Changes and Chances: Clergy Life in 18th 19th Century Yorkshire

The author traces the fascinating story of the contrasting fortunes of several generations of his Rudd and Ibbotson ancestors in eighteenth and nineteenth century Yorkshire. Many were clergymen who had a respected social status to maintain but who often found themselves without the financial resources to support it. This tale explores how they endeavoured to meet those challenges with varying degrees of success. Some had the advantage of a university education or the good fortune to be favoured by a patron, while others were left to strive to embark on a career making the best use of whatever abilities they possessed.Some remarkable women emerge who succeeded in their efforts by grasping the limited opportunities offered to them in a society which afforded little encouragement to them. Those who were left as widows had to find ways in which to maintain their families after the death of the main breadwinner and the author has discovered examples of remarkable business enterprise led exclusively by women.The lives of these family members are presented against a background of contemporary social and economic change, such as the enclosure of common land and the development of the Industrial Revolution. The author also examines political and religious disputes involving contested Parliamentary elections and, at different times, tensions between Anglicans and Quakers and, in the Scottish Episcopalian Church, between pro-Hanoverian and pro-Jacobite sympathisers. An important theme later in the book is the advancement of education, particularly of girls and the initiatives taken by women themselves to encourage progress in its provision. A notable product of this is the career of the talented singer and pianist, Annie Ibbotson.

Pagina's: 228, Paperback, Grosvenor House Publishing Limited