Cindy K. Renker

Introduction

What do Lessing, Wieland, Emerson, Tennyson, and Nietzsche have in common? They are among the many prominent writers and thinkers who were the sons of Protestant clergymen, something of a cultural phenomenon during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When one looks at the exceptional education these men received, often at the hands of their fathers themselves, it comes as no surprise that the sons of pastors became some of the most influential minds of their time. But what about the daughters of clergymen? The influence that the parson had on the education of his own daughters, at a time when learned women were frowned upon, has largely been ignored.1 We need not be surprised that many accomplished women, since the seventeenth century, were brought up in parsonages and educated by a pastor-father.2 The pastor was a learned man with a university education (trained theologically and philosophically) and his parsonage was a center of learning with a study and an above average library. These circumstances alone offered unparalleled learning opportunities for girls.

Studying a group of women by way of the fathers’ profession is a rather recent approach in gender, historical, and especially literary studies.3 This edited volume is intended to shed light on a group of well known as well as lesser known women from the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century whose fathers were Protestant clergymen of different ranks and occupations, with diverse incomes and levels of education. These women became important writers, accomplished translators, celebrated salonnières, and distinguished educators; they founded schools and hospitals and headed charitable organizations and events. Their privileged education and social standing provided them with opportunities to participate not only in private but often in public literary, intellectual, and pedagogical discourse by publishing in such non-gender-specific genres as autobiographies, novels, poetry, treatises on education and health, travel writing, and translations.

Although scholars in the past have taken occasional note of these women’s origin, parentage, upbringing, and extraordinary education – often, however, only as an aside – there has been little focus on the connection between the upbringing and education and the later lives and works of these women. In the case of the most prominent writers included in this collection, Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, biographers recognized and investigated that connection to some extent.4 This is especially true in the case of Jane Austen. The late Irene Collins, who contributed a chapter on Austen to this collection, examined the life and work of the novelist by bringing to light her role as a pastor’s daughter, her relationship with the clergy, and the ways in which that relationship manifested itself in her novels.5 However, in the case of most pastors’ daughters, the connection between their priviledged education and their intellectual pursuits has remained largely unexplored.

The essays on individual women included in this volume will reveal commonalities and parallels among this group who hail from various Protestant regions of Europe. In all, this collection contains essays on ten daughters of clergymen, some of which have been marginalized and neglected. Five women (Susanna Elisabeth Zeidler, Friderika Baldinger, Sophie Schwarz, Friederike Brun, and Louise Aston) are from German-speaking areas; one of the women (Susanne Curchod aka Madame Necker) is from French-speaking Switzerland, and the other four writers (Elizabeth Singer Rowe, Elizabeth Carter, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë) are from England. Examining the lives and works of these women with their diverse geographical, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds offers opportunities for comparison across borders. In sum, this collection of essays attempts to underline the significance of this group for transnational, cultural, and social history and for the history of gender and education, as well as for literary studies. It is meant as a closer examination of the connection between women’s upbringing/education and their intellectual pursuits.

The essays have been organized in chronological order (by birthdates) and not by region, so that the reader can recognize the shift from mostly religious writing to more secular writing, the increase in productivity and prolificity, and the rise of women in the public sphere across these regions of Europe. In the same vein, it also becomes apparent that the pastor-fathers increasingly allowed their daughters to study more subjects such as the natural sciences (for example, physics) and languages (such as Hebrew and Greek) that had been off-limits to women of previous generations. While this appears to have been the general trend, it is also important to remember that the father’s level of education, willingness to teach such subjects, and financial means to support such instruction, if he was unable to teach those subjects himself, were also factors. In addition, sometimes it was the pastor-brothers or pastor-husbands or other “spiritual fathers” (for example in the case of Susanna Elisabeth Zeidler or Friderika Baldinger) who not only continued to provide educational opportunities and supported their sister, wife, or “spiritual daughter” in her writing and other intellectual pursuits, but who also encouraged publishing and assisted in the publishing process.

Intellectual, cultural, and social historians have highlighted and examined the central importance of the pastor, his family, and the parsonage – the “Old Rectory” or Pfarrhaus. The parsonage was a space where private and public spheres intertwined. The important role of the pastor or parson in society and for the local community as religious leader and educator has also been established. Even the singular importance and various roles of the pastor’s wife in the local community as housekeeper, boarder, gardener, or midwife have been examined.6 In all, the parson’s family constituted an integral part of early modern and modern society, with women increasingly taking on more roles and inhabiting more functions that called for more education. Family members did not necessarily operate in different spheres, as was the case in other middle-class families, but rather worked as a unit. As for education, the parson and his family had become the example par excellence in that arena and in the rearing of children for the rest of the middle class and gentry by the end of the Ancien Régime. Education had been highly valued in the Protestant parsonage since the Reformation, initially instigated by the fervency to read the Bible for oneself and the desire to understand and impart the new theology to one’s own family and the local community. This pursuit of knowledge and education manifested itself in the fact that pastors often educated their sons themselves before sending them off to universities and frequently took in boys to board and educate alongside their own children. Furthermore, it is common knowledge that the sons of pastors often joined the clergy themselves or became educators, writers, and scholars. Moreover, in most cases, the pastor also took it upon himself to educate his own daughters and often taught subjects that were not deemed appropriate or necessary for girls by other educators or society at large.

The lives and works of the pastors’ daughters examined in this volume offer us insight into the education and upbringing they received—a kind of upbringing that favored certain conditions and provided opportunities for intellectual exchange, writing, and publishing. This project aims to explore the way their world helped them to participate in public discourse and promote literary activity (private or public). The pen truly was the mark of women’s education. In turn, education was important for their sense of self. Friederike Brun, for example, received an exemplary education from her father, whose parsonage was frequented by the great minds of her time, among them Herder and Klopstock. Her contact with these writers and poets not only encouraged her reading of their works but also inspired her own poetry. Furthermore, from an early age, she was privy to intellectual discourse unavailable to other girls her age, building lifelong friendships that provided continued opportunities for intellectual exchange, the possibility of the publication of her own works, and the establishment of her own salon in her later years. Suzanne Curchord, later known as Madame Necker and mother of Germaine de Staël, grew up in the humblest of parsonages in French-speaking Switzerland. However, the extensive education she received from her pastor-father provided her with the opportunity to support her mother and herself financially as an educator and governess after his death. Her intellectual gifts and impressive education facilitated her entrance into French high society, where she would establish and host a salon for the great minds of her time in Paris.

In addition to intellectual opportunities for daughters of pastors, one cannot underestimate the importance of a religious upbringing in the early modern and modern parsonage. Religious education always was the primary focus and was never neglected in any educational training imparted to pastors’ children. Religious and theological motives were part of the enlightened ideals about education during that time and the representatives of the theological Enlightenment were often pastors. Moreover, enlightened and rationalist theologians, later known as neologians, pushed for reforms in child rearing, religious instruction, and pedagogy. Education then provided a woman with the capacity to practice her religion intellectually and rationally as Friderika Baldinger stated in her autobiography. In addition, the Protestant pattern of constant self-examination, induced by a rigorous education and fervent and strict religious observance, also produced an outpouring of writing, as in the case of Suzanne Curchod (Madame Necker), who chose not to publish most of it. Out of the overlapping movements of Pietism and Sentimentalism came writings by women that expressed religious themes and, feelings and individual faith. And while culture and society became more secularized over the course of the Enlightenment and beyond – and the case for improved and equal women’s education was made, partly because of women’s role as mothers and educators of children –, one constant in the upbringing, education, and lives of pastors-daughters becomes apparent: pastors continued to instill piety and religious values in their daughters throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The mere fact that these women had a pious background and upbringing opened doors for them to participate in public discourse and publishing (although some remained private writers). While their upbringing provided them with access and legitimacy, these women had more difficulty distancing themselves from their heritage and (religious) upbringing, with its standards of virtue and piety, than their male counterparts. A pastor’s daughter in particular was often put on a pedestal. Her pious nature, domestic skills, and unblemished virtues were then emphasized along with a clear emphasis that her ‘dabbling’ in writing was only undertaken after all her domestic duties had been fulfilled and that the act of writing was only performed in the praise and service of God. Nevertheless, in many cases the pastor-father had experience in publishing7 and not only encouraged but in some cases used his contacts to help his daughter publish her own writing, as in the case of Elizabeth Carter, whose father’s progressive stance towards women’s education and writing is by no means contrary to his emphasis on traditional and moral obligations of women. He not only encouraged her writing ambitions and assisted in getting her writing published but also supported her decision to remain unmarried, trusting in her ability to make moral decisions for herself.

Another woman writer from England, Elizabeth Singer Rowe, began to write devotional poetry at an early age and later was known as a ‘pious lady’ throughout her literary career. Following her father’s moral example, she continued to write religious poetry that influenced religious writers in her own country as well as abroad in Germany. In contrast, however, we see in the case of Louise Aston that an upbringing in a pious household of a pastor did not necessarily lead to the publication of religious writing. Her emancipatory and rebellious stance after a forced marriage produced works that question patriarchy and the belief that men are superior to women. Her lifestyle, feminist stance, and intellectual as well as literary pursuits appear contrary to those of most women presented in this book; however, while they again underline the advantageous education of pastors’ daughters, they also attest to the diversity within this group of women.

The small selection of pastor-daughters included here only provides a glimpse into a surprisingly large group of women that deserve special mention and a place in literary and cultural history. This collection shall thus serve as a starting point for the investigation of women’s education and upbringing in Protestant parsonages during the Early Modern and Modern Eras, examining how this exemplary education manifested itself in the lives and works of these women. The essays’ overarching themes include the women’s views on and concepts of women’s education, the daughters’ intellectual and educational role models, the role and expression of religion and spirituality in their lives, querelles des femmes, gender roles, patriarchy, and attitudes toward the clergy. The contributors’ approaches and readings differ and range from psychological analyses, to religious, feminist, and political readings.

In Chapter One, Cornelia Moore first provides an overview of the role of women in the parsonage. She offers various examples of women writers coming from parsonages to underscore the literary possibilities available to them. She then focuses on one particular early modern writer and her literary career, Susanna Elisabeth Zeidler (1657 – 1693), a pastor’s daughter from Fienstedt near Halle, Germany. Her collection of poems is a testimony to the people she knew, the places she visited, the intellectual and literary impulses she received. Moreover, Moore calls attention to and encourages the reevaluation of how the home life was conducive to women’s writing.

In Chapter Two, Peter Damrau discusses the life and works of the English Bluestocking writer Elizabeth Singer Rowe (1674 – 1737). Her father, a dissenting minister, became her admired moral and intellectual role model, who not only afforded her an extraordinary education but who also encouraged her artistic interests. At the age of eighteen, she possessed the equivalent of an academic education, setting her apart from the fashionably educated women of her time. Damrau shows how Rowe became a bestselling author and how her works influenced the development of the English novel, the women of the Bluestocking Society, and religious and secular writers in Germany.

Pia Jakobsson’s chapter is included because Elizabeth Carter (1717 – 1806) was celebrated as one of the most learned women in eighteenth-century England. Thanks to her father, the Reverend Dr. Nicholas Carter, she had learned several European languages and even had a reading knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic. Often described as having devoted her life to keeping house for her father and serving her family, she nonetheless established a successful publishing record, which included poetry, essays, and contributions to both The Gentleman’s Magazine and The Rambler. Her most influential work, however, was translating – most famously her translation of the complete works of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. Jakobsson argues that, to Dr. Carter, the intellectual and spiritual development of his daughter was important beyond her education; he wanted to help her lead a moral life. He clearly did trust her to be prudent, but also saw it as his Christian obligation to encourage the development and exercise of her moral judgment.

Suzanne Curchod (1734 – 1794) has long been standing in the shadow of her famous daughter Madame Germaine de Staël and thus neglected by scholars. This chapter explores the upbringing, education, and different roles of this pastor’s daughter, whose star rose during the political upheaval of the pre- and early revolutionary years. Born to a Calvinist pastor in the French-speaking village of Crassier in Switzerland, she grew up in poor circumstances but became highly educated under the tutelage of her father. After his death, Suzanne put her education to good use by becoming a teacher and governess to support herself and her mother. Through her marriage to the prominent Swiss financier Jacques Necker, Suzanne entered Parisian society. Her salon in Paris attracted the powerful minds of the time like Diderot and D’Alembert, and proved advantageous to her husband’s career as head of the French finance ministry. While she became known mainly as a celebrated salonnière, Madame Necker’s writings reflect her interest not only in bettering the circumstances of the less fortunate but also her literary skills and ambitions. Her prime focus, however, was directed towards her only child’s education.

In Chapter Five, Heide Wunder examines the private writer Friderika Baldinger (1743 – 1786). Contemporaries such as Sophie von La Roche and Abraham Gotthelf Kästner described Friderika Baldinger as an enlightened woman, whose exceptional education gave her the intellect and character of a man. Baldinger was born and brought up in a parsonage, but after the early death of her father, her soon-to-be-pastor brother as well as the family friend and her ‘spiritual father,’ Pastor Kranichfeld, made it their responsibility to educate her. Baldinger’s autobiography, published posthumously by Sophie von La Roche, is an attempt to describe this exceptional education and her lifelong intellectual development. Wunder investigates Baldinger’s autobiographical text to determine if and how Baldinger can be defined as an “intellectual,” considering that only men were afforded that description in the Age of Enlightenment.

Sophie Schwarz (1754 – 1789) was born in German-speaking Neu-Autz/Courland (today Latvia). Following her early death in 1789, she became known as a close friend of the more famous aristocratic writer Elisa von der Recke, whom she accompanied on a two-year journey through Germany. During this journey, she kept a diary that was meant as the basis for a book on the education of young women, which she intended to complete upon her return. The journal was published in 1884 and reflects Sophie’s concept of education (Bildung). Sophie considers the trip through the German territories, with their cultural and confessional singularities, as an opportunity to verify her convictions acquired in the Courlandian parsonage and to confront them with alternative opinions. Although open-minded, she asserts an idea of holistic education beyond being exclusively about intellectual knowledge. This essay outlines Sophie’s key educational experiences in the Courlandian parsonage and the literary, pietistic, and sentimental influences on her thinking.

The next chapter by Gudrun Loster-Schneider introduces the reader to a text by a contemporary of Goethe, a woman author who has been unjustly ‘forgotten’ and marginalized: Friederike Brun (1765 – 1835). Only in the last decade, by means of a new edition by Brian Keith-Smith and thanks to the new interest in bicultural, culturally mediating authors and transnational modes of writing, has she come to the attention of literary scholars and social historians. Born and reared in a parsonage, Brun was educated by her pastor-father and introduced by him to the prominent writers, thinkers, and artists of her time who frequented her father’s home. Her upbringing and descriptions of her early learning, education, and relationship with her father are documented in her autobiography. However, her childhood autobiography also mounts resistance to a variety of demarcations and imposed separations: from gender separation, to national separation, to the separation of poetry from truth, and to the separation of myths about authorship and critiques of those myths.

The late Irene Collins’ essay focuses on one of England’s most famous women writers. The famed early Victorian novelist Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was the daughter of a clergyman, a circumstance that remains somewhat underplayed in most Austen scholarship. Her upbringing in a parsonage and the education she received at the hand of her pastor-father shaped her as a writer. Throughout her life, the clergy was an integral part of Austen’s social circle whose attitudes and beliefs she shared. In her essay, Collins explores not only the dominance and significance of the clergy in Austen’s life, family, and social circle but also the portrayal and function of these types of characters in Austen’s novels. In addition, Collins takes the time to explore a later shift in Austen’s writing that includes the author’s decision to no longer include a character from the clergy such as in her last novel Sanditon.

Renata Fuchs’s chapter focuses on one of the first feminist and emancipated writers in Germany. Louise Aston (1814 – 1871) was the offspring of a love marriage between a pastor and a countess; a circumstance that left its mark on her work. Fuchs’s essay examines how Aston’s privileged education and upbringing in her father’s parsonage makes itself manifest in her autobiographical novel entitled From the Life of a Woman. The novel follows Aston’s theories of emancipation, wherein she rejects the belief that men are superior to women and that married women must always be sexually available. Aston’s political rebellion against patriarchy manifests itself also in the aesthetic defiance of the established patriarchal form of autobiography.

In Chapter 10, Susanne Bach provides the reader with a fresh perspective on another famous Victorian novelist who came out of an English parsonage: Charlotte Brontë (1816 – 1855). Under the tutelage of their father, Charlotte and her siblings had been attracted to the literary life since their youth. Bach’s essay investigates fathers and father-substitutes in Charlotte Brontë's work and shows how Charlotte’s intense relationship with her father shaped her general idea of fatherhood. Using a psychoanalytic reading of her novels, this chapter attempts to understand where presence and absence, desire and repulsion intersect, with orphanhood and substitute parents as major themes.

The lives and works of the women presented in this volume not only highlight the change in women’s education and gender relations over the course of two and a half centuries but also reveal links to the rise of feminism, the development of women’s professional pursuits, and the increasing presence and acceptance of women in intellectual and literary circles. The common thread of an exceptional education, which helped shape their identities, is woven through the lives of these ten women. Nevertheless, how they put that education to use differs from individual to individual. While some continued on a pious path in their lives and writings, as perhaps expected of pastors’ daughters, others chose more secular pursuits that ensured continuous opportunities to exercise their intellect.

This volume’s topic has found great support along the way. Early enthusiasm for this book came from Jerry Soliday, equally from Elisabeth Krimmer and Julia Cook whom we thank for their valuable input and suggestions. We also thank Maria Weber and Sarah Jäger for their help with editing and formatting in the final stages of the manuscript.

Last but not least, we are very grateful to the Coalition of Women in German for their generous grant in support of this project.

Denton, TX and Kassel, Germany, August 2018
Cindy K. Renker and Susanne Bach