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Searching the Stars
The Story of Caroline Herschel
By Marilyn B. Ogilvie The History Press
Copyright © 2011 Marilyn B. Ogilvie
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-7546-2
CHAPTER 1
A Dysfunctional Family
Isaac and Anna
During an era when the paterfamilias was considered all powerful, Caroline's father Isaac was an exception. Isaac was a quiet, gentle man who loved music and avoided conflict. On the other hand her mother, Anna, was illiterate, opinionated, and quarrelsome. In the German states it was customary for the father to see to the education of the sons and the mother to see to the daughters. Although Isaac arranged for his boys to have a reasonable education, he was unable to do as much for his daughters who were under the not so tender influence of their mother.
Isaac came from a family of landscape gardeners. His protestant ancestors emigrated from Moravia to Saxony for religious reasons, and his father, Abraham, was the son of one of the original immigrants. Abraham acquired a position in the royal gardens at Dresden and received a number of commissions as a landscape gardener. His eldest son, Eusebius, completed a gardening apprenticeship and worked as a gardener for several years before he gave up gardening and became a successful farmer. Although it was assumed that Isaac, the youngest of four children, would continue the family tradition of gardening, instead he became fascinated with music, learned to play the violin by ear, and later took music lessons from an oboist in the Court Band. After purchasing an oboe for himself, he wrote that he was "never so happy as when I was occupied with music." Isaac's love for music increased as his interest in gardening faltered: "I worked day and night as much as I could get time, as my wish was to become an oboist; for I had lost all taste for gardening." At the age of twenty one, he left his gardening post and went to Berlin to join a regimental band. His experience there was "bad and slavish." He left Berlin and, with the financial help of Eusebius and his sister, Apollonia, went to Potsdam where he took music lessons from a Prussian conductor. Eusebius, always the practical one, wanted his brother to study agriculture with him and, although "I obeyed his call" could not long "resist my love of music and traveling." After travelling to Brunswick where "I could have taken a position as oboist, but the situation appeared to me too Prussian," he went to Hanover where he became an oboist in the Foot-Guards.
In Hanover, Isaac met Anna Ilse Moritzen who was from Neustadt on the Rubenberg, just three miles from Hanover City. On 12 October 1732, the cultured Isaac married the illiterate peasant girl, Anna, when she was several weeks pregnant with their daughter Sophia, an occurrence the family tried to keep secret. In spite of their differences and disagreements, Isaac wrote lovingly of his "dear wife" in his autobiography.
After Sophia was born, nine other children strained the family finances. However, had external politics not involved Hanover in both the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, Isaac would have been able to support his growing family adequately with his salary as a musician for the Hanoverian Guards supplemented by teaching music (see Appendix).
The War of the Austrian Succession
Isaac Herschel accompanied the band of the Hanoverian Foot-Guards from 1740 to 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession, retired from the band in 1746, but rejoined in 1747 with his eldest son, Jacob. During the war he made notes on the inside cover of a devotional book that he carried in his knapsack and jotted down the dates of important events. Although Caroline was not yet born during Isaac's early military adventures, she blamed her father's subsequent ill health on the battle of Dettigen (1743) where "he lay in a wet furrow, which caused a complete loss of the use of his limbs for some time and left him with an impaired constitution and an asthmatical affection which afflicted him to the end of his life." Caroline noted that "the task of marching and performing [made] the various duties of his situation ... dubly [sic] painful." Although band members did not participate in the actual fighting and could take shelter during battles, they were still subject to all the vicissitudes of war – cold, lack of food, and uncomfortable sleeping conditions.
The family's war-time difficulties began in 1741, long before Isaac's 1743 injuries. Caroline reported that "we may date the beginning of the cares and sorrows which my Parents have endured [from 1741] and which in the end proved fatal to my dear Father." Reporting her Mother's description of Isaac's leaving for battle, Caroline wrote:
My Father was obliged to leave my Mother with her little family, of whom the eldest son was between 6 and 7 and the next 5 years old, and with whom a good beginning on the Violin had already been made; my Brother Wm was then between 2 and 3 years of age and left along with the rest without any other instruction, but what common schooling could afford.
The Herschel Children's Education
While Isaac was away from home with the band, the children attended school. However, Anna, being illiterate herself, had little interest in their education. Attempting to mitigate this situation, when Isaac was home he did all in his power to supplement his children's meagre intellectual diet with music and philosophical conversation. The Herschel children all attended the local Garrison School until they were fourteen. Although the education at this school was far better for the boys than for the girls, it left much to be desired for either sex. John Herschel discussed his father William's description of this school. According to William, the curriculum was based on a system for the education of the "poorer classes" adopted by Joseph Lancaster in Southwark and Dr Andrew Bell in India. In this system the instruction of the younger children was entrusted to the older ones. John wrote:
My father [William] says that in Hanover a system ... had long been established; he himself was taught to read and write and sum at a school of the kind where were [sic] 500 boys, and remembers at 8 years of age being made to teach the boys of 6 what he had already learnt himself.
With 500 students and one teacher, it was not surprising that the students received only a rudimentary education. William noted that boys were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, but, as Caroline reported, she as a girl never learned even basic arithmetic. Her education was confined to reading and writing and her religious duties. She also had lessons in knitting after Garrison school was over at 3:00p.m. The children's informal education was probably more important to their later life than their sketchy formal schooling.
Isaac Herschel taught Jacob and William to play the oboe and violin, and provided them with instruction in French. Unlike Jacob, William absorbed the instruction like a sponge, and by studying Latin and arithmetic with a master outside of regular school hours soon became proficient in these subjects. Caroline, however, was bound to her mother's expectations of what education should be for her girls. Sophia, being the eldest daughter, was Anna's experimental child. Against her better judgment Anna had allowed Sophia to learn various types of needlework so that she could have a way of earning a living. However, the education did not have the desired result, for Sophia continued to need her family's financial help even after she was married. The two daughters who were born after Sophia died before Caroline was born. Since Anna did not want to make the same mistake that she made with Sophia, Caroline was not given even the same meagre education as her sister. After the death of Isaac, Caroline reminisced about her own education, reporting that:
My father wished to give me something like a polished education, but my mother was particularly determined that it should be a rough, but at the same time a useful one; and nothing farther she thought was necessary but to send me two or three months to a sempstress [sic] to be taught to make household linen.
The few professions open to unmarried genteel women of the middle and upper classes such as governess, teacher, and lady's companion were not open to Caroline.
Anna would not agree to Caroline being taught French, an important subject if she was to pursue a promising career as a governess. Even though he tried, Isaac seemed to have little control over the situation, for, as Caroline reported, "all my father could do for me was to indulge me (and please himself) sometimes with a short lesson on the violin, when my mother was either in good humour or out of the way." Later, a sympathetic neighbour helped her learn fancy-work secretly in order to avoid Anna's wrath.
Anna and the children were not totally without husband and father during Isaac's absence, for he returned home occasionally "to give lessons to his children (perhaps when the troops were in winter quarters)." Isaac had reason to be concerned about the children's education. Even if she would have found education desirable (which she did not), illiterate Anna was of little help. Her assistance consisted of following Isaac's instructions to see that young William (too young to go to school) did not neglect his music. When Isaac first left for the war, his eldest son, Jacob, was seven years old. He enrolled him as a scholar auf der Hohen pfule where
he might have had the choice of going into the Church; or, as he was at the same time under the care, and received Lessons from the famous Organist Lohman (who was an intimate friend of my Father) he could not have failed of finding a good situation in that line; as in most Cities in Germany many excellent musicians find ample provision in places at Cathedrals.
Unfortunately, the plan was unsuccessful. Jacob was unable to take the bantering and hazing handed out by the boys. He went home indignantly and refused to return to school. Isaac was confronted with an even greater disappointment. On 26 October 1743, his seven-year-old son, Johann Heinrich, of whom he was "doatingly fond", died.
Family Life at the End of the War
A son, Alexander, was born to the Herschels in 1745 while Isaac was still in the army. Shortly after the war ended, Isaac left the Guard, and the family moved to Altona, a city on the Elbe River west of Hamburg. Although Isaac had hoped for more profitable engagements in this city, he was disappointed, finding that Hanoverians were much more appreciative of music than those from Hamburg. He was, therefore, easily persuaded to rejoin the Guard. In times of peace, the Guard was a fine profession for a musician. Jacob, who was fourteen, joined with his father, and William, when he finished school, would join as well. There was a difference in the interests and abilities of the two brothers. Jacob's talents were confined to music, whereas William loved all facets of knowledge. Describing William's capability, the Preceptor at the Garrison School informed Isaac that "William knew not only all but more than he could teach him." He also outshone Jacob in French and mathematics.
When Isaac returned to his rapidly-expanding family after the war, Caroline recorded the tragedies that overtook some of the children. One daughter, Anna Cristina, "died when 7 years old of the hooping cough [sic], during the time my Mother was confined by the birth of another daughter, Maria Dorethea, who lived only to be 11 months old." Caroline herself was born in 1750 and another son, Frantz Johann, in 1752. Smallpox claimed Frantz Johann in 1754. Although Caroline survived the disease that she contracted at the same time, she suffered life-long consequences. "I did not escape being totally disfigured and suffering some injury in my left eye." This disease had a profound effect on Caroline's view of herself and her potential.
There was an almost seventeen-year age difference between Caroline and her older sister Sophia. Sophia had left home to work for a family in Braunschweig before Caroline was old enough to be influenced by her. Following the path of many eighteenth-century girls, she found her way into domestic service, the one type of employment that unskilled girls could readily obtain. During the mid-eighteenth century it has been estimated that between puberty and marriage about three-fourths of all females lived apart from their parents. This situation solved several problems for Sophia's parents. She could live away from home and earn a wage. When Caroline was five years old, Sophia returned home to prepare for her impending wedding. It was important to the family's prestige that Sophia be given an elaborate wedding, even though to do so would put a huge financial strain on the family. Caroline wrote that her mother "found full employment in preparing for the outfit for my Sister who was to be married to M Griesbach then a Musician in the Guarde." Anna stocked the family with household linen and "nothing that could give either pleasure or comfort might be wanting in her future establishment." It was also important for them to provide an expensive fête "without which it would have been scandalous in those days to get married."
Griesbach's courtship of Sophia was entirely through correspondence. Although he professed high principles, they later found that he had employed a friend to compose the letters to Sophia. Isaac Herschel's intuition told him that Johann Heinrich Griesbach was a poor choice for a husband. In the first place, Isaac found him to be a "middling" musician, and his initial judgment was justified when he turned out to be both lazy and bad tempered. Nevertheless, the wedding itself was a success.
Isaac and Anna's last child, Dietrich, was born in 1755. This year was a happy one with Jacob, William, Alexander, Caroline, and Dietrich all at home. Jacob and William had developed into excellent musicians, and Caroline reported evenings when, led by Isaac, they not only discussed musical subjects but branched out to include philosophy. They would argue happily and with much gusto late into the night when Anna would chastise them by reminding them that the younger children had to be in school by seven in the morning. Caroline recalled that her father was interested in astronomy and once took her out on "a clear frosty night" to acquaint her "with some of the most beautiful constellations, after we had been gazing at a Comet which was then visible." William's later interest in astronomy may have stemmed from this year. According to Caroline's reports, Isaac assisted William in "his philosophical studies" which included constructing "a neatly turned globe, upon which the equator and ecliptic were engraved by my brother."
The Herschels and the Seven Years War
Both Jacob and William had joined their father and brother-in-law in the regimental band. The pleasant family experiences of 1755 came to a sudden end. Peace proved to be ephemeral. England had been at war with France since the previous year, and since England and Hanover were united under a single crown Hanoverian troops were required to defend England in case of an invasion. As a child, Caroline connected a strong earthquake in Lisbon late in 1755 that could be felt in Hanover to the gloom that replaced the optimism in the Herschel household. The Hanoverian guards that were deployed to England included four members of the Herschel family: Isaac, Jacob, William, and Johann Griesbach. In his memoirs, William recalled his experiences when at the end of March 1756, the Guards marched out of Hanover and "after a passage of 16 days" arrived in April. They were quartered in Maidstone in Kent where William studied the English language and "soon was enabled to read Locke on the Human Understanding." His interest in English philosophers and his quick mastery of the language presaged his and Caroline's future in England.
Isaac had attempted to provide for his family during his absence and had arranged to have half of his salary and half the pay of his sons sent home. However, Sophia's husband, true to character, kept his earnings for himself and relied upon the family to take care of Sophia. Caroline complained that "my Sisters husband never once thought of contributing the smallest trifle for her support during his absence ... this unfeeling mortal, without any ceremony left his Wife to my Mothers care to provide for her." William later noted that while at Maidstone he and his family made valuable connections in the music world which later proved to be of great value to him. This deployment did not last long, for William reported that they "soon received orders to embark again for Germany."
Before they were deployed again, the men were able to visit their families in Hanover. The homecoming was bittersweet for the child Caroline. When the men did not appear when expected, Anna sent Caroline to look for them at a homecoming parade. She was unsuccessful in her search, but when she returned home she found the men had already arrived and a party was in progress. She felt unwanted and ignored. Only William seemed to acknowledge her presence. William's attention "made me forget all my greavances." The special relationship between Caroline and William was apparent even at this time.
For a time, life in Hanover seemed to have returned to normal. Sophia returned to her own apartment and Isaac and William remained home with the family. Very soon, however, the war began again in earnest. Since Isaac, William, and Griesbach were in the band they were deployed, and they marched out of Hanover. Jacob did not go with them, for he had finally been granted a much desired discharge from the Guards. Isaac was concerned about William's well-being. William explained in his memoirs that after participating in a campaign characterized by forced marches, bad accommodations, and nearby shelling, his father advised him to leave the regiment. However, when he complied and arrived at Hanover he was in danger "of being pressed for a soldier; it was therefore thought proper for me to return to the army." William and Anna agreed that he would be safer as a non-combatant in the bandsman army with his father than he would be pressed into the hastily contrived defence force. Thus he made his way back to the regiment, but once there complained that he found that the musicians "did not seem to be wanted."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Searching the Stars by Marilyn B. Ogilvie. Copyright © 2011 Marilyn B. Ogilvie. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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