People in Our Parish History: Margaret (neé Sidgwick) Cooper  

Margaret was one of the Sidgwick family of West Riddlesden Hall when she married Rev. Henry Cooper in December 1859. As a teenager she had previously lived with her parents at Embsay Kirk, and as the vicar’s wife, returned to live again in the village. But within 6 years she was a widow at the age of 37.

She moved out of Embsay vicarage to live in the “picturesque” bungalow in Water Street, Skipton. This was originally built by the Sidgwick family as a school for the factory children, but was converted into a house for her uncle Christopher. Local historian, Geoffrey Rowley, described the house as a “quaint looking one storey residence … It was a model dwelling house for health, comfort & cleanliness. There were no pretensions to luxury.” For many years Margaret lived here alone, except for a domestic servant. It later became an engineering workshop, and is now Calico Jack’s restaurant, hardly recognisable any more as the former home of a “lady of quality”.

When Margaret died in July 1918, rather than any member of the Cooper or Sidgwick family, it was her servant, Mary Ives, who registered Margaret’s death (from heart failure), with the Registrar. Margaret was, however, a member of an extraordinary family. Her father, John Benson Sidgwick (1800-1873) [pictured below] is widely alleged to have been the model for Mr. Rochester in Charlotte Bronte’s novel “Jane Eyre”.

Charlotte Bronte was briefly a governess for John Sidgwick’s children when they lived at Stone Gappe Hall, Lothersdale, before he moved his family to Embsay Kirk in 1847. In 1839 Charlotte had written despairingly to her sister Emily that: “the children are constantly with me, and more riotous, perverse, unmanageable cubs never grew.” One of those children would have been the 12-year-old Margaret. Charlotte Bronte also wrote in less than flattering terms about John Sidgwick’s wife [Sarah Hannah (nee Greenwood) pictured below], and Rowley noted that this “cruel pen portrait” of Margaret’s mother greatly upset the family.

He suggests in his notebooks that “Charlotte was not happy here, mainly because she was not cut out for a governess, and could not adapt herself to circumstances…. which led Mr A.C. Benson, in his life of Archbishop Benson, to make the following statement: ‘Charlotte Bronte … was according to her own account, very unkindly treated, but it is clear that she had no gifts for the management of children, and was also in a very morbid condition the whole time. My cousin, Benson Sidgwick, now Vicar of Ashby Parva, certainly on one occasion threw a Bible at Miss Bronte … Both Mr & Mrs Sidgwick were extraordinary benevolent people, much beloved, and would not willingly have given pain to anyone connected with them.” John’s brother, Robert Hodgson Sidgwick, built Low Mill in Sackville Street, Skipton; and another brother, Christopher, was the main benefactor for the building of Christ Church, Skipton, as well as the Church School in Water Street.

Margaret Cooper’s cousin, Mary “Minnie” Sidgwick, was declared by prime minister Gladstone to be “the cleverest woman in Europe”, and had married Edward White Benson (1829-1896), who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 until he died. He devised the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which is still a popular Christmas Service. He was also a founder of the Cambridge Association for Spiritual Inquiry (otherwise known as the Cambridge Ghost Society) along with another of Margaret’s cousins, a Cambridge scholar and professor of philosophy, Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900). Born in Skipton, the son of William Sidgwick (brother of Margaret’s father, and the headmaster of Ermysted’s school), Henry Sidgwick was responsible for the establishment of Newnham College for women at Cambridge University (he was a great believer in education for women). He married Eleanor, the sister of the prime minister, Arthur Balfour.

Arthur Sidgwick (1840-1920), also a cousin of Margaret’s, was a Greek scholar at Oxford University, who wrote a huge number of influential books on classical literature and language.

The Craven Herald made a note in August 1892 that Edward Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was visiting relatives in Skipton, so he must have been to see his cousin’s wife:

“The Archbishop of Canterbury is at present making a short stay in Skipton, making the Devonshire Hotel his residence. His Grace, who is expected to leave in a day or two, is accompanied by his daughters and Miss Tait, daughter of Archbishop Tait.”

Not surprisingly, Margaret Cooper’s obituaries (which even appeared in the Times newspaper) made much of her social and family connections, as well as her being a “supporter of benevolent movements in the district”. The Craven Herald noted that as the widow of the vicar of Embsay, she was a “devoted worker in connection with Skipton Parish Church.” She was also for many years one of the earliest female Poor Law Guardians for the Skipton Union, a distinction in its own right.

Jane Lunnon.  Embsay-with-Eastby Historical Research Group.