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"I believe I never shall be loved - as I love!" Emily, born on the 30th of November 1819, was the elder of the two sisters. She spent her teenage years with her family in St. Helier, Jersey, before moving permanently to West Wickham, Kent, in 1842. The earliest of her journals which survives dates from 1838, and I have looked at this volume and the next three which span the year until 1843. These record, in tiny handwriting and painstaking detail her own perceptions of her feelings, activities and relationships. Her wry observations and her accounts of herself and others are often witty, cutting and highly entertaining! As a middle-class woman in the early Victorian era, Emily did not engage in any paid work. However, her hours were filled engaging in activities that were deemed suitable, those specifically suited to the private the feminine sphere. For example, Emily went to church twice a week, where she often helped run the Sunday School. She was involved in philanthropic activities, such as the time she helped run a soup kitchen in St. Helier. On this, and many other occasions, Emily was not afraid to share with her journal that she did not always find such do-gooding to her liking. At first she thought it was " an excellent thing", but within weeks of embarking on the project she wrote about it as... "...that unfortunate soup business which is really taking up all of our time in a most deplorable way..." Emily often preferred to spend her time alone, writing her diary or reading. She regularly wrote down her opinion of what she has been reading, and at one point set up a book society with her sisters Ellen and Louisa. This was only a partial success, and shortly after it's launch Emily recorded that... "We have had complaints from our subscribers on all sides..." Visiting family and friends was also a hugely important part of Emily's life at this stage. From their bases in St. Helier and West Wickham, the girls set out on many journeys and visits and received endless rounds of visitors, especially once settled in Kent. Although Emily sometimes found socialising a pleasure, she could also find the necessity of networking and keeping up appearances a chore: "Another lovely day destined to be spent in visiting - oh the plagues of civilised society!" Maybe the most interesting aspect of Emily's life in this period was her relationship with Thomas Shore. A friend of the Hall family, Shore was twenty years Emily's senior, married and with children nearly as old as her. However, the two developed a close and loving relationship, sketchily recorded in the pages of Emily's journal as she tells of the "kind words" and the "tender kisses" that "the dear little man" gave to his "little Emily." Within days of the two becoming closely acquainted, Emily recorded in her diary: "Every day I stay here makes me love him more and more...the dear kind things he said to me today. Oh! He said a great deal I cannot write down here - but that I like to think of nevertheless." Emily never married and her relationship with Mr. Shore lasted until his death, over twenty years later and is further recorded in accounts by O.A.Sherrard and A.R.Mills. I have explored Emily's account of just the early part of their relationship and extracts from her diary regarding this affair will be added to the site shortly!
Emily wrote her diary until her death in 1901 and they record the details of a highly active and interesting life. For example, Joyce Walker's reading of the diary has revealed that Emily wrote to Florence Nightingale during the Crimean war offering her services, much to the horror of Ellen. Although her offer was never taken up, she and her sister instead prepared "bags of clothing and other necessities for the soldiers". She and Ellen also traveled extensively and in 1873 bought a house in Algiers in which to spend the winter. Later in life she became involved in the Co-operative Society in Croydon and in the Suffragette Movement. These are aspects of her life that I would very much like to explore further. Left: Emily in Later years. Photo: Bromley Library Neither of the Hall sisters ever engaged in paid employment. As young women they were entirely supported by their father, but were faced with some difficulties following his death in 1853 due to loans that had been made to their brother and brother-in-laws business. However, their situation never became desperate and after 1857, when their Aunt Mary left them £7,000 each, Emily and Ellen were set up for life. (For a more detailed account of many aspects of Emily's late life, see Joyce Walker, Vanished West Wickham (Hollies Publications, 1994)
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Left:
Emily in her later years. Photo: Bromley Library