A Contemporary of Cordukes: Who was our first alumna?

Although not described in explicit detail, please note that this blog covers a range of issues people may find difficult to read. This includes: overt sexism, references to historical child labour, childbirth and its historical difficulties; physical abuse and the historical legality of abuse within marriage.

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In 1841 Edward Cordukes began his training at an institution which would eventually become York St John University. Edward was our first ever student and lived and learnt in a building on Monkgate. Edward would already have completed his training by the time the men relocated to Lord Mayor’s Walk and Monkgate was declared unfit for the men to use for a variety of reasons. In 1846, the building was then reopened as the Training School for Schoolmistresses.

Last year, for International Women’s Day, we posted about what life was like at Monkgate for its students. We also speculated about the three sisters who ran it. We know the Cruse sisters educated their students to the same high standard as the men. Moreover, we also know they had far less resources and a much higher workload. However, despite their impact on the institution, and the generations of teachers they taught, little is known about the Cruse sisters.

Edward Cordukes

On the other hand, we know quite a bit about Edward Cordukes. In 1825, he was baptized at Holy Trinity Church, York. He was sixteen when he signed the register on 17 May 1841 to enrol. His father was dead, and his mother’s name was Sarah.

We know all of this because of his entry in the register for York and Ripon. The register recorded ‘important’ information:

• Their name
• How old they were on entry
• Their place and date of baptism
• The name and occupation of their nominated parent or guardian
• The date they signed the register

Sarah Cordukes’ occupation is listed as widow. This suggests something about their circumstances that as a widowed mother, she didn’t have to work to support herself, or her children. Today, it might be surprising to register a student’s place and date of baptism. But in the 1800s, your religion, and specifically your Christian denomination, were vitally important.

Unknown

Like it’s contemporary, St John’s, the Monkgate school was an important mechanism for the improvement of British society. Monkgate not only educated women to a high enough standard to teach others, but also demonstrated women’s capability to learn. In a time when women were consistently underestimated and considered to be incapable of learning to the same standard as men, Monkgate proved such assumptions false.

But what about the first ever young woman who studied there?

Unfortunately, we no longer hold the records for those first 11 women at Monkgate. Whether this was a deliberate decision, a lost box when the school relocated to become Ripon College, or something more malicious, we don’t know. We know that as late as 1963, some records existed because a short book was written including specific details. Whether these were full records, anecdotal evidence the author could access or something else, such records have now been lost.

Follow the money

We do know that St John’s Principal successfully asked for a salary increase from £300 to £500 per annum in 1848. But, Miss Cruse failed to receive a similar pay increase when she asked. Whilst they found the money for a £200 wage increase for Mr Reed, they stated they didn’t have enough money for Catherine Cruse’s £5 increase to £40 per annum.

As they say in TV crime dramas: follow the money. If the college board could find £200 for one, but not £5 for another, it’s not a stretch to imagine that likewise, it was the men’s campus and records which were prioritized. Whilst we still have the carefully preserved records from our first ever male students, any such records for the women’s school have been lost.

Furthermore, by following the money, it’s clear that more care was taken with the education of men than women. The two principals earned vastly different wages and whilst the men enjoyed a new campus, the women languished in a building the men had already vacated due to its unsuitability.

Who were they?

We don’t know the name of the first woman at Monkgate. Other information like the sort of family she came from, her age and her baptism record are also unknown. We might imagine her name was a classic ‘Victorian Name’ like Jane, Catherine or Elizabeth. At a time when Queen Victoria had been on the throne since 1837 and presided across an empire that would one day span major swathes of the globe, it might seem surprising that we don’t still have these records.

But even as a Queen, Victoria was still part of a society that today, we would call heavily sexist. You only have to watch a film or TV programme about her early reign to see how her gender was weaponized. The threat of a regency if she ascended before she turned 18, the frequent observations that she needed a husband, and then the worry over who would complete her work whilst she was on maternity leave. Even as the most powerful woman in Britain, and (arguably) later the world, Victoria was constrained by the society she ruled over.

So, although Victoria was, at the time, a slightly unusual name for an English girl, that’s what we’ll call our unknown student. From a woman whose legacy shaped the world, to another who shaped generations through her teaching; let’s call her Victoria.

An educated guess

In 1963, a small book was published called Ripon Training College, 1862-1962: The First Hundred Years. Written by A M Wilkinson, the book spans the first 100 years at Ripon College, with its first chapter dedicated to the Monkgate school. In 1963, Wilkinson had access to a source that said in 1848, a survey showed that only 3 of the first 41 students at Monkgate were from a ‘professional background’. The rest were from more humble backgrounds, including the daughters of farmers, butchers, a stonemason and a watchmaker. Women as young as sixteen could apply to begin with, but this age was swiftly increased to 18.

Based on this now lost knowledge, it is clear that the first students were predominantly working class. So, that suggests Victoria most likely was too. It also suggests she might have been as young as 16 when she began her training.

Victorian era women are often misremembered as people who didn’t work. If you think of a typical ‘Victorian woman’, you might think of:

• corsets
• Queen Victoria
• shrill voices decrying anything scandalous
• the ‘Angel in the Home’
• BIG dresses and bustles

But reality was very different. Most women had to work in some capacity. This included completing unpaid domestic labour, in a family business, in industrial workplaces or in any way they could. Teaching was a way for women to earn money respectably, whilst also increasing their social standing if they were working-class.

Working-class also meant something a little different than it does today. Nowadays farmers, butchers, stonemasons and watchmakers are much more specialised roles that demand respect within their communities. But in the 1840s, such roles were considered relatively low-skilled, low-paid and therefore, working class. The term working class itself also negatively implied something about their circumstances.

A working-class heroine?

In 1847, Charlotte Bronte published her first novel, Jane Eyre. Throughout the novel, Jane is threatened with poverty several times. As a child, she’s sent to a school for orphans to be educated to eventually become a teacher. As a teacher she would be expected to be able to support herself financially. But until the latter third of the novel Jane is financially dependent on others. First she’s dependent her relations, then her employers, then the generosity of others. For the majority of the novel, Jane has no savings and must work to survive using her teaching skills.

But despite all of this, Jane isn’t working class. Her mother’s family (The Reeds) are part of a ‘gentleman’s class’ and her father was a vicar, someone seen as below The Reeds but still of a professional class. Whilst her class is transient throughout the novel, as a governess and teacher from a good background, Jane is perceived as above the working-class. Her work as an educated woman also holds her above the ‘working-class’ despite often being a misstep from destitution.

A working-class student

Essentially, working class indicated that you also lacked family connections, had little formal education and therefore, few prospects. An 1849 report written after Monkgate was officially inspected compounds this. They stated that a lot of time was spent essentially teaching the future teachers what they should already have known. This included in some cases, the basics of reading and writing. This highlights not only the terrible state of Britain’s general standard of education, but also the work completed by the Cruse sisters to educate their students.

Whilst we could speculate that Victoria came from one of the three professional backgrounds, it’s far more likely her family were thoroughly working class. They might have been farm workers, grocers, factory workers or worked in a sweat shop manufacturing cheap clothing.  It’s also likely that prior to starting at Monkgate, that Victoria worked herself to help her family make ends meet.

Why teaching?

Teaching was respectable. It could be moderately well-paid and it gave women the opportunity to live independently, at least for a little while. For working-class girls, the opportunity to move up the social ladder and earn their own money would have been an opportunity they couldn’t afford to miss.  

Edward Cordukes at sixteen had a full and exciting future ahead of him. As a teacher, he could expect to earn enough to support himself, a wife and children. He might have had aspirations of opening his own school, or becoming headmaster at an established institution. But for Victoria, she would not have been so lucky.

As a woman, she would be expected to be paid less for the same, if not more, work. Her principal at Monkgate after all only earnt a fraction of the St John’s principal, and arguably for more work. Not only did Winifred complete the majority of the early teaching at Monkgate herself, she and her students also completed a lot of the school’s domestic tasks. In fact, Victoria would have been given lessons in how to complete a range of household tasks alongside her academic lessons.

As a teacher, Victoria would also be held to a high standard of both morality and behaviour. Whilst the students at St John’s were provided a barrel of beer by the Archbishop of York to drink in celebration, the first teacher from Monkgate could not have dared to drink in the same way. Likewise, as a student Victoria couldn’t go into York or even write a letter without approval. Whilst such rules seem draconian today, they were in place to protect the reputations of everyone involved.

Reputation and society

Alongside teaching ambitions were the other standards of society that Victoria would have been expected to follow. An unmarried woman was seen as something Other, no matter her education or career. Someone pitiable rather than enviable. An oddity rather than the norm. Whilst Edward could have delayed getting married for many years before finding himself a bride, Victoria would be constantly under societal pressure to conform.

Victoria’s reputation would also need to be pristine to maintain her job and newly acquired position in society. If she was sent away from a role with no references, there would be little hope of easily securing another position. Whilst Victoria’s male contemporaries could smoke, drink their celebratory beer from the Archbishop, gamble, and legally beat their wives, Victoria was held to a very different standard. The spectre of the Fallen Woman permeated Victorian Society; women whose value was seen as near non-existent through the tarnishing of their reputations and who were often treated as social outcasts for their perceived failings. This would be a fate that Victoria would have attempted to avoid at all costs.

Essentially, for Victoria, teaching offered a respectable way of earning money. It also enhanced her social standing and delayed marriage and its myriad of dangers, including the dangers of childbirth. For Victoria, marriage offered many dangers that were part and parcel of the society she lived in. It wasn’t until 1866 that men could be imprisoned for beating their wives too severely, and not until 1878 that women could seek a legal separation from an abusive husband. It was only in 1891 that the right to corporally punish your wife was removed. If Victoria got married a few years after completing her course, she faced a life with few legal protections.

A lost legacy

In 2007 Edward Cordukes attended the inauguration of our first Chancellor, Archbishop John Sentamu, after York St John became a university in 2006. He might have been there in the form of a giant puppet, but the sentiment was clear – our first alumnus was there to celebrate. Ten years later in 2017 we invited Edward Cordukes’ descendants back to York.

But we can’t do the same for Victoria. Through malicious intent, lax record keeping or simply bad luck, the records that held the information about the first woman to study at Monkgate have been lost. Whilst we don’t know why the records were lost, it is a symptom of a larger societal problem. Although the problem has changed since 1846 when Victoria studied with us, the problem has evolved rather than diminished.

Working-class women

Whilst we might have a high uptake of women attending university, STEM subjects are still less popular for women. The societal problems that devalued women’s education, achievement and success so far as to allow such valuable records to be lost, are further compounded for women of colour, women who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, trans-women, and those from working-class backgrounds.

In 1846, the majority of Monkgate’s students were from working-class backgrounds looking to improve their lives. Today, working-class students still struggle to access higher education. High tuition fees paired with high interest rates and inadequate student loans put many students off perusing higher education.

Our unknown first student could never have guessed that so many women would follow in her footsteps. Likewise, we can only guess at her legacy. Perhaps she taught generations of students, becoming a beloved part of her local community before happily marrying into it. Maybe she died two years after completing her training from cholera. Like Queen Victoria, she might have had nine children. Her descendants might have just applied to York St John and are eagerly awaiting their UCAS email saying they have a place.

The fact is, we just don’t know.

So, as we celebrate our history and remember Edward Cordukes as our first ever student, let’s also remember the first ever woman admitted to what is now York St John University. A nameless, unknown working-class girl who changed her life through education, and maybe, if she was lucky, changed the lives of generations to come too. 

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Sources

Whilst researching the three posts based in the past for International Women’s Day, I often found that sources were valuable across all three posts. You can view my whole list of sources in a separate post.