Growing up as a Girl in Edgeworthstown House, c.1782–1807: the Experiences of Elizabeth and Charlotte Edgeworth

Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth are hailed as educational pioneers whose jointly-authored work, Practical Education (1798), outlines methods that are grounded in and illustrated by accounts of the experiences of R. L. Edgeworth’s large family of children. The extent to which this educational programme was based on principles of gender equality is, however, the subject of scholarly debate. This article offers an original perspective on these debates by reading both Practical Education and Maria Edgeworth’s Letters for Literary Ladies (1795, 1798) in conjunction with manuscript materials written by the Edgeworth children, focusing particularly on Elizabeth and Charlotte Edgeworth. These archival materials offer evidence as to the day-to-day practices within the Edgeworth family, supporting the view that the education the children received was largely gender-neutral, with boys and girls learning alongside each other, and sharing most subjects in common. The writings of both Elizabeth and Charlotte Edgeworth are moreover highly self-reflective, revealing that they were conscious of the expectation that their behaviour and decisions should reflect the principles according to which they had been educated, including the complex messages that they had received as to the need to balance their responsibility as rational agents with the limited autonomy they possessed.