Matilda Charlotte Houstoun (née Jesse; 16 August 1811 – June 1892) was an English travel writer, novelist, biographer, and women's right activist. She is best known for her series of travel writings, particularly Texas and the Gulf of Mexico (1844) and Hesperos, and their observations about African-American life during the times of the Confederate Deep South.Travelers In Texas 1761-1860, Marilyn McAdams Sibley, 1967Basic Texas Books: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Works for a Research Library, John Holmes Jenkins, 1988The Sweetness of Life: Southern Planters at Home, Eugene D. Genovese, Douglas Ambrose, 2017 p. 80 Later on, she turned her pen from novels to social reform, particularly on the rights of working class women and single mothers. During her lifetime, her best known work was Recommended to Mercy, a female-driven "yellow-back" novel published in 1862.Notable Women Authors edited by, Troy J Bassett, Catherine Pope, p. 347 see here
Childhood
Matilda Charlotte Jesse was baptised into the Church of England at All Saints' parish church in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, 16 August 1811.
Her father, Edward Jesse (1780–1868), was a writer on natural history and the son of a Yorkshire vicar. His family had been Huguenots (French Protestants) who had moved to England following the 1685 revocation of the edict of Nantes. He was a friend of John Wilson Croker, Irish statesman and author, and Rev. John Mitford, editor of The Gentleman's Magazine. Jesse held various government appointments, including sinecure positions, and became Deputy Surveyor of Royal Parks and Palaces, in which role he helped restore Hampton Court Palace.Dictionary of National Biography 1885-1900, George Thomas Bettany, 1900, Volume 29 Jesse, EdwardNotable women authors of the day, Helen Cecelia Black, 1906, pp. 225–226
Her mother, Matilda , was the daughter of Sir John Morris, 1st Baronet of Glamorganshire, Wales.Notable women authors of the day, Helen Cecelia Black, 1906, pp. 226–227
Matilda had a brother, John Heneage Jesse, who grew up to be a historian, and a sister, later Mrs. Curwen.Notable women authors of the day, Helen Cecelia Black, 1906, p. 227The Illustrated London News, Volume 52, 1868, p. 363 The family lived in or near the royal parks to the west of London, first at Richmond Park and then Bushy Park. Edward Jesse became well acquainted with the Duke of Clarence, later William IV,Basic Texas Books: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Works for a Research Library, John Holmes Jenkins, 1988, p. 253 and as Matilda and her father rode around Richmond Park, the Duke would often join them. At one point the family lived in Molesey, Surrey.
She received a basic education, but her Welsh governess banned her charge from reading novels. However, she would often work on her father's rough drafts, becoming acquainted with numerous artists and writers of the day.Notable women authors of the day, Helen Cecelia Black, 1906, p. 230 She was familiar with the writings of Theodore Edward Hook and Thomas Moore from her father's social circle, and began to write short stories and poems.Notable women authors of the day, Helen Cecelia Black, 1906, p. 228
The debate around the abolition of slavery across the British Empire was a burning political question in the early nineteenth century. Her aunt taught her about this cause as she grew up. The family was visited by William Wilberforce against whom she held a ‘childhood grudge’ because 'after the visit of the great emancipator, all cakes and puddings were strictly tabooed as they contained West India sugar, and therefore to eat them was a sin'.
Early adulthood Her first marriage was to Reverend Lionel Fraser circa 1831. He died the following year and she moved back to her parents' home, where she stayed for four years.
Her second marriage was on 1 October 1839 in the chapel of the British Embassy in Paris, to Captain William Houstoun of the 10th Royal Hussars cavalry regiment."Ancestors of Captain William Houstoun 10th Hussars" (June 11, 2016). Houstoun.org.uk. Retrieved May 24, 2020. Her husband's father was General Sir William Houston, 1st Baronet, sometime Governor of Gibraltar, and his mother was Lady Jane Maitland, the fourth daughter of James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale.
They had two sons, William who was born in 1838, George, who was born in 1841, and one daughter, Sidney, born in 1843.The County Families of the United Kingdom Or, Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland, Edward Walford, 1869, p. 514The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire as at Present Existing, Edmund Lodge, 1877, p. 694"Ancestors of William Houstoun" (June 11, 2016). Houstoun.org.uk. Retrieved May 24, 2020."Ancestors of Sidney Houstoun" (June 11, 2016). Houstoun.org.uk. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
In 1842–1844 she travelled with her husband to New Orleans and Texas, which was the source for her first travel writings; then they travelled in a Britzka carriage through Paris and Naples, returning to Texas in the 1850s.Notable women authors of the day, Helen Cecelia Black, 1906, p. 229 The family moved to Ireland when her husband acquired land in Doolough, County Mayo. Living in Dhulough Lodge, she began her career as a novelist, publishing her first novel in 1862. In her later years, she returned to live in London, and became interested in women's rights, particularly with issues surrounding single mothers and working-class women.
North America Departing September 1842 from England, she went with her husband, Captain William Houstoun, travelling on their 200-tonne yacht the Dolphin, fitted with six cannon, over to the United States of America where they landed in Galveston on 18 December, later arriving at New Orleans between December 1842 and January 1843, then sailing along onto the Gulf of Mexico, alternating between Texas and New Orleans during their stay.The Galveston-Houston Packet: Steamboats on Buffalo Bayou Andrew W. Hall, 2012 see hereTexas and the Gulf of Mexico; or, Yachting in the New World, volume 1, Matilda Charlotte Houstoun, 1844, p. 138Texas and the Gulf of Mexico; or, Yachting in the New World, volume 1, Matilda Charlotte Houstoun, 1844, p. 190
Upon one of these intervals, returning from New Orleans to Galveston, she took a trip on the 111-tonne steamboat Dayton to Houston Texas upon which she spent three days, travelling along the Buffalo Bayou. In 1844 she published this as her first travelogue Texas or the Gulf of Mexico; Yachting to the New World. This trip was taken for business ventures her husband was undertaking in beef manufacture and preservation at the time.The Galveston-Houston Packet: Steamboats on Buffalo Bayou, Andrew W. Hall, 2012 see here
In her 1850 publication Hesperos she makes another trip to Texas, which at the time was in the process of the annexation of Texas to the United States. On the second trip to Texas she visited the home of James Morgan, a Texas slave-owner and land speculator, where she met Ferdinand von Roemer. The two did not agree, Roemor characterising her as a 'snob', Houstoun describing him as unfamiliar to a 'change in raiment' and 'having no teeth' due to a 'tobacco' smoking, which she thought of as a disgusting habit to practise.Travelers In Texas 1761-1860, Marilyn McAdams Sibley, 1967, pp. 13–14 The second trip appeared to have been taken by Captain Houstoun to invest in Texan sugar plantations, however she only observed as a tourist to Texas life.Houstoun Morning Star, March 18, 1843, p. 2
Viktor Bracht in 1848 noted her 1844 work to be the only other account of Texas written by a woman in this time, except the Texas 1833 - 1836 works by Mary Austin Holley, worth reading on the subject of Texas as a native to Texas. In Yachting to the New World, Houstoun notes upon politics and other topics like the advent of a civil war in the United States.Texas and the Gulf of Mexico; or, Yachting in the New World, volume 2, Matilda Charlotte Houstoun, 1844, p. 229
Slavery and racism To the residents of the British Isles, the slave trade was considered abolished in the British Empire in 1772, but slavery was not illegal until the parliamentary action of 1840, which was a long process notably involving the work of William Wilberforce (whose work she was acquainted with) and the James Somerset Case in 1772.
Abolitionist works (see Clapham sect or British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society) and published authors like Ukawsaw Gronniosaw in his 1772 work A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, Olaudah Equiano in his 1789 work The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley in her 1773 work Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, Mary Prince in her 1831 work The History of Mary Prince, and in the work of the Sons of Africa (widespread literature publications in London society at the time, each often going through multiple reprints) shaped how in 19th century Britain's societal views on the practice of slavery. Expansion of this was seen as a moral Christian duty to "brothers" in need and certainly appears to have been the mindset upon which Houstoun went to the United States with her aunt Mrs. Townsend:Notable women authors of the day, Helen Cecelia Black, 1906, page 228
There is scarcely any spectacle more affecting in idea than that of a human being being made a matter of barter. I went to America strongly prejudiced against this unnatural traffic, and prepared to view every instance of it with horror, and every slave with compassion and sympathy.Texas and the Gulf of Mexico; or, Yachting in the New World, volume 2, Matilda Charlotte Houstoun, 1844, p. 41
Particularly surrounding the culture of the black population in New Orleans, she at first believed them to be something akin to passive agents, but over her 1844 work comes to form a more intersectional view of the New Orleanians in the period, regarding them as active agents in their own affairs:
During our drives through the streets especially on Sundays, the display of Negro finery, and taste was very remarkable.... No one pays higher for his outfit than the negro in the Slave States. He gives his money too, so carelessly, and with such an independent air. I have heard of their giving eight dollars for a suit of clothes, and their industry, and efforts to procure money, are highly praiseworthy. They are in the habit of giving their masters a certain sum of money, (generally I believe about two dollars a day) in lieu of their services. Their time then, is their own, and they are at liberty to make as much more out of it as they can. … though still regarding the slave trade generally in the same light, I began to think that the slaves were not quite so to be pitied as I had imagined.Texas and the Gulf of Mexico; or, Yachting in the New World, volume 2, Matilda Charlotte Houstoun, 1844, pp. 39–42
In Hesperos, Houstoun's 1850 publication, she touches on a number of topics including Christianity amongst African-Americans, the settlements of Liberia (which she describes as "the wilderness"), the population figures in the Americas comparing "whites" and "blacks", the effects of slavery on wealth distribution on the upper classes amongst the northern states, black labour in the West Indies, redistribution of global slave routes, education among the southern African-American population, and England's role in the cotton trade, abolition, and "prevention of the slave trade".Hesperos or Travels in the West, volume 2, Matilda Charlotte Houstoun, 1850, pp. 195–213