Abstract

This article explores the place of travel and tourism in the lives of elite, Quaker families in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, reflected primarily in the memoirs of the author, Mary-Anne Schimmelpenninck, nee Mary-Anne Galton (1778–1856), whose diverse oeuvre included writings on history, religion and aesthetics. It is, however, her autobiography, left unfinished and posthumously edited for publication by her relative, Christina Hankin, that provides unique insights into the functions travel and touring served in promoting geographical networks in England that maintained and affirmed Quaker identity, contributed to family culture and education and influenced Schimmelpenninck’s life and work. The memoirs were first published in 1858 in a book divided into two parts. The first comprised the unfinished memoirs of her life until the age of twenty, dictated when Schimmelpenninck was in her seventies to her close friend and relative, Christiana Hankin. The second part is Hankin’s reconstruction of her life thereafter until her death in 1856 from the fragmentary correspondence, journal fragments and miscellaneous writings left among her papers.

Keywords

Fox family, Travel and Dissent, Quaker families, Lunar Society, Quaker travel and tourism, Gurney family, Mary-Anne Schimmelpenninck, Birmingham history

How to Cite