"To be both Patroness and Friend": Patronage, Friendship, and Protofeminism in the Life of Elizabeth Thomas (1675–1731)

Since you such kind Commands are pleas'd to send,And bless me with the charming Name of Friend:How can I longer with your Will dispute?No, Madam! know, your Pow'r is absolute.So kindly you, for all my Fears provide,What Faults the Critick sees, the candid Friend will hide.²

The charming "Friend" to whom Elizabeth Thomas writes in "To the Lady PAKINGTON at the Bath; with these POEMS in Manuscript" is Lady Hester Pakington, the daughter and heiress of Sir Herbert Perrott of Haroldston, Pembrokeshire, and the second wife of the Tory politician, Sir John Pakington (1671–1727).³ In this short poem, attached to a manuscript of Thomas's verses sent to Lady Pakington, Thomas offers the adulation that one might expect in praise of her social superior and patroness. It is well established that Thomas struggled most of her life to maintain her status as a gentlewoman, so her efforts to obtain patronage through her poetry and correspondence are hardly surprising. What is striking about Thomas's attempts to gain patronage in the early eighteenth century is the emphasis she places on friendship, particularly in relation to her women patrons.

On the one hand, Lady Pakington's condescension to Thomas in allowing her to be considered a "Friend" can be construed as just another form of patronage. Being admitted to the "conversation" of someone from a superior social class was significant at a time when social status was a type of currency. Through her connection to Lady Pakington, as Dustin Griffin suggests, Thomas may have experienced "a rise in status, which in turn carried economic value at a time when income and access to economic resources were closely correlated with rank."⁴ Moreover, patrons were often invited to give protection to authors' texts—to act as friends, not critics—a role Thomas specifically requests of Lady Pakington in the final line of the quotation above.

On the other hand, Lady Pakington may have overlooked social inequalities to strike up a sincere friendship with Thomas because of their mutual interest in literature, particularly occasional poetry. Aside from Thomas lending her manuscript of poems to Lady Pakington, the two also shared a correspondence. In a letter that Lady Pakington wrote to Thomas, dated 30 May 1701, an ongoing association becomes apparent.⁵ In fact, Lady Pakington apologizes to Thomas for a lapse in their correspondence by writing, "I must always acknowledge kind Corinna (Thomas's pseudonym) to be the best natur'd & most generous Person in ∧^ye World since she can still have obliging thoughts ffor one XXXXX who so little deserves them." Lady Pakington compliments Thomas's "Verses," which she still has in her possession, and says that "I was glad of an excuse not, to restore [them] when I was in London." Lady Pakington closes the letter by expressing concern for Thomas's health and assuring Thomas of her friendship.⁶

Not much material evidence survives that connects Thomas to Lady Pakington, but what does survive, especially when viewed in context with other letters Thomas wrote, reveals a pattern in Thomas's life. Thomas repeatedly sought out patronage from accomplished women, and exogamous friendships developed as a result of mutual interests. The fact that Thomas made friends with artistic, learned women was not an accident. Throughout most of her life, Thomas attempted to cultivate her mind and spirituality through carefully chosen friendships. Through her texts and letters, literary historians can glimpse an aspect of early eighteenth-century life in which like-minded women of different social classes came together and were motivated to act or write on behalf of other women. In this environment, Thomas thrived and developed a reputation for her learning and wit.

Eighteenth-Century Women and Patronage

Women were a part of the patronage system as both authors and patrons in the eighteenth century, but the options for women were more limited than for their male counterparts. Official positions in government or the church were out of the question, but...