Charlotte Yonge: Churchwoman, novelist and educator

First at Otterbourne House and then, after her brother married, at Elderfield a modest cottage opposite St Mathew’s Church to which she was so devoted. 

Charlotte’s career as a journalist, prolific novelist, and author of history and works for children was shaped by her strong Anglican faith. The Hampshire Chronicle of Saturday October 14 1899 records her funding the extension to Eastleigh Church, a practical demonstration of faith. 

Her determination to work ‘pro ecclesial dei’- for God’s Church had been nurtured by her spiritual mentor John Keble, the vicar of Hursley, a charismatic figure in the Tractarian Oxford movement which sought to revitalise Anglican worship and beautify churches. 

Charlotte’s debut as a novelist began in 1844 with the publication of Abbey Church a book featuring the building of a church, subtitled Self Doubt or Self Conceit but her breakthrough to national acclaim came in 1853 with The Heir of Redcliffe. 

This novel, like all Charlotte’s works, had a strong moral element and the romantic and virtuous but unjustly maligned protagonist Guy Morville captured the imagination of men as well as women. Amongst Charlotte’s prolific output were several family sagas. Her close friendship with the family of George Moberly, the headmaster of Winchester College, may have inspired the authentic and appealing characters that give these stories their enduring appeal. Charlotte was the Godmother to the youngest Moberly daughter Margaret whose name and birth month were commemorated in the character Margaret May who features in Charlotte’s popular novel The Daisy Chain. 

It was not just through her novels that Charlotte caught the imagination of readers. She was equally influential as a journalist. The cumbersomely titled Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Younger Members of the Church of England which Charlotte edited from 1851 until 1890 was aimed at an audience of older girls keen to self-educate. It was more entertaining that the title might suggest. In addition to fiction and factual content ranging from science to history, it invited readers to participate in an essay writing club as ‘spiders’ who submitted their efforts to Charlotte for critique. Charlotte’s appetite for nurturing girls’ intellectual aspirations was also evident in the Gosling Society a group for aspiring young women writers. As ‘Mother Goose’ Charlotte offered criticism to correspondents who contributed articles to the group magazine The Barnacle. Some of the Goslings notably Mary, Mrs Humphry Ward went on to be professional writers. 

Charlotte’s religious commitment and literary talents came together in her support for the Anglican Girls’ Friendly Society and the Mothers’ Union. Charlotte was a founding ‘Associate’ of the GFS which aimed to protect young working girls from sexual and work place exploitation. It did this through employment registries and the provision of leisure activities. The GFS also helped its members with education in work skills and culture. A magazine Friendly Leaves provided news, fiction, competitions and a correspondence column for members. Charlotte was GFS Diocesan Head of Literature, and the Hampshire Chronicle on Saturday October 25 1890 noted her presence at the GFS conference at the George Hotel. Charlotte provided an amusing picture of a GFS celebration in her novel The Two Sides of the Shield. 

Parish branches have come together for a church service, tea, speeches, prize giving and entertainment. Unfortunately torrential rain means the girls’ amusements have to be indoors. After some hesitation country dancing is approved because ‘There is no harm in dancing itself, provided that the place, the manner, and the companions are fit’. 

Members of Charlotte’s circle of aspiring writers, the Goslings were also represented amongst GFS activists. Charlotte’s biographer and successor as editor of the Monthly Packet, Christabel Coleridge, the granddaughter of the famous poet, also edited the GFS magazine Friendly Leaves until 1911.

Charlotte’s reputation helped endorse the Mothers’ Union. The MU had its origins in the 1876 mothers’ meeting formalised by the issuing of membership cards by Mary Sumner. The Chronicle records the help Charlotte gave to Mary in recruiting members. The February 13 1886 edition reported that: ‘Miss Yonge entertained about 60 mothers of young children at tea in the school room’ before Mary Sumner delivered a speech urging them to join the Mothers’ Union. Four years later in 1890 Charlotte agreed to edit a new magazine aimed at the middle and upper-class women who served as MU branch leaders or patrons. After the title Mothers in Council came the subtitle: ‘The periodical is the Organ, for the Upper Classes, of the Society entitled Mothers’ Union.'

Charlotte’s first editorial stated that 'Essays will be given in babyhood, childhood, boyhood, girlhood and youth’ she also noted that literature for men would be included. The key message was that ‘hands on’ parenting was not just for working class mothers. One article encouraged parents ‘to visit a genuine kindergarten to study the principles as well as to copy the practices there inculcated. For all mothers and indeed fathers it is right to know how to teach their children’.

Charlotte loved practical teaching as well as educational theory and was, according to Christabel Coleridge, a ‘brilliant’ teacher of young children. She took Sunday School classes for boys and girls every week and the log book of Otterbourne school for 1899 records her giving occasional lessons on topics including ‘the porcupine’, ‘the gondola’ and ‘shells’. Her empathy for the young and astuteness concerning children’s learning comes through in The Langley Tales, a series for children focusing on an imaginary village school. 

Charlotte had always been sympathetic to girls’ intellectual aspirations as her heroine Ethel May of The Daisy Chain illustrates. However, she had reservations as to the benefits of boarding school, fearing that a concentration of girls would lead to frivolity and gossip.
Over time Charlotte began to recognise the benefits of institutional education for girls especially as she acknowledged the importance of examinations and, encouraged by her friend Elizabeth Wordsworth, the first principal of Oxford Women’s College Lady Margaret Hall supported university education for women. In 1883 Charlotte was persuaded by another friend Anna Bramston, a daughter of the Dean of Winchester, to join a committee that sought to establish ‘a superior day school for girls’. The school which we know today as St Swithun’s was originally known as Winchester High School and opened in 1884 with just 17 pupils.  

Charlotte’s contribution to the school and, in the words of the Chronicle of October 25 1890, as a ‘pioneer of that religious and high-toned literature for young people, which for the last fifty years has been a special glory of England and other countries’ inspired a campaign to fund a university scholarship in her name. Nine years later the Chronicle of July 22 1899 reported the inaugural ceremony. For self-effacing Charlotte, who had a reputation for shyness, this must have been something of an ordeal. Nevertheless she was able to give a gracious acceptance speech in which she said ‘I have always been anxious, in my homely way, for the promotion of culture, religious and intellectual, among girls’.