The Bladder Dealer and The Steamship: Women's Networks

Jeanne Marie is one of the rare women in my dataset to identify herself in the introduction of her affidavit by her profession: "I, Jeanne Marie Socleu Fayhay of Mark Lane in the City of London Hotelkeeper make oath and say as follows." Her story is one of a badly treated woman who managed nevertheless to maintain her agency and economic independence; it is also the tale of the increasingly cosmopolitan and citizenship-fluid world of 19th century Western Europe.

In 1849 she married Michael Joseph Fayhay, a baker at Antwerp, in a Roman Catholic ceremony. They lived together for 4 years, till his baking business failed in Antwerp, at which point Michael "made me accompany him to [the island of] Jersey and from Jersey to London and from London to Belgium."  When they arrived in Belgium by steamship, Michael told her to wait aboard while he went to find lodgings. He never returned. The destitute Jeanne Marie, who "had nowhere to sleep," appealed to help from her brother, who sent money for her to stay briefly in lodgings. She placed their one child in the custody of her mother-in-law in Belgium, but sent money regularly for their support.

Jeanne Marie then returned by boat to London and took up domestic service working for her aunt. After her aunt died, she took a position as a companion "to Mrs. Atkinson and her infant daughters," which she elsewhere describes as a "governess," until 1857. In 1857 Michael wrote her, saying he wanted her back and to come meet him at Liege in Belgium, where he had a comfortable home and could "keep her in comfort."

Jeanne Marie was distressed to discover that this home was in fact "one room almost entirely devoid of furniture" and that her husband was unemployed. Michael, as it turned out, was more interested in Jeanne Marie's hard-earned savings than her companionship. He took all the money she had saved over the previous four years and spent it within three weeks. Then he "told me he was going to Russia, coolly bade me good day, and stated that I must shift for myself as I had done before."

So Jeanne Marie, now penniless again, waited for a month at Liege to see if Michael would come back. He did not. From 1857-1863 she has neither seen or heard from him. Eventually, she went back to London and entered domestic service anew. Jeanne Marie managed to save up enough money to take the lease of a Hotel, and now has 400 pounds to her name plus the amount she gains from her lodgers. In addition, however, she especially wants financial protection from any possible claim of Michael's to her other major investment, a 1/4 share in the business of Madame Gerothea the bladder dealer of Antwerp. A bladder dealer is, in fact, precisely what it sounds like - someone who sold sausages and puddings and their cases.

What I find particularly intriguing about this case is the suggestion of an international network of working women supporting each other. Jeanne Marie, with her London hotel, has only been able to survive and prosper because of the kindness of her aunts in Belgium and London, the stability of her employer Mrs. Atkinson, the childcare provided by her mother-in-law, and the funds from her investment with Madame Gerothea. Jeanne Marie got dealt a lousy hand of cards in terms of her husband's repeated abandonments. But she has managed to make do and to prosper and is now successfully claiming her economic independence and control, even across several international borders.