Occasional Magazine N.S. Vol.1 No.2 (August 1982)
The Making of Mrs. Whitby by Mary Trehearne. A perceptive biography is presented of Mrs. Theresa Whitby, a dominant Milford figure in the first half of the 19th century. A cultured and extremely young woman, she was newly married to Captain John Whitby when they arrived at Newlands Manor in 1803, home of bachelor Admiral William Cornwallis. The elderly Admiral regarded them as his children and when both he and Whitby left on naval duties Theresa, not yet 20, superintended the rebuilding needed after the fire, laid out the gardens and extended the estate by purchases entirely single-handed. In 1806, after but four years of marriage, John Whitby died, Theresa moved out, but a lonely and depressed Cornwallis persuaded her to return to keep house for him. She gradually resumed managing the estate and nursed the old man as his health failed. He died in 1819 and Theresa Whitby finally inherited Newlands in 1823 to the chagrin of the Cornwallis family. She had great interest in agriculture and horticulture and from years of careful experiment proved it was possible to rear silkworms in the English climate and to produce silk of commercial standard. This was one enterprise that would create employment for the female poor in rural areas, something along with opening schools that concerned her. Mrs. Whitby spoke three languages and was an accomplished watercolour painter recording before they were lost, for example, decorations at Hordle Old Church as it was being demolished. After an active life she died suddenly and quite unexpectedly in 1850, aged 66. Theresa Whitby may have achieved so much from a combination of factors. In her day fewer conventions restricted middle and upper class women to being purely domestic and decorative as became the case in later Victorian times. She came from the exceptionally brainy Symonds family of Suffolk and had two clever older brothers close to her in age. Experience as the eldest girl in a family constantly moving about instilled practical ability and good financial management. This lack of a settled home in childhood made a big house and estate particularly attractive and with her noted attention to detail boded well for successful management. Finally, Mrs. Whitby suffered being widowed at the very early age of 22. She had one surviving child to carry on the line but, in never remarrying, avoided the fate of many 19th century women who wore themselves out in constantly bearing (and often burying) children. [Note. Of 17 references to the paper only the first 10 are cross-referenced in the text and some are duplicated.]
No Comments
Add a comment about this page