Jane Elizabeth Holmes, born in 1838, (the grand daughter of Locomotive pioneer, Timothy Hackworth) wrote the book 'Esther'
As light wind sweeping o'er the lea,
Her mind had been improved with care,
An extended poem of a 124 pages, in the early 1860's, published posthumously in 1865. The poem is set in the lakes, around Pooley Bridge and Ullswater, moving on to London, but more specifically centered in and around Lyulph's Tower, Aira Force Waterfall, Dockray, Cumbria, where Wordsworth set the poem “The Somnambulist” (1828) in response to the legend of the ghost of Aira Force.
Sadly, she died in 1863 at the age of 24 and her poem was sent to print by her family, in 1865 and published by HJ Tresidder, 17, Ave Marie Lane, London EC and printed by Spottiswoode and Co. 5, New Street Square, London EC.
JANE ELIZABETH HOLMES 1838 – 1863 - ESTHER (Novel in Verse 1865)
POET, AUTHOR, GRANDDAUGHTER OF TIMOTHY HACKWORTH and UNACKNOWLEDGED FEMALE LAKELAND POET!)
By Trev Teasdel (This Article was Published in The Globe (The Journal of the Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Issue 19 December 2022)
The book is online and free to read here https://drive.google.com/.../11Dy4krVi2AI0UJ.../view
"Though Esther was as wild and free
As light wind sweeping o'er the lea,
Her mind had been improved with care,
And to its natural powers - as rare"
Extract from ‘Esther’ by Jane Elizabeth Holmes p22
Jane Elizabeth Holmes, a granddaughter to Timothy and Jane Hackworth, was often to be seen in Shildon where she lived for a while. Her story is sad and brief but not without literary honour, and although Jane doesn’t mention the railways in her literary work, she is an undiscovered Lakeland Poet writing at a time when women were overlooked as writers. Like the Lakeland literary set, she captures the rapidly changing times in her writing:
"Can English hearts be growing cold,
That now 'tis thought a fashion old,
Unfit for stirring times like these,
When bustling haste seems best to please." p33
Like Coleridge and Southey, she wasn’t born in the Lakes, but she was schooled in Penrith and her beautiful and intelligent epic poem Esther was set in Ullswater, around Aria Falls and Lyulph Tower where Wordsworth found inspiration for both Daffodils and The Somnambulist (The Sleepwalker), the latter which she references in her poem.
In the 1840’s, Prudence Nightingale (5th child of Timothy and Jane Hackworth) ran her own school in Penrith, a Seminary for Young Ladies - and it is here that Jane Elizabeth Holmes went to school from the age of 5 to 8. Pooley Bridge and Ullswater was only 5 miles from Penrith, and Jane captures the essence and natural detail of Ullswater in her later romantic epic.
Jane's mother was Elizabeth Hackworth, (the third child of Timothy and Jane Hackworth); she married Benjamin Holmes in 1837 and settled in Leeds where he was a linen merchant. The couple had four children and Jane was the eldest and the youngest was Samuel Holmes, an engineer, cousin and correspondent of Robert Young who wrote Timothy Hackworth -and the Locomotive.1 Her father died in 1847 from Phthisis (TB) and the family returned to Soho Cottage in Shildon to stay with Timothy Hackworth and his wife. Timothy died in 1850 and Jane in 1852 and so Elizabeth and family went to live with Prudence (who had to give up the school) and rented a farm in Heighington in Co Durham.
We are told that "Jane’s temper was naturally sweet and her manners gentle and graceful, adorned as they were by the higher excellences of Christian holiness which rendered her greatly endeared and universally beloved." Jane became seriously ill in 1854 when she was around 16 years old and a letter in the family archive says, "Leeches were applied to her temples and cat-collops 3 to the soles of her feet". She survived perhaps in spite of the treatment!
Jane finished Esther in 1861, two years before she died in 1863 age 24, nearly 25. It was left to the family to arrange for the work to be published by H.J. Tresidder in London in 1865.
The poem is a 124-page story of a fictitious young girl named Esther Stafford between the ages of 16 and 23. It is written in the style popular in the mid-19th century of a bard recounting the tale to preserve it and to spread its moral of 'don't let pride get in the way of love'. While fictitious, it is hard not to see parallels between Esther’s life and Jane’s given that both died tragically young, and perhaps the start date of Esther’s life at 16, the same age Jane was when she became dangerously ill, is also significant? A great talent lost, and who knows what she would have gone on to write had she lived a little longer.
John Wesley Hackworth’s signature at the front of his copy of Esther The copy of the poem belonging to John Wesley Hackworth, son of Timothy and Jane, found its way into the family archives via Joan Hackworth Weir. You can read Jane’s book Esther online for free via this PDF link provided by the University of California. It’s highly recommended! 4
I would also like to suggest that the Friends might consider republishing this now out of copyright book as a fundraiser, a celebration of this talented Hackworth lady, and as a cultural offering towards the 2025 Bicentenary. Just a thought!
Notes
1. You can read more about Samuel Holmes in Issue 11 of the Globe April 2020 in an entitled ‘A Washington
Monument to Timothy Hackworth in Shildon’ by Jane Hackworth – Young. (https://www.sdr1825.org.uk/.../11-The-Globe-April-2020.pdf)
2. Thanks to Jane Hackworth -Young for supplying a brief biography of Jane Elizabeth Holmes.
3. Cat’s collops are (apparently) small cuts of meat (like you would feed a cat).
4. https://archive.org/details/estherpoem00jerr/mode/2up...
Online versions of the book have been erroneously attributed to Mrs Jerram – a children’s author from
Nottingham whose maiden name was coincidentally Jane Elizabeth Holmes. This is confusing and I have
contacted The British Library about this, and they have changed the ‘name authority’ but it will be awhile before
they changed it online.
Ullswater
John Wesley Hackworth's signature in his copy. Jane Elizabeth Holmes would be his niece. The cover of our copy is red not greem.
And to its natural powers - as rare" p22 Esther.
An extended poem of a 124 pages, in the early 1860's, published posthumously in 1865. The poem is set in the lakes, around Pooley Bridge and Ullswater, moving on to London, but more specifically centered in and around Lyulph's Tower, Aira Force Waterfall, Dockray, Cumbria, where Wordsworth set the poem “The Somnambulist” (1828) in response to the legend of the ghost of Aira Force.
Trish Campbell (a teacher) describes it as "a story of a girl (Esther Stafford) from 16 to 23, just 7 years. She dies at 23, so similar to her own life. I wonder if it was imagination or autobiographical maybe. It reads like a minstrel or a bard recounting / singing a tale to preserve history and it really touched me. Very sensitive and religious. The moral is 'don't let pride get in the way of love'. It took me a while to get used to the style but it made me cry. So sad and yet beautifully descriptive. It's hard to imagine it was written by one so young but then Kate Bush was the same. It's set in the hall and the falls around Ullswater at the beginning, but then life's journey of joys and sorrows goes to London..a tale of love, pride and sorrow. In particular I liked the description on pages 20 - 22, 39,40,79, 87,114, 121 to the end"
Jane Elizabeth Holmes, never got to see her poem in print, although that was her desire.
Sadly, she died in 1863 at the age of 24 and her poem was sent to print by her family, in 1865 and published by HJ Tresidder, 17, Ave Marie Lane, London EC and printed by Spottiswoode and Co. 5, New Street Square, London EC.
I found a hard copy in the archives of Joan Hackworth Weir in 2021, which belonged to her forebear, John Wesley Hackworth, son of Timothy. The page with the signature is on this page below. The book was already on line as a pdf and in other formats which you can view here. https://archive.org/details/estherpoem00jerr/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater
Here is the book / Poem Esther by Jane Elizabeth Holmes, in pdf form and below it you'll find some background to the poem and also Jane's family history.
This is a link to where the book Esther is located on Open Books
This is an article I wrote about the book Esther by Jane Elizabeth Homes for The Globe - The Journal of the Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 2022.
JANE ELIZABETH HOLMES 1838 – 1863 - ESTHER (Novel in Verse 1865)
POET, AUTHOR, GRANDDAUGHTER OF TIMOTHY HACKWORTH and UNACKNOWLEDGED FEMALE LAKELAND POET!)
By Trev Teasdel (This Article was Published in The Globe (The Journal of the Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Issue 19 December 2022)
The book is online and free to read here https://drive.google.com/.../11Dy4krVi2AI0UJ.../view
"Though Esther was as wild and free
As light wind sweeping o'er the lea,
Her mind had been improved with care,
And to its natural powers - as rare"
Extract from ‘Esther’ by Jane Elizabeth Holmes p22
Jane Elizabeth Holmes, a granddaughter to Timothy and Jane Hackworth, was often to be seen in Shildon where she lived for a while. Her story is sad and brief but not without literary honour, and although Jane doesn’t mention the railways in her literary work, she is an undiscovered Lakeland Poet writing at a time when women were overlooked as writers. Like the Lakeland literary set, she captures the rapidly changing times in her writing:
"Can English hearts be growing cold,
That now 'tis thought a fashion old,
Unfit for stirring times like these,
When bustling haste seems best to please." p33
Like Coleridge and Southey, she wasn’t born in the Lakes, but she was schooled in Penrith and her beautiful and intelligent epic poem Esther was set in Ullswater, around Aria Falls and Lyulph Tower where Wordsworth found inspiration for both Daffodils and The Somnambulist (The Sleepwalker), the latter which she references in her poem.
In the 1840’s, Prudence Nightingale (5th child of Timothy and Jane Hackworth) ran her own school in Penrith, a Seminary for Young Ladies - and it is here that Jane Elizabeth Holmes went to school from the age of 5 to 8. Pooley Bridge and Ullswater was only 5 miles from Penrith, and Jane captures the essence and natural detail of Ullswater in her later romantic epic.
Jane's mother was Elizabeth Hackworth, (the third child of Timothy and Jane Hackworth); she married Benjamin Holmes in 1837 and settled in Leeds where he was a linen merchant. The couple had four children and Jane was the eldest and the youngest was Samuel Holmes, an engineer, cousin and correspondent of Robert Young who wrote Timothy Hackworth -and the Locomotive.1 Her father died in 1847 from Phthisis (TB) and the family returned to Soho Cottage in Shildon to stay with Timothy Hackworth and his wife. Timothy died in 1850 and Jane in 1852 and so Elizabeth and family went to live with Prudence (who had to give up the school) and rented a farm in Heighington in Co Durham.
We are told that "Jane’s temper was naturally sweet and her manners gentle and graceful, adorned as they were by the higher excellences of Christian holiness which rendered her greatly endeared and universally beloved." Jane became seriously ill in 1854 when she was around 16 years old and a letter in the family archive says, "Leeches were applied to her temples and cat-collops 3 to the soles of her feet". She survived perhaps in spite of the treatment!
Jane finished Esther in 1861, two years before she died in 1863 age 24, nearly 25. It was left to the family to arrange for the work to be published by H.J. Tresidder in London in 1865.
The poem is a 124-page story of a fictitious young girl named Esther Stafford between the ages of 16 and 23. It is written in the style popular in the mid-19th century of a bard recounting the tale to preserve it and to spread its moral of 'don't let pride get in the way of love'. While fictitious, it is hard not to see parallels between Esther’s life and Jane’s given that both died tragically young, and perhaps the start date of Esther’s life at 16, the same age Jane was when she became dangerously ill, is also significant? A great talent lost, and who knows what she would have gone on to write had she lived a little longer.
John Wesley Hackworth’s signature at the front of his copy of Esther The copy of the poem belonging to John Wesley Hackworth, son of Timothy and Jane, found its way into the family archives via Joan Hackworth Weir. You can read Jane’s book Esther online for free via this PDF link provided by the University of California. It’s highly recommended! 4
I would also like to suggest that the Friends might consider republishing this now out of copyright book as a fundraiser, a celebration of this talented Hackworth lady, and as a cultural offering towards the 2025 Bicentenary. Just a thought!
Notes
1. You can read more about Samuel Holmes in Issue 11 of the Globe April 2020 in an entitled ‘A Washington
Monument to Timothy Hackworth in Shildon’ by Jane Hackworth – Young. (https://www.sdr1825.org.uk/.../11-The-Globe-April-2020.pdf)
2. Thanks to Jane Hackworth -Young for supplying a brief biography of Jane Elizabeth Holmes.
3. Cat’s collops are (apparently) small cuts of meat (like you would feed a cat).
4. https://archive.org/details/estherpoem00jerr/mode/2up...
Online versions of the book have been erroneously attributed to Mrs Jerram – a children’s author from
Nottingham whose maiden name was coincidentally Jane Elizabeth Holmes. This is confusing and I have
contacted The British Library about this, and they have changed the ‘name authority’ but it will be awhile before
they changed it online.
........................
Who Was Jane Elizabeth Holmes?
First a disclaimer: While sharing the same name, Jane Elizabeth Holmes, the author of Esther, was NOT Mrs Jerram! If you search the internet, the book Esther, Jane's name is associated with Mrs Jerram as author but it is an error. Mrs Jerram, whose maiden name was also Jane Elizabeth Holmes, published a book called The Children's own Story Book and Dialogues for Nursery in 1849 but not Esther. Esther was written by another Jane Elizabeth Holmes - a grand daughter of Timothy Hackworth. According to this site https://nottinghamcityofliterature.com/blog/literary-locations-20-st-marys-church
Mrs Jerram was married in 1836 which is two years before the author of Esther was born! Also the author of Esther never married.
This is what the site says of Mrs. Jerram "Predominantly a children’s writer, Jane Jerram wrote under two names, her birth name Jane Elizabeth Holmes and Mrs Jerram. She was married at St Mary’s in 1836. Under the wing of the Nottingham writer Mary Howitt, Jerram wrote in the easiest language she could command “so that a child of three years old can understand it,” as she wrote in her introduction to her 1937 book The Child's Own Story Book; Or, Tales and Dialogues for the Nursery."
And no mention of Esther on that site! here is some biographical details of the author of Esther.
Jane Elizabeth Homes - Author of Esther Published 1865 (1838 - 1863)
Jane Hackworth-Young (descendent and researcher for the Timothy Hackworth
Museum at Shildon, Co Durham UK) has provided the following -
Museum at Shildon, Co Durham UK) has provided the following -
Jane Elizabeth Holmes was the grand daughter of Timothy Hackworth, Superintendent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway and inventor and Locomotive engineer who built the Royal George.
Her mother was Elizabeth Hackworth, third child of Timothy Hackworth and she married Benjamin Holmes on the 8th November 1837 and they settled in Leeds where he was a Linen merchant. The couple had 4 children Jane Elizabeth (07.11. 1838 - 20.10. 1863). Ann (13.07.1841 - 08.12.1898), Mary (26.03. 1843 - not known) and Samuel Holmes 09.11.1845 - 1920).
Her father Benjamin Holmes died on 05.01.1847 from Phthisis (TB).
The little family then returned to Soho Cottage to stay with Timothy Hackworth and his wife Jane. Timothy died in 1850 and Jane in 1852 and so Elizabeth and the family went to live with Prudence (5th child of Timothy Hackworth). Prudence rented a farm in Heighington in Co Durham.
Education - Prudence ran her own school in Penrith in the 1840's a Seminary for Young Ladies - the building is still there - and it is where Jane Elizabeth went to school - presumably from the age of 5 to about the age of 8 when her father died and they moved in with Timothy Hackworth. Elizabeth would have probably been familiar with the Pooley Bridge and Ullswater which is only some 4 or 5 miles from Penrith and this formed the background to her poem Esther. it is likely that she wrote the poem later though as the introduction to the book states that she finished the last lines of Esther two years before her death - about 1861 when she was 22 / 23. Prudence had to give up the school after her parents died and rented a farm at Heighington and brought Elizabeth and her children including Jane Elizabeth, to live with her. It's not hard to imagine that Prudence continued to have an education influence on Jane Elizabeth after the move.
In the introduction to the book it is written "Her school days were were passed in the neighbourhood of the English lakes where the scene of this poem is laid. Imagination ,emotion stirred, descriptive powers, tenderness and pathos and charmed with the purity of sentiment pervading the whole."
Jane Elizabeth became seriously ill in 1854 when she around 16 years old and a letter it says "Leeches were applied to her temples and cat-collops to the soles of her feet" She survived and she and her two sisters were full of fun and were known as the "three beautiful Miss Holmes".
I've no idea how long it took her to write it or if she revisited the location of the poem but it's clear it was written in her early 20's.
In terms of personality, we are told in the introduction that "her temper was naturally sweet and her manners gentle and graceful, adorned as they were by the higher excellences of Christian holiness which rendered her greatly endeared and universally beloved."
Jane Elizabeth never married. Jane's younger brother was Samuel Holmes who left for America, an engineer who wrote the proposed introduction to Robert Young's book on Timothy Hackworth which we have published on this site.
Below - Soho Cottage New Shildon where Timothy Hackworth and his wife lived.
Notes on Esther - The Poem 1865
The poem starts off rhythmically and descriptively but soon picks up and carries the story. Set mostly in Ullswater with references to Pooley Bridge and is largely set by Aria Falls and Lyulph's Tower where Wordsworth gained the inspiration for Daffodils and The Somnambulist (or sleepwalker) and in fact Jane refers to Sir Eglamore from Wordsworth poem in her own. There is some good description of Penrith's history, in rhyme page 20-22.
You can read more here http://www.ullswaterway.co.uk/somnambulist.html
and http://www.ullswaterway.co.uk/lyulphs-tower.html
and the poem by Wordsworth https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/somnambulist
Below Lyulph's Tower
Lyulph's Tower
Aira Force
