Isabella Fenwick
{{short description|19th-century British amanuensis (secretary)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Isabella Fenwick
| image = Isabella Fenwick.jpg
| caption = Margaret Gillies' portrait of Fenwick
| birth_date = {{birth-date|1783}}
| death_date = {{death year and age|1856|1783}}
| burial_place = Lansdown Cemetery, Somerset
| nationality = British
| occupation = Amanuensis
| parents = {{plain list|
- Nicholas Fenwick
- Dorothy Fenwick
}}
}}
Isabella Fenwick (1783 – 1856) was a 19th-century British amanuensis (secretary), and a confidante, advisor, and friend of William Wordsworth and his family in his later years.{{sfn|Bennett|2015|p=16}} She is the scribe behind the Fenwick Notes,{{sfn|Bennett|2015|p=16}} an autobiographical and poetic commentary Wordsworth dictated to her over a six-month period between January and June 1843.{{Cite book|last=Curtis|first=Jared|title=The Fenwick Notes of William Wordsworth|publisher=Humanities Ebooks, LLP|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84760-004-2|location=Tirril|pages=12|chapter=Introduction}} Her friendship inspired Wordsworth to write "On a Portrait of I.F., painted by Margaret Gillies" and "To I.F."—a sonnet in which he calls her "The star which comes at close of day to shine," a reference to their bond formed late in life.{{Cite book|last=Wordsworth|first=Christopher|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirswilliamw02wordgoog|title=Memoirs of William Wordsworth, Poet-laureate, Volume I|publisher=E. Moxon|year=1851|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/memoirswilliamw02wordgoog/page/n37 21]-22}}
Biography
Isabella Fenwick was born in 1783. She was the daughter of Nicholas Fenwick of Lemmington Hall,{{cite web |title=Isabella Fenwick |url=https://www.lordbyron.org/persRec.php?&selectPerson=IsFenwi1856 |website=www.lordbyron.org |access-date=17 April 2020}} and Dorothy (Forster) Fenwick.{{sfn|Coleridge|Wordsworth|Gamer|2008|p=469}}
Fenwick met William Wordsworth when she was in her late forties. She first signed the visitor's book at the Wordsworth family home, Rydal Mount, in June 1831, though it is likely that she was acquainted with the family beforehand through her cousin, the dramatist Henry Taylor.{{Cite book|last=Curtis|first=Jared|title=The Fenwick Notes of William Wordsworth|publisher=Humanities Ebooks, LLP|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84760-004-2|location=Tirril|pages=18|chapter=Introduction}} When she moved to Ambleside in 1838, the friendship between Fenwick and the Wordsworths blossomed. "There are very few days that I do not see the poet for an hour or two," she wrote in January 1839.{{Cite book|last=Beatty|first=Frederika|title=William Wordsworth of Rydal Mount: An Account of the Poet and His Friends in the Last Decade|publisher=E. P. Dutton & Co.|year=1939|isbn=978-1436699402|location=New York|pages=92}}
At first, Fenwick was in awe of the poet—"I would be content to be a servant in his house to hear his wisdom," she said upon first meeting him.{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Henry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxdHAAAAYAAJ&q=autobiography+of+henry+taylor|title=Autobiography of Henry Taylor, Volume I|publisher=Longmans, Green|year=1885|location=London|pages=336}} The admiration soon became mutual: When William and Mary Wordsworth (née Hutchinson) went to stay with her for the month of February 1839, William said it was "for the sake of her society and change of air—and above all, because it may not be prudent for me to walk to see her so often as I could wish." Fenwick's companionship may have helped fill the void left by his sister Dorothy Wordsworth, who was by this point incapacitated by mental illness.{{Cite book|last=Curtis|first=Jared|title=The Fenwick Notes of William Wordsworth|publisher=Humanities Ebooks, LLP|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84760-004-2|location=Tirril|pages=20|chapter=Introduction}}
Fenwick was equally beloved by the women of the Wordsworth household. Mary Wordsworth "attached herself to Miss Fenwick with a warmth and energy of nature which took no account of years," wrote Henry Taylor.{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Henry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxdHAAAAYAAJ&q=autobiography+of+henry+taylor|title=The Autobiography of Henry Taylor, Volume I|publisher=Longmans, Green|year=1885|location=London|pages=335}} When William opposed the marriage between his daughter Dora and Edward Quillinan, it was Fenwick who convinced him to relent.{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Henry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxdHAAAAYAAJ&q=autobiography+of+henry+taylor|title=Autobiography of Henry Taylor, Volume I|publisher=Longmans, Green|year=1885|location=London|pages=337}}
Fenwick is buried in Lansdown Cemetery in Somerset.{{Cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/205067752/isabella-fenwick|title=Isabella Fenwick|website=Find A Grave|access-date=April 18, 2020}}
''Fenwick Notes''
While editing The Prelude and preparing it for posthumous publication, Wordsworth spent a lot of time thinking about his poetic reception after his death.{{Cite book|last=Curtis|first=Jared|title=The Fenwick Notes of William Wordsworth|publisher=Humanities Ebooks, LLP|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84760-004-2|location=Tirril|pages=13–16|chapter=Introduction}} At the urging of Fenwick and his daughter Dora, Wordsworth decided to set down the biographical details surrounding the composition of many of his poems. He dictated the notes to Fenwick between January and June 1843. When he and Fenwick finished, Dora and her husband made a fair copy in a leather-bound notebook—the document scholars now refer to as the Fenwick Notes. None of Fenwick's original transcription of the dictated notes survives.
References
{{reflist|30em}}
=Bibliography=
- {{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Andrew|title=William Wordsworth in Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPtDBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|date=12 February 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02841-8}}
- {{cite book|last1=Coleridge|first1=Samuel Taylor|last2=Wordsworth|first2=William|last3=Gamer|first3=Michael|title=Lyrical Ballads|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bYe7AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA469|date=22 August 2008|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=978-1-4604-0128-6}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenwick, Isabella}}