Agnes Strickland 1796 – 1874
Biographical historian, poet.
19 August 1796 – 13 July 1874
Education
Educated (with her sister Elizabeth) by her father, who believed that girls should receive an education ‘on the same plan as boys because …it strengthened the female mind’. Learned Greek, Latin and mathematics and read widely.
Agnes’s nickname was ‘the dictionary’.
Some Key Achievements and Interests
1840-1848 With her sister Elizabeth co-authored the 12 volume Lives of the Queens of England having conducted in depth research at the British Museum and various archives and consulted academics and scholars. This research took her and Elizabeth around the country and abroad.
Agnes wrote seven of the biographies but was responsible for correspondence, her sister not wanting a public profile. Only Agnes’ name appeared on the title pages of their publications.
The different volumes attracted mixed responses.
The Times said Lives of the Queens was “written by a lady of considerable learning, indefatigable industry, and careful judgment . … it will be a matter of surprise to most readers how large a mass of information, in many respects entirely novel, has been collected. . . . The volumes have the fascination of romance united to the integrity of history. The reader is instructed and pleased at the same time, and when it is considered that this charm is produced by the judicious arrangement and application of materials from which preceding writers have extracted little beyond the dull sobriety of chronological narrative, the merit of the lady who has made so judicious a use of her talent and learning will be the more enhanced, and her claim to praise proportionably the greater.” Times (London), 5 September 1840.
Thomas Macaulay, who did not consider the domestic lives of queens as history of note criticised the Stuart volumes in a twenty-six-page article in the Edinburgh Review.” Edinburgh Review, July 1847.
Issues
Agnes and Elizabeth’s father died having lost his money so the young women started to write children’s historical fiction to support themselves and continued to write to earn a living.
Though the books were well received they did not for some time bring commensurate financial reward.
Connection to Bloomsbury
1827 Began to visit London sometimes staying in Bloomsbury with Mrs. Leverton in Bloomsbury, who introduced her to other writers and editors and helped her mix socially.
Went regularly to the British Museum Library with Elizabeth to read history and here learned palaeography.
Female Networks
Women met through Mrs Leverton included Alaric A. Watts, Anna Jameson, Barbara Hofland, Barbara Hofland, Jane Porter, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Lady Sydney Morgan, Louisa Costella, Jane Porter.
Writing/Publications include:
1817 Monody upon the Death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales (her first work, a poem, published anonymously.)
1833 Historical Tales of Illustrious British Children (for children).
1836 Tales and Stories from History (2 vols for children).
1820s -early 1830s Contributed to literary annuals including Keepsake, the Forget-Me-Not, and Friendship’s Offering.
1837 to 1839 Edited Fisher’s juvenile Scrapbook with Bernard Barton.
1840-1848 With her sister Elizabeth co-authored the 12 volume Lives of the Queens of England.
1841 Contributed biographical sketches of several queens to Charles Dickens’s Pie-Nie Papers.
1842-3 The Letters of Mary Queen of Scots (3 vols)
1851-1859 Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses Connected with the Regal Succession of Great Britain (which included contributions from Elizabeth) (8 vols)
1861 Lives of the Bachelor Kings of England. (which included contributions from Elizabeth)
1866 Lives of the Seven Bishops Committed to the Tower in 1688. (which included contributions from Elizabeth)
1868 Lives of the Tudor Princesses, Including Lady Jane Gray and Her Sisters (which included contributions from Elizabeth).
1872 Lives of the Last Four Princesses of the Royal House of Stuart.
Further reading
Strickland, Agnes (1796–1874), historian | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (oxforddnb.com)