An Oldest Profession
Sometimes my British Victorian ladies have more in common with my Roman women than they might imagine. Take Hannah Gidney. Hannah and her husband Henry, a timber dealer married in August of 1874. In June of 1875, they welcomed a baby daughter. Hannah's husband sent her and the baby for a few weeks to the countryside in July to recover from the birth and "get some fresh air." By late July, she had received news from her mother-in-law that her husband had left for Australia. In August, a few weeks later, she took up a position as wet nurse to the new baby of the Earl and Countess of Eldon.
Wet nursing was reasonably common if somewhat controversial among the Victorian upper classes of the time, and generally involved impoverished lower-class mothers caring for the babies of the elite, sometimes at the expense of the health and nurture of their own children. Hannah was able to parlay this position into serving as a nurse and eventually the head nurse of the seven Eldon children. During this whole time, according to her affidavit, she saved to send money to her own mother for the maintenance of her infant daughter, as well as saving 50 pounds on her own account.
To return to Hannah's story, three years later she received a letter from her husband in Australia, via his mother: "He said that he supposed I had considered the manner of his departure from England very strange but as so long a time had elapsed he thought that all ought to be forgotten and forgiven and he stated that he might possibly come back to me sometime but he did not promise to do so.”
Hannah did not get her hopes up, and indeed, as far as we can tell, Henry never returned, and she eventually sought a divorce and the protection of her relatively meager earnings. But she and her daughter seem to have survived and prospered under the protection of the Eldon family.
Wet nursing was reasonably common if somewhat controversial among the Victorian upper classes of the time, and generally involved impoverished lower-class mothers caring for the babies of the elite, sometimes at the expense of the health and nurture of their own children. Hannah was able to parlay this position into serving as a nurse and eventually the head nurse of the seven Eldon children. During this whole time, according to her affidavit, she saved to send money to her own mother for the maintenance of her infant daughter, as well as saving 50 pounds on her own account.
To return to Hannah's story, three years later she received a letter from her husband in Australia, via his mother: "He said that he supposed I had considered the manner of his departure from England very strange but as so long a time had elapsed he thought that all ought to be forgotten and forgiven and he stated that he might possibly come back to me sometime but he did not promise to do so.”
Hannah did not get her hopes up, and indeed, as far as we can tell, Henry never returned, and she eventually sought a divorce and the protection of her relatively meager earnings. But she and her daughter seem to have survived and prospered under the protection of the Eldon family.
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