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The Romance of the slum: Gender and Cross-Class Communication of Religious Belief, 1880–1920*

  • M. C. H. Martin (a1)
Extract

Despite relatively low working-class church attendance over the nineteenth century, evidence of religious practice in working-class households and a more diffuse religious mentality have been identified by historians, even until the mid or late twentieth century. Yet little analysis has been undertaken into how such a mentality was created. While Cox noted of late nineteenth- century Lambeth that the most successful churches were those which contained vast philanthropic networks, elsewhere he claimed that ‘philanthropy … did little to promote definite Christian belief. Indeed, both he and Williams regarded schools as the primary agency for conveying religious teaching: Cox claiming that Board schools were more effective than Sunday schools, Williams, that Sunday schools provided not only a means of instilling religious belief in children but a form of ‘religion by deputy’ for their parents.

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COPYRIGHT: © Ecclesiastical History Society 2006
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*

Previous versions of this paper were presented at trie Women’s History Network Tenth Annual Conference, The Women’s Library, London Guildhall University, September 2001, and to the WHN Midlands Region Annual Conference, November 2001. I am grateful to the organizers and participants for their comments and questions, and to Angela John for subsequent comments on the text.

Footnotes
References
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1 McLeod, Hugh, Religion and Society in England, 1850–1914 (Basingstoke, 1996), 59–70, 223.

2 Williams, S. C., Religious Belief and Popular Culture in Southwark, c.1880-1939 (Oxford, 1999), 126–62.

3 Cox, Jeffrey, The English Churches in a Secular Society (Oxford, 1982), 93–128.

4 Brown, Callum, The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation, 1800–2000 (London and New York, 2001), 170–5 ; McLeod, Hugh, Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848–1914 (Basingstoke, 2000), 7–8.

5 Davie, Grace, Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without Belonging (Oxford, 1994), 199.

6 Cox, English Churches, 178, 101.

7 Ibid., 187–90.

8 Williams, , Religious Belief 134, 126–62.

9 The seminal text being Mearns, Andrew’s The Bitter Cry of Outcast London (London, 1883).

10 Most recently, Koven, Seth, Slumming (London, 2004).

11 Behlmer, George K., Friends of the Family: the English Home and its Guardians 1850–1940 (Stanford, CA, 1998), 31–72 ; Prochaska, F., Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England (Oxford, 1980), 97–137 ; Walkowitz, J., City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London (London, 1992), 52–9.

12 Koven, , Slumming, 183 ; Ross, Ellen, Love and Toil: Motherhood in Outcast London, 1830–1910 (Oxford, 1999), 15–16.

13 For example, in Yates, Nigel, Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain, 1830–1910 (Oxford, 1999); Ross, Love and Toil, 12. For sisterhoods and deaconess orders, see Gill, Sean, Women in the Church of England From the Eighteenth Century to the Present (London, 1994), 146–69 . But see also Morgan, Sue, ‘The Power of Womanhood: Religion and Sexual Politics in the Writings of Ellice Hopkins’, in Hogan, Anne and Bradstock, Andrew, eds, Women of Faith in Victorian Culture (Basingstoke, 1998), 209–25 ; Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy, 11, 39, 106, 139, 191.

14 Martin, Mary Clare, ‘Isabella Gilmore, 1843–1923’, in ODNB 22: 307 . Church of England Record Centre (hereafter CERC), ‘Reminiscences of Isabella Gilmore from 1886’, CWMC/19/4, 24–6, 48–9, 51–2.

15 Grierson, Janet, Isabella Gilmore: Sister to William Morris (London, 1962), 9 . CERC, CWMC/16/5, 16 March 1924. Talk on Isabella Gilmore’s Life, Southwark and Rochester Deaconess Institution, 2.

16 Census of Great Britain, 1881 RG 12/75, P. 23; 1891 RG 13/89, p. 25, fol. 16.

17 Freeman, F. L., Religious and Social Work Amongst Girls (London, 1901), 138.

18 Martin, Mary Clare, ‘Flora Lucy Freeman, 1869–1960’, ODNB 20: 925.

19 Freeman, F. L., Thoughts on St Francis of Assisi: Selected and Arranged for Every Day of the Year (London, 1925).

20 Personal information, with thanks, from the Rt Rev. G. H. Thompson.

21 Peterborough Citizen, 23 Nov. 1920. Annual Reports of the National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, 1925–47.

22 Osborne, Charles E., The Life of Father Dolling (London, 1903); Dolling, R. R., Ten Years in a Portsmouth Slum (London, 1898), 74.

23 Martin, , ‘Gilmore’, 307–8.

24 Deaconess Gilmore: Some Memories Collected by Deaconess Elizabeth Robinson (London, 1924), 31 and 34.

25 Lambeth Palace Library (hereafter LPL), G4423 R6, Deaconess Institution for the Diocese of Rochester, Annual Report of the Head Deaconess, 27 Jan. 1893, 5.

26 LPL, Annual Report, 27 Jan. 1893, 6.

27 CERC, Gilmore, , ‘Reminiscences’, 27 ; Freeman, , Religious and Social Work, 29, 77.

28 Freeman, F. L., Our Working Girls and How to Help Them (London, 1908), 10–24.

29 Freeman, F. L., ‘How to Start a Local Club Union’, Girls’ Club journal 1. 3 (October 1909), 60–1 . The London Girls’ Club Union was founded in 1880.

30 Federation of Working Girls’ Clubs Handbook, No. 1, 12.

31 Martin, , ‘Freeman’, 924–5.

32 Freeman, , Religious and Social Work, 120–34.

33 Ibid., 76–7.

34 Catholic Women’s League Magazine: the Organ of the Catholic Women’s League (hereafter CWL Magazine), April 1924, No. 150, 9.

35 Guide Association, archive dept., Warrant returned by Miss F. L. Freeman, captain of 6th Hove C.W.L., 12 March 1923, WR, 12.6.1924.

36 CWL Magazine, April 1919, No. 90, 7; ibid., April 1924, No. 150, 9.

37 Westminster Abbey Muniments (hereafter WAM), Donaldson Papers, 10, Diary of the Rev. F. L. Donaldson (personal), 8 May 1888; Bettany, F. G., Stewart Headlam: a Biography (London, 1926), 83.

38 WAM, Donaldson Papers, 5, St Mark’s Parish Magazine, 1905.

39 Collette, Christine, For Labour and For Women: the Women’s Labour League, 1906–1918 (Manchester, 1989), 54, 137, 196 ; Peterborough Citizen, 23 November 1920; Annual Reports of the National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty (1925–47).

40 WAM, Donaldson Papers, 5, Goodwill, 3 May 1903, 43.

41 Clayton, J., Father Dolling: a Memoir (2nd edn, London, 1902), 11, 15.

42 Dolling, , Ten Years, 24.

43 Ibid., 43.

44 Osborne, , Dolling, 267–8.

45 Clayton, , Dolling, 22, 116–17.

46 Ibid., 123.

47 Grierson, , Gilmore, 150–2.

48 Ibid., 114–16.

49 Ibid., 125.

50 CERC, Gilmore, , ‘Reminiscences’, 35–7.

51 Ibid., 33.

52 Ibid., 41.

53 Grierson, Gilmore, 123.

54 LPL, Annual Report, 27 Jan. 1893, 8.

55 LPL, Annual Report, Jan. 1889, 3.

56 Grierson, , Gilmore, 113.

57 Freeman, , Religious and Social Work, 70.

58 Ibid., 2–12.

59 Ibid., 74, 94.

60 Freeman, F. L., Polly: a Study of Girl Life (London, 1904), 78, 154—5.

61 Ibid., 96, 100, 104.

62 Ibid., 99.

63 Freeman, , Religious and Social Work, 75.

64 Ibid., 77–8, 101.

65 Freeman, F. L., On the Right Trail: Friendly Counsel for Catholic Girl Guides (London, 1921), 31–3, 80, 102.

66 GCJ, Jan. 1909, Vol 1, No. 1, 21; CWL Magazine, Feb. 1922, No. 124, 3.

67 Letter Sarah Louise Donaldson to Euan Donaldson, 12 March 1924. Possession of the Rt Rev. G. H. Thompson.

68 The League Leaflets, 1913.

69 Butler, B. J., ‘Frederic Lewis Donaldson and the Christian Socialist Movement’, unpublished M.Phil. thesis, University of Leeds, 1970, 148–9 . Letters SLD to ED, 12 March, 8 April 1924.

70 WAM, Donaldson Papers, 5, St Mark’s Parish Magazine, 1905.

71 Bettany, , Headlam, 96.

72 Personal information, December 1990, from Eanswythe Thompson (1897–1993).

73 Peterborough Citizen, 23 Nov. 1920.

74 WAM, Donaldson Papers, 5, St Mark’s Parish Magazine, 1906.

75 Sarah Louise Donaldson, ‘Lady Wimborne and Ceremonialism’, Church Times (1903, repr., author’s possession).

76 WAM, Donaldson Papers, 4d (Mrs Donaldson’s Papers), The Spiritual Welfare of the Child, National Baby Week Council, No. 62.

77 Collette, , For Labour and for Women, 58–92.

78 Sarah Louise Donaldson, Women’s Place in the Nation (author’s possession).

79 Letter SLD to ED, 1924. Possession of the Rt Rev. G. H. Thompson.

80 Dolling, , Ten Years, 50 ; Yates, W. N., The Anglican Revival in Victorian Portsmouth (Portsmouth, 1983), Portsmouth Papers, No. 37,12, citing Hampshire Telegraph, 15 Feb. 1896.

81 Osborne, , Dolling, 49 and 85.

82 Dolling, , Ten Years, 45.

83 Portsmouth City Record Office, CHU 10/3A, Winchester College Mission (St Agatha’s), Annual Reports 1883–1894, No. 8, Annual Report by Rev R.R. Doiling 1894, Vicar Designate, 6.

84 Bell, G. K. A., Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury (Oxford, 1935), 211–12.

85 McLeod, Hugh, Piety and Poverty: Working-Class Religion in Berlin, London and New York, 1870–1914 (London and New York, 1996), 155–6.

86 Martin, , ‘Freeman’, 924–5.

87 CWL Magazine, Sept. 1920, No. 107, 2–3.

88 Bettany, , Headlam, 224.

89 See Hascombe, Alan, Robert Dolling, Mission Priest: a Biographical Sketch (London, 1907), 22–3.

90 See dedication to Osborne, Dolling.

91 Ibid., 84.

92 Cox, , English Churches, 270–4.

93 See also Williams, , Religious Belief, 134–6.

94 Grierson, , Gilmore, 204–27 ; Yates, , Anglican Ritualism, 283 ; Collins, Marcus, Modern Love: an Intimate History of Men and Women in Twentieth-Century Britain (London, 2003), 63–8 . CWL Magazine, Jan 1929, No. 207, 5. Leicester Evening Mail, Sat April 23, 1932.

* Previous versions of this paper were presented at trie Women’s History Network Tenth Annual Conference, The Women’s Library, London Guildhall University, September 2001, and to the WHN Midlands Region Annual Conference, November 2001. I am grateful to the organizers and participants for their comments and questions, and to Angela John for subsequent comments on the text.

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