19th Century 1800-1899
State Intervention escalates in Victorian Britain
The industrial revolution brought immense benefits to Victorian society but it also brought huge problems to society. Government responded with intervention at every level and an explosion of civil servants and bureaucrats to cope with the fast unraveling problems.
Read MoreJane Austen Centre in Bath
Family members of Jane Austen…and why not a visit to the Regency Architecture of Bath and a visit to the Jane Austen Centre as well?
Read MoreJane Austen’s House and Museum at Chawton Hants
It was Chawton where Jane spent the last 8 years of her life in the grace and favour small house provided by the generosity of her brother Edward Austen. Now the location of the Jane Austen House Museum
Read MoreMarried Women’s Property Act 1870
Married Women’s Property Act 1870 was one of the most significant acts passed that changed how society and the courts perceived women.
Read MoreFlorence Nightingale and Women’s Suffrage
Florence Nightingale and Women’s Suffrage Florence had a vision that went beyond her incredible organisational and nursing abilities. Her attitudes made her capable of anticipating the dramatic events that would unfold for women in the late stages of the C19th and early C20th. She wrote ‘Till a woman can be in possession of her own…
Read MorePhrenology- a Victorian obsession?
In 1824, George Combe’s ‘Elements of Phrenology’ was published. Phrenology was the identification of an individual’s faculties by feeling the shape of the skull. It was argued by Franz Joseph Gall, an Austrian physician, along with Johann Spurzheim that mind and brain were connected, in a way that, different characteristics of mind, would give different…
Read MoreWomen and children – Custody of Children Act 1839
Children no longer just the property of their father, Caroline Norton influences the first piece of feminist legislation protecting their rights to how a child should be cared for…
Read More‘Lunatics’ and the Poor Law Act 1834
Asylums had been operating in Britain for hundreds of years, the first recorded was the Bethlem Royal Hospital established in the C15th and were run as private charitable institutions. The whole business was a haphazard affair until the Madhouse Act of 1774 which established licensing and yearly inspections of asylums. Still little provision was made…
Read MoreBirth Marriage Death Registration Act 1836
The Birth, Marriage and Death Registration Act of 1836, introduced registration of these life events but contained no penalties for refusal to register. It established the General Register Office and divided the country into registration districts. It became effective from 1st July 1837 Find the earliest registration of a life event in your tree…
Read MoreLord Shaftsbury built on John Pounds Ragged School idea…campaigned to improve the lot of working children
“The future hopes of a country must, under God, be laid in the character and condition of its children;…” Inspired by John Pounds and his own increasing religious conviction Lord Shaftsbury was a leader in social reform for children as the best way to improve society overall…
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