Please join us for our monthly members-only tea on January 18th at 12 PM MST (1 PM CST/2 PM EST). Members, be sure to reserve your spot via the Register Now! link below. Not a member? Come along and join us in time for this presentation!
Presented by Brenda Cox, this month’s topic is “Her Parish and Her Poultry: The Lives of Clergymen’s Wives in Regency England.”
The clergyman’s wife was a central character in any country town of Regency England. In Jane Austen’s novels, we meet clergymen’s wives ranging from practical Charlotte Collins of Pride and Prejudice to kind Mrs. Grant and stingy Mrs. Norris of Mansfield Park. What kind of woman was a clergyman’s wife expected to be during the Regency? How would she spend her days? What level of income, number of servants, and place in society would she likely have? How involved would she be in her husband’s parish?
Author Brenda Cox will draw from Austen’s novels as well as from real-life clergymen’s wives at the time, including Jane Austen’s mother and Jane’s dear friend Mrs. Lefroy, to share with us the lives of clergymen’s wives in Regency England.
Brenda S. Cox has been researching the church in Jane Austen’s England for about ten years. Her book, Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England, explores many aspects of that church: the clergy, church services, challenges to the church, ways that church impacted the world, and much more.
Brenda spoke on the Regency church at the RFW 2022 AGM and has spoken on related topics at a number of JASNA AGMs and regional meetings, as well as at Regency Week in Alton, England, 2023.
You can find her articles online at Jane Austen’s World and at her own website: Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen, as well as in Persuasions On-Line. Fashionable Goodness is available on Amazon. Brenda is currently working on her first Regency novel, a sequel to Sense and Sensibility.