Elizabeth Elstob (1674–1752): Founding Feminist Historian

Elizabeth Elstob (1683 - 1756), the 'Saxon Nymph,' was born and brought up in the Quayside area of Newcastle upon Tyne, and, like Mary Astell of Newcastle, is nowadays regarded as one of the first English feminists.

She was proficient in eight languages and became a pioneer in Anglo-Saxon studies, an unprecedented achievement for a woman in the period.

Elizabeth Elstob published two important books and was admired by the leaders of the new movement for Anglo‐Saxon studies in the early eighteenth century. She was able to be part of this community because her brother William encouraged and enabled it.

In London she translated Madeleine de Scudery's Essay upon Glory in 1708 and an English-Saxon Homily on the Nativity of St Gregory in 1709. Both works are dedicated to Queen Anne, who is praised in feminist prefaces.

From 1702, Elizabeth was part of the circle of intelligent women around Mary Astell, who helped to find subscribers for her Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue (1715), the first such work written in English. The preface: An Apology for the Study of Northern Antiquities took issue with the formidable Jonathan Swift and seems to have caused him to amend his views.

Elizabeth's brother William Elstob (1673-1715) was sent to Eton and Cambridge and entered the church. Like his sister, he was a scholar and edited Roger Ascham's Letters in 1703. Elizabeth may have lived with him at Oxford from 1696, and certainly did so in London from 1702.

William’s death in 1715 was a catastrophe, marking the end of her productive life as an intellectual and plunging her into poverty. She disappeared for almost twenty years, but was discovered and rescued by the first generation of bluestockings.

A project she had begun – a history of intellectual women – was taken up and completed by George Ballard. His Memoirs of British Ladies (1752) included Elstob's memories about Mary Astell, and is, among other things, the single most important source of information about this pioneer feminist.

After William's death, having financial difficulties, she moved to Worcestershire and ran a small school. Elizabeth eventually secured an annuity and an apartment, where she lived 'surrounded by the congenial elements of dirt and books' until she died in 1756. She is buried in St Margaret’s Churchyard, Westminster.

Elstob Typeface:
One of the fonts that has been used for the printing of Anglo-Saxon texts is the Elstob type. This type was designed by Humphrey Wanley for Elizabeth Elstob's ‘The Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue’, London, W. Bowyer, 1715, to replace Bowyer's earlier type as used for Ælfric's homilies in 1709. In 1900 it was used by Horace Hart in some notes on typography, and in 1910 (after some modification) for Robert Bridges' "On the Present State of English Pronunciation" (Essays and Studies, Oxford, 1910

KEITH’S CONNECTION

On 1st December 1852, Keith’s great, great grandfather William Lubbock (then aged 38, born 1814, Great Yarmouth, Mast and Block Maker in the family shipbuilding company) married his second wife Clara Elstob, aged 22. Clara was the daughter of Thomas Smith Elstob (mother nee Hannah Quenby).

Thomas Smith Elstob was the son of Dryden Elstob (1766 – 1805, a London shipwright) / ship-builder). Dryden Elstob (wife Mary Smith) was the only surviving son of John Elstob (1678 – 1722). John (wife Mary Foster) was in turn the son of Ralph Elstob (1645 – 1688).

Ralph was a merchant who became Sherriff of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1685. After Ralph and his wife Jane died (nee Hall), his brother Charles Elstob (who was the Rector of Canterbury Cathedral) adopted his children. They included John (from whom Keith descends), William (1673 – 1714) and Elizabeth ‘The Saxon Nymph’ (1683 – 1756).