BIB_ID
427764
Accession number
MA 14286.15
Creator
Knox, Maria, 1795-1822, sender.
Display Date
Nasirabad, India, 1820 December 11.
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Description
1 item (6 pages) ; 22.3 x 18.5 cm
Notes
Address panel with seal: Mrs. Butler / Monghyr / To be left at the Post Office / till called for / 11th Dec.
Monghyr refers to Munger, Bihar, India.
"Shamsheer behander (the Banda Newaab)" was Shamsher Bahadur II, a Maratha nobleman who was the Nawab of Banda. The British appointed him to this position in the aftermath of British victory in the Maratha Wars. He ruled one of the many princely states in British India, which survived in various degrees of subservience to the British. See R.S. Chaurasia, History of the Marathas (New Delhi: Atlantic, 2004), 87.
The "Danish Divorce" is a joking reference to a quick and easy divorce. Divorces were relatively simple to obtain in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Denmark. In England, by contrast, divorce was impossible for all but the wealthiest and most influential people. It required the permission of Parliament or of an ecclesiastical court. In the British Empire and other European empires, laws and customs surrounding the family and sexuality were more difficult to enforce, enabling quick informal divorces like the one the letter describes. See Ronald Hyam, Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1990), passim; Lester B. Orfield, "Divorce for Temperamental Incompatibility," Michigan Law Review 52, no. 5 (March 1954), 663; Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), passim; and Beverly Taylor, "Divorce laws in the early 19th century," in The Oxford Companion to the Brontës, edited by Christine Alexander (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
The Royal Divorce was King George IV's attempt to divorce his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, and to prevent her from becoming Queen when he ascended to the throne in 1820. The two had been estranged for nearly their entire 25 years of marriage. George IV accused her of adultery, and the Bill of Pains and Penalties was introduced in Parliament to allow a divorce. The hearings for the bill became a de facto trial of Caroline for adultery. A massive public controversy accompanied the hearings. The Torys supported the King, while the Whigs backed Caroline. While Maria Knox writes that "I will not add any of my own comments," on the trial, the extract she quotes from a Bombay newspaper is sympathetic to Caroline. See Jonathan Fulcher, "Queen Caroline Affair," in The Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age, edited by Ian McCalman et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
The Jolly Clerk of Copmanhurst is a character from "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819.
Forms part of a collection (MA 14286.1-66) of letters written by Maria Knox to her mother, Mrs. Harriet Butler.
Monghyr refers to Munger, Bihar, India.
"Shamsheer behander (the Banda Newaab)" was Shamsher Bahadur II, a Maratha nobleman who was the Nawab of Banda. The British appointed him to this position in the aftermath of British victory in the Maratha Wars. He ruled one of the many princely states in British India, which survived in various degrees of subservience to the British. See R.S. Chaurasia, History of the Marathas (New Delhi: Atlantic, 2004), 87.
The "Danish Divorce" is a joking reference to a quick and easy divorce. Divorces were relatively simple to obtain in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Denmark. In England, by contrast, divorce was impossible for all but the wealthiest and most influential people. It required the permission of Parliament or of an ecclesiastical court. In the British Empire and other European empires, laws and customs surrounding the family and sexuality were more difficult to enforce, enabling quick informal divorces like the one the letter describes. See Ronald Hyam, Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1990), passim; Lester B. Orfield, "Divorce for Temperamental Incompatibility," Michigan Law Review 52, no. 5 (March 1954), 663; Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), passim; and Beverly Taylor, "Divorce laws in the early 19th century," in The Oxford Companion to the Brontës, edited by Christine Alexander (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
The Royal Divorce was King George IV's attempt to divorce his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, and to prevent her from becoming Queen when he ascended to the throne in 1820. The two had been estranged for nearly their entire 25 years of marriage. George IV accused her of adultery, and the Bill of Pains and Penalties was introduced in Parliament to allow a divorce. The hearings for the bill became a de facto trial of Caroline for adultery. A massive public controversy accompanied the hearings. The Torys supported the King, while the Whigs backed Caroline. While Maria Knox writes that "I will not add any of my own comments," on the trial, the extract she quotes from a Bombay newspaper is sympathetic to Caroline. See Jonathan Fulcher, "Queen Caroline Affair," in The Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age, edited by Ian McCalman et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
The Jolly Clerk of Copmanhurst is a character from "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819.
Forms part of a collection (MA 14286.1-66) of letters written by Maria Knox to her mother, Mrs. Harriet Butler.
Provenance
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Summary
Recalling a week of celebrations in Nasirabad and describing several drunken gatherings of the British families in the region, “We had as much laughter and good humor as Beer and Gin could give the first night, but the second his supplies arrived and we had Tokay & Champaigne till many of the party found it difficult which way to go ...”. Recalling the music she and others played at one of the parties. Commenting that the Fagans were not invited and recalling a visit to Mr. and Mrs. DeWall. Stating that “Shamsheer Behander (the Banda Newaab) has made his appearance and as he more resembles the 'Jolly Clerk of Copmanhurst' than one of the natives and drinks Coffee Tea & Cherry brandy ... he is to breakfast and dine with us and we have a party to meet him.” Recalling a “little scandal” told by Mr. Marsons, “the Mrs. John Birch had obtained a Danish Divorce and was immediately to be married to Charles Boswell & that John Birch was to be united with Miss Liddington.” Reporting and commenting on the delayed news from England about the royal divorce.
Catalog link
Department