The Journal of Margaret Hoare Woods: "Bow me in deep humility of soul . . ."

THE JOURNAL OF MARGARET HOARE WOODS "Bow me in deep humility of soul ..." Judith Jennings* While revolutions were transforming the American colonies into a nation and the French monarchy into a republic, steam was revolutionizing the British economy, Napoleon was changing the face of Europe, and the Prince Regent was dancing at Bath, Margaret Hoare Woods was living a quiet and, in many ways, unremarkable life in London. Like other women ofher time and since, she kept ajournai, a private record of her thoughts and emotions. When she died in 1821 she left the journal to her daughter and granddaughters who "received consolation and encouragement from the perusal of it."1 They believed that others might also benefit from reading the journal . Publishers in London, Bristol and York agreed, issuing a one volume abridgement of it in 1 829 and a second edition a year later. In 1850 publishers in London and Philadelphia brought out a third edition.2 The published extracts of her journal show Margaret Woods to be a model of the quiescent woman. She was deeply religious, devoted to her family, concerned for the poor and willing to accept subordination . In many ways she is a case study in the ever greater stress on family life and the increasingly bourgeois nature ofQuakerism in the eighteenth century, noted by the social historian Richard Vann and others.3 Yet her manuscript journal, filling eight small volumes, reveals a more complex picture of Margaret Woods. Not always a model of patient submission, she suffered anguishing doubts, misgivings and resentment as she struggled to define the proper role ofa *Judith Jennings is assistant director of the Kentucky Humanities Council. 1 . Extractsfrom the Journal, etc. ofthe late Margaret Woodsfrom the Year 1 771 to 1821 (London: John and Arthur Arch, 1829), Preface. 2.ibid., York: Alexander & Son, 1829; Bristol: Davey & Muskett, 1829. 2nd ed., 1830. 3rd ed. London: Charles Gilpin, 1850; Philadelphia: Henry Longstreath , 1850. 3.Richard Vann, The Social Development of English Quakerism 1655-1755 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1955), pp. 159, 164. Vann's conclusions have not gone unchallenged but have been seconded by Alan Anderson, "The Social Origins of Early Quakers," Quaker History (Vol. 68, No. 1, Spring 1979), pp. 33-40. 26 The Journal Of Margaret Hoare Woods27 middle-class Quaker woman in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Very little can be discovered about Margaret Woods before she took pen in hand in 1771 and began writing about herself. She was born on 4 February 1748, "the great favorite" of the seven children of Grizell and Samuel Hoare. Samuel Hoare had "engaged early in the Irish provision trade" but later moved to London and improved his fortune by his marriage to Grizell Gurnell, the daughter of a Quaker merchant "who by proper application to business," beginning with the Portugese trade, "had acquired early in life, an ample fortune. . . ."" As a child Margaret learned to read, to write and to be tidy. She later recalled stories by "Mrs. Teachum" on the importance ofbeing neat and orderly.5 In 1768 Margaret Hoare, age 20, married Joseph Woods, ten years her senior, at the Quaker meeting house in Gracechurch Street, City of London. By Hoare family standards Woods, a woolen-draper, "was a man of little fortune."6 He set up shop in Whitehart Courtjust off Lombard Street, and in that busy spot, near the Jamaica Coffee House and the popular George and Vulture Inn, he made pattern cards and sold woolen cloth to customers in England and the American colonies.7 Margaret Woods began her journal in January 1771 because she felt the "importance of preparing for death even in the days of youth and prosperity." She felt a need for "inward retirement," and with servants to help with domestic duties she had leisure hours to devote to writing and reflection. Margaret hoped that keeping the journal would help her in her struggle for "This subjection of the mind to that spirit which would teach us all things and preserve us from all evil," especially because she was finding subjection "a hard lesson to learn." Later she, or one of her descendants, was so ashamed of some of...