss of...
, and the 1854 edition of Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton
Mary Barton
Mary Barton is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester during the 1830s and 1840s and deals heavily with the difficulties faced by the Victorian lower class.-Plot summary:...
, was accompanied by his notes on dialect. He also published numerous pamphlets and sermons, and wrote or translated over seventy hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s, some of which are still sung.
His poem, 'Sketches among the Poor, No. 1' (co-written with his wife in the manner of Crabbe
George Crabbe
George Crabbe was an English poet and naturalist.-Biography:He was born in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, the son of a tax collector, and developed his love of poetry as a child. In 1768, he was apprenticed to a local doctor, who taught him little, and in 1771 he changed masters and moved to Woodbridge...
), was published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1837, and his poetry collection Temperance Rhymes (1839) won the approval of Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
. His poetry varied in form, but always employed plain language and attempted sensitive portrayals of characters drawn from the working classes. The poem 'Manchester Song' supplies two of the chapter epigraphs to Mary Barton.
Personal life and Elizabeth Gaskell
Despite differences in personality, the couple seem to have had a strong relationship, although they frequently spent long periods apart, and Elizabeth Gaskell's biographer Jenny Uglow
Jenny Uglow
Jennifer Sheila Uglow OBE is a British biographer, critic and publisher. The editorial director of Chatto & Windus, she has written critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Hogarth, Thomas Bewick and the Lunar Society, among others, and has also compiled a women's...
describes her as breathing more freely when William was away. Unfortunately, none of Elizabeth's many letters to him survive.
Gaskell is said to have encouraged his wife to write her first novel as a distraction from her grief at the death of their infant son from scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
in 1845. Elizabeth Gaskell's industrial novel
Industrial novel
The industrial novel is a genre of early Victorian literature. A subclass of the social novel, it portrays the difficult conditions of life of the urban working class during the Industrial Revolution...
s Mary Barton and North and South
North and South (1854 novel)
North and South is an Industrial novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. It first appeared as a twenty-two-part weekly serial from September 1854 to January 1855 in the magazine Household Words. It was published as a book, in two volumes, in 1855....
were directly inspired by her experiences as a minister's wife in the cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
-manufacturing city of Manchester. Gaskell always encouraged his wife's writing, advising her on dialect, editing her manuscripts and acting as her literary agent. He also supported her when some of her novels, particularly Mary Barton and Ruth
Ruth (novel)
Ruth is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in three volumes in 1853.-The plot:Ruth is a young orphan girl working in a respectable sweatshop for the overworked Mrs Mason. She is selected to go to a ball to repair torn dresses. At the ball she meets the aristocratic Henry Bellingham, a...
, drew strong criticism for their radical views, as well as through the threatened law suits over her biography of Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
.
Elizabeth died suddenly in 1865. William Gaskell survived his wife by almost two decades, working full time until six months before his death, aided by his two unmarried daughters. He died of bronchitis in Manchester in 1884, and is buried beside Elizabeth at Brook Street Chapel
Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford
Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford, is in the town of Knutsford, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The chapel was built in soon after the passing of the Act of Toleration 1689. It is built in red brick with a stone-flagged roof in two...
, Knutsford
Knutsford
Knutsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, in North West England...
.
Legacy
Gaskell's portrait and bust are on display at the new Cross Street Chapel. Gaskell was portrayed by Bill NighyBill Nighy
William Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womanizer Prof...
in the Granada
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
television mini-series, God's Messengers (1994).
Sources
- Brill B. William Gaskell, 1805–1884 (Manchester Literary and Philosophical Publications; 1984) (ISBN 0-902428-05-5)
- Chapple JAV, Pollard A, eds. The Letters of Mrs Gaskell (Mandolin; 1997) (ISBN 1-901341-03-8)
- Uglow J. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories (Faber and Faber; 1993) (ISBN 0-571-20359-0)
Further reading
- Webb RK. 'The Gaskells as Unitarians' in Shattock J (ed). Dickens and Other Victorians (Palgrave Macmillan; 1988) (ISBN 0-312-02101-1)