Caroline Wyndham-Quin, Countess of Dunraven (1790- 1870): an Analysis of Her Discursive and Material Legacy
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Caroline Wyndham-Quin, countess of Dunraven (1790- 1870): an analysis of her discursive and material legacy by Odette Clarke Thesis compiled under the supervision of Dr. B. Whelan in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of PhD University of Limerick November 2010 Declaration I confirm that the content of this thesis is my own original work except where otherwise indicated with reference to secondary sources. _____________________________ Odette Clarke November 2010 ii Abstract Caroline Wyndham was born on 24 May 1790 into the British gentry. The Wyndhams of Dunraven, whilst not being titled, were members of the land-owning and governing class in Glamorganshire, South Wales. In 1810 Caroline married Windham Quin, who belonged to an old Anglo-Irish family and who was eventually to become the second earl of Dunraven. Caroline‟s diaries, letters and annual reflections indicate that, even as a teenager, she was a deeply religious woman who had been affected by Methodism and by the evangelical revival that began in the 1780s. From the day of her eighteenth birthday in 1808 until her death in 1870 Caroline kept a diary, which forms part of her archive together with annual reflections and letters. This thesis has adopted a biographical approach in the study of this archive. An examination of Caroline‟s egodocuments has demonstrated the importance of religious discourse for the management of her, and her family‟s, emotions and her attempts to realise the prescriptive and gendered ideal state of resigned gratitude. This biographical analysis of Caroline‟s writings has also highlighted the importance of her work in the construction and preservation of a family narrative. This constructed and preserved narrative formed a lasting and important part of her legacy for future generations of Dunravens. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost I thank my supervisor, Dr. Bernadette Whelan, for her unfailing help and encouragement and without whom I would never have considered undertaking historical research. I am grateful to Professor Mary O‟Dowd and Dr. John Logan for their valuable advice and to Women‟s Studies at UL for the sponsorship, which made this research possible. I thank Ken Bergin, Jean Turner and Siobhan Morrissey who collectively make UL Special Collections such a welcoming space for researchers. Their assistance was invaluable. I am indebted to my friends and colleagues, Catherine O‟Connor and Mary McCarthy for all their kindnesses over the years. For a life time of love and support I thank my parents, Sam and Audrey, and my sister, Sherleen. I thank David and Clare for all the lovely days in Galway and for reminding me what is important in life. Finally, I am very grateful for the love, support and forbearance of my partner, Paula, who continued to believe in this thesis through my periods of doubt and who would not countenance the possibility of it not being written. My sincere thanks to you all. iv Table of Contents Declaration ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: Miss Wyndham (1790-1810): the eligible heiress 24 Chapter Three: Mrs Quin (1810-14) 54 The marriage settlement 54 Married life 60 Chapter Four: Mrs Wyndham-Quin (1815-24): the exemplary „incorporated‟ Wife 83 Chapter Five: The countess of Dunraven (1825-50): building projects and emotional management 118 Chapter Six: The Dowager countess of Dunraven (1850-70): Dunraven and Clearwell 162 Chapter Seven: Conclusion 180 Appendices 184 Bibliography 186 v Chapter one Introduction Caroline Wyndham was born in 1790, she was the daughter and heir of Thomas Wyndham and his wife Anne Ashby of Dunraven Castle, Glamorganshire, Wales. When she was twenty she married Windham Henry Quin, the heir to the Quin estate in Adare, county Limerick, Ireland. From the day of her eighteenth birthday 24 May 1808, until her death in 1870, Caroline kept a daily diary and until 1851 she also wrote an annual reflection. These are now held in the University of Limerick‟s Special Collections (ULSC) together with letters written to Caroline from family and friends. In addition to these documents, the National Library of Wales holds the Dunraven Castle Archives which comprise account books, business papers and legal documents. An important part of Caroline Wyndham-Quin‟s legacy is this rich and varied source of material, which she left for future generations of the Dunraven family and ultimately for historians. Much of this material is concerned with the minutiae of daily life and it has been suggested by A.P.W. Malcomson that the contents may be of „psychological‟ interest.1 This description denies the historical relevance of Caroline‟s archive, a denial that may be attributed to her gender and to the undervaluing of the assumed private nature of the documents. Caroline, of course, is not alone in having the relevance of her history denied for it was only in the 1970s that historians of women greatly expanded the research into the histories of Irish women. In 2005, Maria Luddy, when reviewing the current position of research into nineteenth-century women‟s history in Ireland, identified several lacunae among which was the study of landed women.2 There are no accounts of their role in the management of estates or their households and neither is there a study of their political role as patrons of parliamentary constituencies or as canvassers of votes. Luddy goes on to identify the lack of information about the intimate lives of nineteenth-century women in general, „how they viewed husbands and children, how they dealt with maternity, friendships, love and sexuality‟.3 The content of Caroline‟s 1 Descriptive list, The earl of Dunraven papers, University of Limerick Special Collections (hereafter ULSC) E/1-13, papers of Caroline, countess of Dunraven (hereafter PCD). 2 Maria Luddy, „Women‟s history‟ in Laurence M. Geary and Margaret Kelleher (eds.), Nineteenth- century Ireland: a guide to recent research (Dublin, 2005), p. 59. 3 Ibid. 1 archive, when viewed from the perspective of these identified gaps, assumes a position of some historical importance. Janet Theophano has stated that „when a woman writes even just her name on the first page of a book, she is committing an act of autobiographical writing. A simple or elaborate signature is an act that defies anonymity.4 Women of Caroline‟s class, having the time, education and resources to write letters, journals and the like have, therefore, left a larger footprint in history than less affluent women. It is then surprising, perhaps, that there are only a few historical studies of Irish landed women in the nineteenth century. From the British perspective K.D. Reynolds‟s Aristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain gives an account of aristocratic women‟s role in the management of estates, philanthropy and their influence in election politics and the politics of the British royal court.5 Indeed, it is such a study that Luddy has identified as missing from nineteenth-century Irish history and which Diane Urquhart has begun to address in her study of the political patronage of three of the marchionesses of Londonderry, which includes Frances Anne, third marchioness of Londonderry (1800-65).6 Erin Bishop‟s The World of Mary O‟Connell is based on the examination of the correspondence of Mary O‟Connell, wife of repeal politician Daniel O‟Connell.7 Although Mary O‟Connell was from a different class than Caroline, this study is interesting from the point of view of its portrayal of the domestic life of a woman in nineteenth-century Ireland and it goes some way in addressing the lack of information about the intimate lives of women in this period. If we are to know more of the intimate lives of women it is necessary to go beyond the macro-structural forms of analysis of social history towards the cultural and discursive forms which are often „grounded in more micro-historical contexts‟.8 It is necessary to understand gender as, not only a social, cultural and historical construct, but also as a relational construct and to examine women‟s relationship with other women and also men. Such an approach will allow this study to move beyond the often portrayed homosocial world of nineteenth century women to examine 4 Janet Theophano, Eat my words: reading women‟s lives through the cookbooks they wrote (Basingstoke, 2002), p. 121. 5 K.D. Reynolds, Aristocratic women and political society in Victorian Britain (Oxford, 1998). 6 Diane Urquhart, The ladies of Londonderry (London, 2007). 7 Erin I. Bishop, The world of Mary O‟Connell (Dublin, 1999). 8 Laura Lee Downs, „From women‟s history to gender history‟ in Stefen Berger, Heiko Feldner and Kevin Passmore (eds.), Writing history, theory and practice (London, 2003), pp 264-5. 2 Caroline‟s interactions with women and men in her family, social circle and in the wider community in Ireland, England and Wales.9 As this thesis will use gender as a major tool of analysis and as Caroline lived most of her life in the nineteenth century, it is impossible to ignore the interdisciplinary debates over the „merits and dangers‟ of the separate spheres model.10 In this model, that takes its name from nineteenth century terminology, society was organised spatially and politically into the public and the private spheres, a dichotomy that has continued to be both „pervasive and gendered‟ not least in the writing of women‟s history.11 The genesis of the separate spheres model is located, for most British and Irish students of women‟s history, in the nineteenth century and with the burgeoning middle-classes. The historical and social positioning of this location has been greatly influenced by Leonore Davidoff‟s and Catherine Hall‟s important book, Family Fortunes, which was first published in 1987.