Miss Weeton: The Journal of a Governess [Part 1]

  • Women's Voices and Life Writing
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Title
Miss Weeton: The Journal of a Governess [Part 1]
Author
  • Weeton, Ellen
Document Type
  • Correspondence
Date
1807-1811
Biography
Ellen Weeton, also known as Nelly, was a British letter writer and governess. She was born in 1776 in Lancaster and baptised as ‘Nelly’ at St John the Evangelist’s Church, named after the slave ship her father captained. She first worked as an assistant in her mother’s school at Up-Holland before taking lodgings in Liverpool, working as a governess in Windermere and then among the Luddites in Yorkshire. In 1814, she married Aaron Stock in Liverpool, and they had a daughter, Mary. Aaron was an abusive husband, sent her to prison and forced her into a separation which exiled her from the family home in Wigan. Nelly died in 1849. She left her journals to her church minister and they were found by Edward Hall in a bookshop in Wigan in 1925.
Copyright and Source Archive
Material sourced from Archives: Wigan & Leigh