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Honora Edgeworth ( nΓ©e Sneyd; 1751 β 1 May 1780) was an eighteenth-century English writer, mainly known for her associations with literary figures of the day particularly Anna Seward and the Lunar Society, and for her work on children's education. Sneyd was born in Bath in 1751, and following the death of her mother in 1756 was raised by Canon Thomas Seward and his wife Elizabeth in Lichfield, Staffordshire until she returned to her father's house in 1771. There, she formed a close friendship with their daughter, Anna Seward. Having had a romantic engagement to John AndrΓ© and having declined the hand of Thomas Day, she married Richard Edgeworth as his second wife in 1773, living on the family estate in Ireland till 1776. There she helped raise his children from his first marriage, including Maria Edgeworth, and two children of her own. Returning to England she fell ill with tuberculosis, which was incurable, dying at Weston in Staffordshire in 1780. She is the subject of a number of Anna Seward's poems, and with her husband developed concepts of childhood education, resulting in a series of books, such as Practical Education, based on her observations of the Edgeworth children. She is known for her stand on women's rights through her vigorous rejection of the proposal by Day, in which she outlined her views on equality in marriage.
This dear child will not live; I am perpetually fearing it, notwithstanding the clear health which crimsons her cheek and glitters in her eyes. Such early expansion of intelligence and sensibility partakes too much of the angelic, too little of the mortal nature, to tarry long in these low abodes of frailty and of pain, where the harshness of authority, and the impenetrability of selfishness, with the worse mischiefs of pride and envy, so frequently agitate by their storms, and chill by their damps, the more ingenious and purer spirits, scattered, not profusely, over the earth.
Honora Sneyd was an accomplished scholar, attending day school in Lichfield where she became fluent in French, translating Rousseau's Julie for her older foster sister. Though Canon Seward's (but not his wife's) attitudes towards the education of girls was progressive relative to the times, they were "by no means excessively liberal". Amongst the subjects he taught them were theology and numeracy, and how to read, appreciate, write and recite poetry. Although this deviated from what were considered "conventional drawing room accomplishments", he encouraged them away from traditional female roles. However, the omissions were also notable, including languages and science, although they were left free to pursue their own inclinations in this regard. To that end they were exposed to the circle of learned men who frequented the Bishop's Palace at Lichfield where they lived, and which became the centre of a literary circle including, David Garrick, Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. The children were encouraged to participate in the conversations, as Anna later relates.
Sneyd had a reputation for both intelligence and beauty, as commented on by many, including Anna Seward and Richard Edgeworth (see below). In 1764 Seward described Sneyd as "fresh and beautiful as the young day-star, when he bathes his fair beams in the dews of spring". At seventeen Honora Sneyd was briefly engaged to a Swiss born Derbyshire merchant, John AndrΓ©, a relationship that Seward had fostered, and wrote about in her Monody on Major AndrΓ© (1781) when AndrΓ© became a British officer in 1771 and was hanged as a spy by the Americans. The respective parents did not support this attachment for reasons of his financial status.
Around Christmas 1770, Thomas Day and Richard Edgeworth, who like Thomas Seward were members of the Lunar Society that met in Lichfield amongst other places, were spending increasing amounts of time at the Seward household and both had fallen for Sneyd, although Edgeworth was already married. In 1771 she declined an offer of marriage from Thomas Day. Edgeworth gives an account of her letter of rejection stating that it "contained an excellent answer to his Day's arguments in favour of the rights of men, and a clear dispassionate view of the rights of women". Edgeworth continues that Sneyd had very determined views on the role of women and their rights within marriage.
Miss Honora Sneyd would not admit the unqualified control of a husband over all her actions; she did not feel, that seclusion from society was indispensably necessary to preserve female virtue, or to secure domestic happiness. Upon terms of reasonable equality, she supposed, that mutual confidence might best subsist; she said, that, as Mr Day had decidedly declared his determination to live in perfect seclusion from what is usually called the world, it was fit she should decidedly declare, that she would not change her present mode of life, with which she had no reason to be dissatisfied, for any dark and untried system, that could be proposed to her.
However, Honora Sneyd's father moved to Lichfield from London in 1771, and reassembled his family of five daughters there. By now Honora was nineteen and Anna viewed her friend's departure with considerable dismay. Although Day was much distressed by his rejection by Honora Sneyd, he transferred his affections to the fifth daughter, Elizabeth Sneyd, who had been in the care of Mr Henry Powys and his wife, Susannah Sneyd, of the Abbey, Shrewsbury, Mrs. Powys being Mr Sneyd's niece. However, Elizabeth Sneyd was not inclined to accept Day.
Richard Edgeworth comments on how Honora Sneyd had affected him;
During this intercourse I perceived the superiority of Miss Honora Sneyd's capacity ... her sentiments were on all subjects so just and were delivered with such blushing modesty though not without an air of conscious worth as to command attention from every one capable of appreciating female excellence. Her person was graceful her features beautiful and their expression such as to heighten the eloquence of every thing she said. I was six and twenty and now for the first time in my life I saw a woman that equalled the picture of perfection which existed in my imagination.
He continued, describing the unhappiness of his marriage, and how that made him vulnerable to her attributes, which were shared by all the learned gentlemen of his circle. He also believed that Anna Seward had noticed the effect her friend was having on him, and would regularly place her actions in the best light for his benefit. The elimination of Day as a suitor for Honora Sneyd's hand placed Edgeworth in a difficult situation and he resolved to end it by moving to Lyon France, to work, in the autumn of 1771.
Through this marriage Sneyd became step-mother to Edgeworth's four surviving children by his first wife, Anna Maria, ranging from seven months to nine years in age; Richard, Maria Edgeworth, who became a writer in her own right, Emmeline and Anna Maria. On encountering her new family she observed that Maria, then aged five, was exhibiting behavioural problems, and expressed her views that speedy and consistent punishment were the keys to ensuring good behaviour in children, a view she proceeded to practice. However, she believed that such discipline needed to be imposed "before the age of 5 or 6", and was therefore rather late in the case of the older children; however, she imposed a strict discipline. Following a period of ill health on Sneyd's part, Maria Edgeworth was sent away to boarding school in Derby (1775β1781), and later London upon the death of Honora Sneyd (1781β1782). Similarly, her older brother Richard was sent to Charterhouse (1776β1778) and then went to sea, and she never saw him again. Later Richard Edgeworth would comment on how difficult the first two years were for Sneyd in her new role as stepmother to undisciplined children, a role her relatives had advised her against.
Honora Sneyd was soon pregnant, giving birth to her daughter Honora on 30 May 1774, who died at the age of sixteen. Her second child, Lovell, who inherited the property, was born the following year on 30 June 1775. The Edgeworth children were raised according to the system of Rousseau, as refined and modified by the Edgeworths. Richard Edgeworth considered his early educational efforts a failure, the older children from his first marriage growing up unruly and then being sent away to school, and readily concurred with his new wife's stricter rules. However, he had seen very little of them in their early years.
On Honora Sneyd's death, Edgeworth married her younger sister, Elizabeth Sneyd, stating that this had been the dying wish of Honora. Jenny Uglow speculates that this was a marriage of convenience, for the sake of the children. Although it was technically legal to marry one's wife's sister, the marriage was considered scandalous, and was opposed by the Sneyds, Sewards and Edgeworths as well as the Bishop. The couple fled to London where they were married on Christmas Day with Thomas Day as witness, before proceeding to live at Northchurch. The scandal may have given rise to less charitable interpretations of Edgeworth's actions, although there is no direct evidence to support or refute these. Honora Sneyd's will, drawn up during the last month of her life refers only to "that Woman whom he shall think worthy to call his, for her to wear, so long as they both shall LOVE", referring to a cameo she owned of Richard Edgeworth.
Richard and Maria Edgeworth state that "She Honora was of opinion that the art of education should be considered as an experimental science", and that the failures of the past were due to "following theory rather than practice". Richard Edgeworth and Honora then set about applying the emerging principles of educational psychology to the actual practice of education. From their reading of theory they determined that the reason Barbauld was successful was that the child's reading was rewarded (thus departing radically from Rousseau), because it was associated with pleasure. Honora Sneyd conceived of the title of their work therefore as Practical Education. With her husband, Honora wrote the first version of Practical Education as a children's book Practical education: or, the history of Harry and Lucy for Honora her daughter, which was begun in 1778 and privately published in February 1780 in Lichfield as Practical Education, vol 2. The book tells a simple story of two parents and their two model children, Harry and Lucy, who carry out domestic chores and ask their parents many questions, the answers to which may be deemed educational. The children explain their discoveries and how they learn, the whole presented as nine forms of learning. As originally conceived it was intended to be the second part of a series of three books, but the remaining parts remained unwritten. The original plan had been for a collaborative work, contributed to by various members of the Lunar Society. it was an ambitious project designed to fill what they perceived of as major deficiencies in the field of both technical and scientific education and to introduce early ideas on morality, science and other academic disciplines into the developing mind of the young child. After Honora Sneyd's premature death, her sister Elizabeth continued the work, in her role as the third wife of Richard Edgeworth. The final version of the book was authored by Richard and Maria Edgeworth and published after both Honora and her sister Elizabeth's deaths, in 1798, and further revised under Maria's name as Early lessons (1801β1825). In reality this was a family project contributed to by a number of their members that would extend over 50 years, beyond Richard Edgeworth's death in 1817 (c. 1774β1825).
Richard Edgeworth observed on his wife's death that being familiar with the experimental method in science, she was surprised to find that educational theory was based on very little empirical evidence, and set out to apply experimental science to child education and devised, executed and recorded experiments with children. She conceived and executed a register (2 volumes 1778β1779) of the reaction of children to new knowledge and experience, given her interest in applying experimental science to the field of child education. She observed the questions that children asked, what they did, and how they solved problems. An extensive example of her recorded dialogue is given by Richard and Maria Edgeworth in " Practical Education". This formed the basis of Richard Edgeworth's Essays on professional education (1809). In the Bodleian Library there is a short story in manuscript dated 1787 and other fragments attributed to Honora Sneyd. Her parents' principles of childhood education were to be a profound influence on Maria Edgeworth's own career as a writer for children.
From growing up in the Seward household with Canon Seward and the members of the Lunar Society, Honora Sneyd and her childhood friend Anna Seward developed relatively progressive views for the times on the status of women and equality in marriage, a key to which was female education. Sneyd entered into marriage with Richard Edgeworth on the understanding that they were equal partners in his work. Anna, and later Honora's stepdaughter, Maria Edgeworth, were to take those values and promote them in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Britain, the ancestors of modern Feminism. Today Honora's position on women's rights is best remembered for her rebuke of Thomas Day and his theory of the "perfect wife".
Anna Seward's will mentions two likenesses of Honora Sneyd in her possession that she wished to bequeath. The first of these was a mezzotinto engraving after George Romney, which she had modeled for as "Serena" (see Figure, above) to Honora's brother Edward. The other was a drawn miniature portrait by John AndrΓ© (1776) which she left to her cousin and confidante Mary Powys. A jasper medallion, after an image by John Flaxman, was issued by the Wedgwood factory in 1780 (right). Honora Sneyd was the subject of many of Seward's poems, When Sneyd married Edgeworth, she became the subject of Seward's anger, yet the latter continued to write about Sneyd and her affection for her long after her death. In addition to being immortalised in Anna Seward's poetry, Sneyd appears semi-fictionalised as a character in a play about Major AndrΓ© and herself, AndrΓ©; a Tragedy in Five Acts by William Dunlap, first produced in New York in 1798.
The plaque in St. Andrew's Church, Weston, where she is buried, on the north wall of the tower, reads;
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