#Women’s History Month – Isabella Elder

Hello! I'm cutting it fine before the end of March but here's another post about a worthy Victorian woman. 

Who was Isabella Elder and why do I want to write about her?

Isabella Elder
by John Everett-Millais 
CC

As a young child I spent many weekends in Govan, Glasgow, staying with my grampa and nana ( my maiden Aunt Nan) who lived a little bit along the road and around the corner from the Elder Park and the local library. However, at that time I didn’t know of Isabella Elder’s association to the library.

Isabella was a philanthropist, interested in improving the education of local people, women in particular. During Isabella’s life, Govan was not part of the city of Glasgow but a separate township with its own local administration. (It wasn’t till 1912 that Govan became an official area of Glasgow.)

Born in the Gorbals in 1828, which at that time had some prestigious housing, Isabella’s father was a solicitor (Alexander Ure). Though her education is unknown, she must have mingled in the circles of the more elite, wealthy people of the area since she married John Elder in 1857, a partner in the marine engineering firm Randolf Elder & Co. By 1860, the firm acquired a shipyard in Govan which thrived. By 1868, it became John Elder & Co. and was one of the most successful shipyards in the world though, unfortunately, Isabella’s husband John died in 1869 (he was only 43 years old). For the best part of a year, Isabella managed the shipyard herself, a most unusual situation for a woman in 1869. However, she relinquished sole management by 1870 and went into a partnership with her brother, John Ure.

With fewer day-to-day shipyard responsibilities, Isabella was rich and free to choose what she wanted to do (within the limits society set upon her). She had no children to look after and was free to explore the continent. Though closer to home she became a major benefactress in the Glasgow area. She donated a sizeable sum to Glasgow University to the Chair of Engineering and funded an endowment for the John Elder Chair of Naval Architecture.  There were other scholarships set up in John Elder’s name.

Particularly interested in the education of women Isabella went on to buy a large property in the prestigious west end of Glasgow, North Park House, which she then used to set up as a college for women. Queen Margaret College was the first college in Scotland to offer higher education to women. By 1890, Isabella began to fund medical courses for women at Queen  Margaret College though awarding women a degree wasn’t possible till a few years later when the college was amalgamated with Glasgow University, no doubt due to the influence and persistence of Isabella Elder (whose financial contributions weren’t not to be sneezed at).  The medical courses for women were taught by lecturers at Glasgow University, so the women were gaining a similar course of study as was given to male students and the first women graduated as medical practitioners in 1892. By 1898, women were also graduating in the Arts from Queen Margaret College/ Glasgow University. Not content to just organize the setting up of the facilities for women, Isabella ensured that standards continued to be met as per her original agreements with the university – in her book women weren’t to be given any sort of inferior programme of education. It was always to match the academic standards of courses for men and she was prepared to withhold any finances she donated to ensure it happened!

Isabella was awarded an honorary degree (LLD) from Glasgow University in 1901 for her contributions to women’s education in the area.

In the early 1880s, Isabella purchased land near the Elder’s Fairfield shipyard and had a public park built in honour of her husband and his father David.  Wanting to do more for the poorer women of the area, the School for Domestic Economy was established where young women learned how to cook and perform other household tasks on a limited budget. The Elder Free Library, at one end of the park, was funded and stocked by Isabella. During the early 1900s, she funded the building of the Elder Cottage Hospital and a nearby villa which was the Cottage Nurses training home. Those buildings were still in situ when my grampa and Nana took me walking around Govan in the late 1950s.

By 1905, Isabella’s health was failing. She suffered from gout and bronchitis and died of heart failure on the 18^th November 1905. It’s worthy of noting that her official death certificate was signed by Dr. Marion Gilchrist, the first woman to graduate as a doctor from Glasgow University.

Memorial window at Glasgow University CC

There are many tributes to Isabella’s generosity one of which is a memorial window in Bute House, Glasgow University, titled “The Pursuit of Ideal Education”. (She is depicted alongside Janet Anne Galloway and Jessie Campbell other women who should be given some limelight?)

Isabella Elder- Elder Park  CC
by sculptor Archibald Macfarlane Shannon,
a Glasgow University Graduate

In 1906, the current Provost of Govan, unveiled a very fine bronze statue of Isabella Elder in the Elder Park. Much of the £2000 need to fund the statue came from a public collection, many of the local people wanting to give something back to Isabella Elder.

I have childhood memories of seeing the statues in the Elder Park where I paddled in the pond on hot summer days in the late 1950s. My grandfather, I’m sure, knew all about Isabella Elder and probably told me about her though my memories are hazy. Born in 1884, my grampa was a sheet iron worker in that very same Fairfield Shipyard where he spent all his working life. He probably even remembered Isabella’s death since her was born and lived just a couple of short streets away from the park. My grampa, Edward Callan Auld was a feisty union member, a high-ranking shop steward, and continued in his own way to ensure that men working at the Fairfield shipyard in Govan got a good deal.

It's at a time like this that I wish I could remember many more of my grampa’s Govan stories.

Slainte! 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isabella_Elder_biz_Sir_John_Everett_Millais.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Janet_Galloway_Memorial_Window,_Bute_Hall,_University_of_Glasgow.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Isabella_Elder,_Elder_Park,_Govan,_Glasgow.jpg

#Women’s History Month – Part Four Ishbel, Lady Aberdeen

Hello again!

In addition to making the headlines with regard to their fraternizing with the servants in hosting the Annual garden party for them, the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen (Ishbel and Johnny) did other things which set them apart from many of their aristocratic peers. Some of these were continuations, or re-starting,  of what Johnny’s father George had set up – great philanthropic ideas but which had slipped into decline.

Fairly soon after arriving at Haddo House, Ishbel realized a number of things. The general population of their part of Aberdeenshire attended school from roughly aged five to twelve if their parents paid the Dominie’s (schoolmaster) fees, and they were educated to some extent. For many this was a basic standard of reading skills, maybe a bit of counting (so that they could handle their meagre wages), and some could write more than just signing their name on an official document. What Ishbel noticed was that many of the younger estate servants, in particular, desired to learn much more than this and were frustrated by the current situation.

Johnny’s father George had also made the same observations and had in fact set about doing something to change the status quo at Haddo Estate. George had set up ‘evening schools’ during the previous decade, in 1862. The women met once-a-week during the summer and studied scripture; needlework; reading and writing under supervision, mainly undertaken by the wives of the principal farmers. Men paid a penny a week to learn from tutors employed by George. All of this was wonderful progress except it gradually went into decline. The ten minutes of compulsory Bible study didn’t seem to go down well. I imagine that many of those men and women knew they had to spend most of their Sunday on religious observations and therefore wanted every precious moment of their evening class to be on subjects of their choice.

Young women/girls leaving school at the age of approximately twelve were destined to enter into service in a ‘big house’ (not all as grand as Haddo) where they were given further instruction beyond the rudimentary dame school, or parochial school, education that they’d received. In a household with a number of staff, there was a pecking order stepping-up that could be achieved through hard work and exemplary behaviour- e.g. kitchen scullery maid to chamber maid and eventually on to housekeeper. The downside was that it often took years to be promoted. If not in service, many estate-living girls became dairy maids or farm labourers. There were few other choices for a female in the late 1870s. Those girls/ women didn’t generally travel far to gain employment but were expected to send on the bulk of the wages earned to their family, often to help feed younger siblings. Home visits for them were rare, and often depended on the distance travelled. If they could get home and return when on an afternoon off (e.g. on a Sunday) they were the lucky ones. The ‘free to choose’ hours off weren’t plentiful!

For males, it mainly differed in as much as they were not always expected to stay close to home. It was often the case that they returned home very infrequently though the expectations of adding to the family coffers was a responsibility many took very seriously. Males, offspring of estate servants, also had more choices of occupation which meant a possibility of living in the small towns near where they were born.

Ishbel decided to try again with the ‘evening classes’ and in her determined way made a much better job of it.

Haddo House became a place of part-time study again. Ishbel was wise enough to see that setting it up was her function and that, once done, success was more assured when she didn’t intervene in the day-to-day running of it. Many of the men of the estate happily engaged themselves in bettering themselves, often their sessions being undertaken by the butler or senior staff. However, it was much harder to set up classes for the women of the estate. They could only attend if given permission from their ‘mistress’, generally a farmer’s wife who set a nine p.m. curfew which made it difficult for the women to get to classes and back to their place of employment. The curfew was mostly in place to prevent any illicit meetings between young women and men who were all alone and out and about in the countryside. Ishbel put her brain to the task and came up with what is effectively an initial distance-learning situation. If women could not attend her classes then she took the classes to them. The educated ladies of the county, gentlewomen, farmer’s wives etc were encouraged to become tutors who set assignments for their tutor group according to a prescribed syllabus and set books for the particular course. The tutors collected the completed assignments and assessed them giving useful feedback to their ‘students’. It was an ingenious way to extend the possibility of the evening education to more people. The Haddo House Association was born!

After a remarkably short time the success of the system was recognised and the scheme was extended beyond the Haddo environs - thus the ONWARD AND UPWARD Association was created to reach many more potential students.

In 1883, she founded the Aberdeen Ladies' Union which helped woman all across Scotland. She also became head of the Women’s Liberal Federation which advocated for women’s suffrage though she wasn’t quite activist enough to chain herself to railings as some later suffrage activists did.

The Onward and Upwards success led Ishbel to set up many more similar arrangements in the other locations that she and Johnny stayed at.

Ishbel was, from the early 1880s, firmly established as a campaigner for further education and against moral and physical injustice (re: men and women). She was a dedicated political campaigner, an activist for social reform, her devout evangelical nature making her a tireless candidate for this. Johnny’s political leanings effectively matched hers which meant as a couple they achieved success for various good causes, at the huge detriment of Johnny’s legacy and her dowry which was also quite considerable.

As a Liberal Member of the House of Lords (via his hereditary title of the Earl of Aberdeen) Johnny accepted some very prestigious positions. For a time (1881-1885) he was the Lord High Commissioner of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and as such stayed at the Palace of Holyrood House, Edinburgh, an abode which neither he nor Ishbel seemed to like staying in. However, Ishbel’s job was to host dinners at Holyrood for the good and worthy, and probably many who felt exalted but were morally less so.

Dinner at Haddo House by A E Emslie
National Portrait Gallery

When possible, they retired to Haddo during this tenure, where they hosted some very important dinners, the chairs often filled with political activists like themselves. One famous painting highlights Gladstone as the most honoured guest sitting at Ishbel’s side. The painting isn’t of a single moment in time but exemplifies the many dinners she hosted.

By 1886, Johnny was the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. They moved to Dublin where Ishbel found herself ev3n more constrained than in Edinburgh. Her function in supporting Johnny was to host many more official occasions (the etiquette of them often detested) but the idea of security being an issue was horrifying, that she was unable to walk by herself in Dublin didn't sit well. She equated herself to being a prisoner, escorted by a guard. However, she grew to love the country and threw herself into situations where she was able to promote Ireland and its many quality products. The issue of Irish Home Rule was dominant but Ishbel and Johnny overcame challenging situations.

Over the ensuing decades, Ishbel and Johnny continued in the same vein doing many good works in various countries. Not long after their arrival in Canada, Johnny being appointed the Viceroy of Canada, Ishbel was appointed as first President of the International Council of Women, a global institution. Wherever she went for short or long stays, Ishbel seemed to leave her stamp. She was also the first woman to receive an Honorary Degree in Canada, seen here wearing robes of Queen's University, Ontario..

The list of Ishbel's achievements far exceeds what I can cover in a few short posts. It’s quite clear that her general only four-hours-of-sleep per night left her many hours to keep up with what was an immense correspondence. Johnny was no slouch either and I’d love to have been a fly on the wall in their study at Haddo, their desks overflowing with communications.

The Haddo connection with worthy women of Ishbel's time continues. Around 1905, Ishbel took on the task of gaining information about women she regarded as constructive in the lives of women across Scotland. not content to just write a paragraph or tow about them she set about gaining images of her target women. Some were paintings, lithographs, or drawings and others are photographs. She sent her collection along with her explanatory information to a studio in London to have them individually set into matching wooden frames. The frames she then had hung on the ground floor south quadrant, a mainly servant area of Haddo House. On the facing wall, Johnny did much the same adding portraits of influential Members of Parliament and men he also deemed worthy. 

Ground floor Corridor Gallery
Courtesy of The National Trust for Scotland 
Haddo House Estate

This area is not on the regular Haddo House visitor tour but I was granted permission by the National Trust of Scotland's representative, Caitlin Greig, to visit. A couple of hours with Caitlin sped by during which I learned an amazing amount about Haddo and Ishbel and Johnny Aberdeen. My thanks go to Caitlin.

My thanks also go to Moira Minty at Haddo Estate Archives, where I was able to read some of Ishbel's diaries and see the paintings she added to her Honeymoon diary, particularly when they were in Egypt. she was a very busy lady even on that extended honeymoon. 

I look forward to vising the interior of Haddo House again where I'll be looking at the artefacts with a different eye and appreciation of the many exploits of Ishbel, Lady Aberdeen.

Slainte!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_album_of_who%27s_who_at_the_International_Congress_of_Women_-_Countess_of_Aberdeen.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:THE_RIGHT_HONOURABLE_THE_COUNTESS_OF_ABERDEEN,_LL.D.jpg

#Women’s History Month – Part Three Ishbel Lady Aberdeen

Hello again!

Ishbel, Lady Aberdeen, may not have been initially impressed with her husband’s ancestral home at Haddo House but she did a lot more than just improve it’s architecture and contents.

Her husband’s father George, the 5^th Earl of Aberdeen, had been a generous, philanthropic man who had spent money on various worthy charitable causes but he didn’t seem to have been overly interested in improving the inside of Haddo House, to Ishbel's chagrin.

Johnny Aberdeen, on the other hand, had instigated a few improvements at Haddo before his marriage to Ishbel. He commissioned a chapel to be built. Though fairly austere in design to match Johnny’s devout nature, he indulged himself by having a specially commissioned stained-glass window from the studio of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, and a Henry Willis organ, a highly reputable make. The chapel took a few years to build so Ishbel was able to view the final building stages during the first years of their marriage.

The house improvements were the domain of Ishbel who wisely engaged the help of her father who appeared to know everybody there was to know in the renovation business. Dudley Marjoribanks was a man Ishbel believed to be of “rare judgment and Knowledge”. Using his contacts, she set about organizing the renovation job herself. Some prestigious local craftsmen were employed but also much of the expertise came from London, sometimes the fittings for whole rooms being transported north, the library being an example.

When Ishbel first came to Haddo, the house was some hundred and fifty years old. The roof was in dire need of reconstruction to eradicate the dry rot issues so that was an early project that Ishbel took on. Since she didn’t like the main door entry, which was accessed from a curving set of forestairs, the entry was re-modelled so that guests didn’t need to go in through what she termed the dreadful ‘window’.

Over a period of years, lots of Johnny’s money was spent on the improvements but the house gradually rose to the standards Ishbel felt that her husband needed during the Parliamentary recess time when the family repaired to Aberdeenshire. High-ranking, important guests were plentiful, Ishbel presiding over their visits with due aplomb. She was a young woman of formidable talents which included being a competent conversationalist. Many guests were (probably) handpicked by the couple to suit their political leanings and ambitions but Ishbel seems to have been gifted with the ability to assess a person’s character quickly, and knew whether spending time and effort on a guest would be to her advantage.

Ishbel produced an heir for Johnny in January 1879, little Doddie (officially George). Other children followed in due course - Marjorie (1880); Dorothea (1882); Dudley (1883) and Archibald (1884), though not all survived. This was, of course,  not unusual in the early 1880s.

So far what you read above could be said to be similar to what other ladies of her station did, but there was so much more to Ishbel and Johnny Aberdeen.

Like his father before him who devoutly did many good, charitable deeds, Johnny spent time, effort, and money on his tenants.

Before their marriage, the annual Haddo Estate holiday was often a riotous occasion. Let loose for a whole day, it was the custom for the young male (and some female) employees to go to the nearest county town and have fun. It’s said they got drunk and perhaps did some things which became a cause of regret some months down the line. To counteract some potentially imprudent behaviour, Ishbel and Johnny decided to hold a garden party for the servants. Invitations were issued to their household staff, which numbered around a hundred people, and to other estate employees. The invitation was gladly accepted and tea, lemonade and cakes was issued to over six thousand people who turned up. Whether or not lots of them also went to town, albeit with less time to do so, the gesture from Ishbel and Johnny was greatly appreciated.

The annual tea party tradition was continued, the huge marquee bought from the King of the Netherlands to give some shelter since weather was unpredictable was used till it was in tatters. It was many years till a wooden-constructed hall was built to accommodate the event in all weathers.

The news of the garden party for servants reached the ears of The Scotsman newspaper which claimed it to be a ‘Novelty’. The fact that Ishbel and Johnny knew every house servants name and addressed them as such (instead of all footmen being James and maids being a generic  Margaret)  put the ‘Aberdeen’s into a very strange category of aristocrat. They bucked the trend in many ways over the years and, it could be said were eventually ostracized by their peers for their kinder, more benevolent attitude.

What else did Ishbel start very quickly at Haddo? Find out in the next installment. 

Slainthe!