Author: Lickbarrow, Isabella (dates uncertain; fl. 1814-18)
Title: Poetical Effusions.
Date: 1814
Biographical Information
For a long time not much was known about Isabella Lickbarrow. She was born to Mary and James Lickbarrow of Market Place, Kendal, Westmorland November 5, 1784 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). She was the oldest of four daughters, herself and sisters Rachel, Hannah, and Margret. Her parents were Quakers, though records show her father James might have deviated from the religion later in life (Constance Parrish). When Isabella was five, her mother passed away at the age of thirty-four. James Lickbarrow managed to raise his children with the help of extended family, including Isabella’s great aunt Deborah Dalton the mother of famous scientist John Dalton. Deborah Dalton was said to have had a great influence on Isabella and was very devoted to taking care of the young motherless girls.
James Lickbarrow was a “school master,” and he made sure to give his daughters a good education. The children most likely attended a school where James Lickbarrow taught with John Dalton. The children were taught Latin, Greek, and French among other things. It was said that James Dalton had high respect for women’s education and Quaker tradition often dictated that boys and girls receive equal treatment, meaning Isabella and her sisters most likely received a full and broad education (Constance Parrish). It appeared that Isabella might have adopted the Quaker ideology when it came to her education. She described herself as “self-taught” in many of her works and it was often Quaker practice to seek your own education (Constance Parrish).
James Lickbarrow died in 1805 when Isabella was just twenty years old. It appeared that Isabella may have first indulged in writing in secret, but after her father’s death she was forced to run to that skill to provide for her family. In her first poetry volume Poetical Effusions, Lickbarrow is very upfront that the collection was published as a way to provide for herself as well as her sisters. Lickbarrow wrote for the Westmorland Advertiser from 1811 to 1815, and it is said that the publishers were very influential in convincing Lickbarrow to publish her work (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). The first identifiable Lickbarrow poem featured in the Westmorland Advertiser is “Lines on the Comet” (Duncan Wu). Poetical Effusions was published in 1814 and had a long list of subscribers including the likes of John Dalton and William Wordsworth. In 1818 she published another volume of poetry titled Lament upon the Death of Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte And Alfred, A Vision, and after continued to publish in other newspapers such as Monthly Repository and Lonsdale Magazine (Duncan Wu).
For the majority of her adult life, Isabella Lickbarrow lived with her sisters Margret and Rachel in Greenhow Yard, Highgate, Kendal. The fourth sister, Hannah, died in 1797 at the age of nine (Constance Parrish). Isabella, Margret, and Rachel kept a school in Kendal until1820 when both Margret and Rachel were admitted to the Lancaster Lunatic Asylum for hereditary melancholia (Constance Parrish). While both sisters were discharged May 16, 1822, Rachel was admitted on three more occasions for having attempted suicide (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). It was said that Isabella herself might have been admitted to the same asylum, but there is little proof to this having happened (Constance Parrish).
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The committing of her sisters as well as the death of her parents left Isabella in financial distress for many years and probably led to the decline in her publications. The deaths of Lickbarrow’s aunt, Fanny Lickbarrow, and John Dalton, and their bequests to her, brought financial stability to Isabella’s household. Fanny Lickbarrow died first in 1834, leaving £100 for her nieces in her will (Constance Parrish). In 1844 John Dalton also passed away, leaving £900 to be divided between Isabella, Margret, and Rachel, though it would appear the sisters did not benefit from the inheritance until 1845 (Constance Parrish).
Finally stable financially and in her own health, Isabella Lickbarrow began publishing again around age fifty-three. Lickbarrow wrote about the abolition of slavery, national events, as well as the environment around her in Kendal. Lickbarrow passed away in Underbarrow, Kendal February 10, 1847 at age sixty-three of possible tuberculosis (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Records show that her sisters Margret and Rachel continued to live in Kendal without financial burden.
Isabella Lickbarrow lived a difficult life full of struggle, poverty, and tragedy. Even while facing the deaths of many of her loved ones, as well as shouldering the burden of being a primary breadwinner for her family, Isabella Lickbarrow nevertheless managed to enhance her education as well as pursue her passion for writing. While much of her work presents her as a humble self-educated poet, she proved herself to be extremely knowledgeable and talented.
Sources:
Parrish, Constance. “Isabella Lickbarrow (1784-1847).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. www.oxforddnb.com. May 25. 2006. Web.
Parrish, Constance. Isabella Lickbarrow-Collected Poems. Cumbria, The Wordsworth Trust, 2004. Print.
Wu, Duncan. “Isabell Lickbarrow and the ‘Westmorland Advertiser’: A Literary Partnership.” The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 27, no. 2, 1996, pp. 118–126. JSTOR, JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/24042634.
Prepared by Hailey Fischer, University of Nebraska, April 2018
© Hailey Fischer, 2018