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Mabel Richmond Brailsford

Mabel Richmond Brailsford (22 November 1875 – 26 April 1970) was a historical biographer and sister of prominent left-wing journalist, writer and broadcaster: H.N. Brailsford.

Contents: 1 Early Life 2 Career 3 Influence 4 Conclusion 5 Bibliography 6 References 7 External Links

Early Life Mabel Brailsford was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire on 22 November 1875. Her father, Rev. Edward Brailsford, was a Wesleyan Methodist Minister. He was was known as “the poet preacher of Wesleyan Methodism,” for his erudite sermons. Her mother, Clara Brailsford, was born in Liverpool, the eighth child of Liverpool industrialist and philanthropist, Henry Pooley.

Mabel Brailsford was educated at ‘Wintersdorf’ a Methodist Girls School in Birkdale, Lancashire. Later she took occasional courses in German Literature in Queen Margaret’s college, Edinburgh (now Queen Margaret’s University). She spoke German, French and Italian and had a good knowledge of Spanish and Latin. Apart from her writing her life revolved around helping her Father with his ministry, playing the piano at church services, and assisting her Mother domestically. In 1916, after the retirement of her father from Superintendent of the Ilfracombe Wesleyan Circuit, Mabel became an unpaid clerk at the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Hospital at Watermouth Castle, Ilfracombe. In the three years she worked there she rose from clerk to Acting Assistant Superintendent. When Mabel Brailsford's Father died in 1921, aged 80, Mabel Brailsford and her Mother moved to Amersham in Buckinghamshire to be closer to her brother Henry Noel Brailsford who lived in London.

Career Mabel Brailsford published her first book in 1907, which was a compilation of hymns to be played at a Methodist Service of Song to celebrate Padri Elliott of Faizabad who had died two years earlier. Her second book, Susanna Wesley, the Mother of Methodism, was published in 1910. When it was republished by The Epworth Press in 1938 the Yorkshire Post said “Miss Brailsford has brought to the writing of this short biography the delicate art of a true artist in the religious sphere; and all who read her little book should feel indebted to her for it”.

Her next book was written during a period of feminist militancy when the Women’s Suffrage movement was campaigning for the right to vote. This cause was taken up by her brother who was on the committee of Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage It is with this background that either consciously or unconsciously Mabel Brailsford wrote about strong influential women. Her book Quaker Women, which was published in 1915 records the activities of some dissenting woman who fought for religious freedom. It was the first narrative history of early Quaker women. . A contemporary review of this book in The Academy and Literature magazine said, “The Author has rendered a good service to history in the carefully compiled record she has given us of these sometimes fanatical and sometimes admirable women.” The Bulletin of Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia agreed. They described it as “a distinct contribution to Quaker literature” and that “the author does not hesitate to record the failings, frailties and even excesses of these early ‘Publishers of Truth’”. “Bulletin of Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia.” Bulletin of Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia, vol. 6, no. 3, 1915, pp. 87–88. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41945297. Historians have since drawn parallels between the subject of the book and the politics of the day.

Brailsford’s Quaker research led her to write a book about Quaker James Naylor in 1927. In this she quotes from the words of George Fox, the Quaker leader, during the English Civil War which disproves, as historian Christopher Hill writes, that “the Quakers were uncompromising pacifists at that time.”

Continuing her interest in early religious dissenters she published her most renowned work in 1930 "The Making of William Penn". This was an assessment of William Penn’s early years and the influences that led to his religious beliefs and motivations. This work has been cited in many academic works since then. The American Historical Review described her book as “an attempt to understand his [William Penn] influences which contributed toward the moulding of his character”. This included Brailsford evidence for his mother being of member of a distinguished Irish family and not, as Pepys claimed, a dutchwoman, and that his father, Admiral Penn was innocent of the accusations of traitorism. . In 2012 Kenneth R. Morris wrote a paper arguing that William Penn’s concept for religious toleration came not from his studies at Oxford University, but from his two years at the Saumur Academy in France. Morris cited Brailsford’s work and disputed her argument that Penn was an independent thinker and therefore not influenced by his education. This book was also quoted in an article published in the Pennsyvania Magazine of History and Biography in 1981 when Maxine N. Lurie was discussing how William Penn rated as a “Proprietor”.

From 1930 to 1936 Brailsford translated three books by German authors into English. In 1934 she wrote a booklet on William Penn for Friends' Publishing service which went into four editions and was still being published in 1957.

Her final work was published in 1954. A Tale of Two Brothers: John and Charles Wesley. She started writing it in 1942 after the subject came to her quite suddenly whilst she was playing the piano during a service at the Amersham Methodist Church. William R. Cannon, a Methodist historian, reviewed this book for the University of Chicago Press in 1954. He approves of Brailsford’s approach to the subject from the viewpoint of the inner relations that existed between the two brothers. He said that “it is in the second half that the book makes its real contribution. Methodist historians have been loath to tell in all their ugliness these details.” Richard Cameron of the Boston University School of Theology, after reviewing this book concludes: “On the whole, as a psychological interpretation of two personalities who left formidably complex records behind them, it is extraordinarily illuminating. It not only treats a phase of their lives which had not adequately been treated before, it does it convincingly, and in a brilliant style which makes us wish that literary gifts were more frequently wedded, as here, with productive scholarship.” An article entitled “Methodist Historical Studies 1930-1959“ suggests that Brailsford’s book is a kind of duo-biography which is attempting to present Charles Wesley and distinguish him from his more famous brother, John. It also covers the background to the gradual developing break between them.

Influence Whilst living in Amersham during the second World War Mabel Brailsford kept a journal intended as a chronicle on war-time Britain, but it became more of a personal diary. She had “followed her sense of duty” and offered her house to bombed out London refugees. She found it hard work looking after her Mother, a large garden, and the refugees, however she took pleasure in joining a cultural group of Jewish European refugees for concerts, talks and conversation. She recorded all her activities in a journal. It is not known if this was just an outlet for her frustrated writing skills, or a way of relaying local stories to her profoundly deaf mother. This journal was found after her death and donated to the Amersham Museum, Buckinghamshire. These notebooks are certainly not the complete journal. However the surviving journal which dates from July 1941 to May 1943 is a fascinating glimpse into life on the home-front during World War Two.

Some of the people who she writes about in the journal include: Robert Blatchford, Emily Bolam, Rev. Dr. Robert Bond, Sir Muirhead Bone, Gertrude Bone, Gavin David Bone, Joy Boughton, Edward James Brailsford, H.N. Brailsford, Mr & Mrs Keith Burrows, Ferruccio Busoni, Elias Canetti, Arnold Clibborn, Dr Thomas Coke, Archangelo Corelli. Mrs Violet Van Der Elst, Jacob Epstein, Walter Goehr (George Walter), Angel Grande, Dr Victor Grove, James Hoby, The Duke of Kent, Harold Laski, Clare Leighton, Stanley Lief, Hendra Lilienfeld, R. Gordon Milburn, Dr Arthur Morley Davies, Marie-Louise von Motesziscky, Stella Newton, Eric Newton, Henry Pooley, Queen Mary, Domenico Scarlatti, Dr Ernest Sommer, Rabindranath Tagore, Dorothy Thompson, Francesco Ticciati, Niso Augusto Ticciati, Toynbee Hall, Mr Vanstone, Warden, Toynbee Hall, Susanna Wesley, Charles Wesley, John Wesley, Gerrard Winstanley, Leonard Woolf.

Many of these people Mabel Brailsford knew personally and she was quite candid with her opinions of them. Elias Canetti, who went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, she described as “quite young, eager looking with [a] typical German face”. In a book published posthumously Canetti described her as “a small, frail, very ancient woman, with a wobbling head.” She was 65 years old when he met her.

Conclusion: Mabel Brailsford lived her life in the shadow of her famous brother, but she was his equal intellectually. He had encouraged her writing and hoped she would escape from the dominance of her father to exploit her writing career. After the death of her father in 1921 she remained a devoted companion to her mother until her death aged 101 in 1944. Her nurturing days were not over, however, and for the last five years of his life she had her brother living with her in her bungalow in Amersham. His weak heart prevented him from using stairs, and his young wife was working during the week so Mabel was his constant nurse and companion. After he died in 1957 she lived alone apart from a paid live-in companion until her death in 1970 aged 94. It is not known if she has a gravestone, but her memorial lives on in her scholarly works.

Bibliography

Brailsford, Mabel R., Tasker, C.R. [compilers] Padri Elliott of Faizabad. A Service of Song. [1907] London: R. Culley "Choir" Series Services of Song, No.1.

BRAILSFORD, Mabel Richmond. Susanna Wesley, the mother of Methodism. [With a portrait.] 1910 Pub: C.H. Kelly, London. Series: Library of Methodist

BRAILSFORD, Mabel Richmond. Quaker Women, 1650-1690 1915 Duckworth, London

BRAILSFORD, Mabel Richmond. A Quaker from Cromwell’s Army: James Nayler 1927 The Swarthmore Press, and MacMillan in NY

BRAILSFORD, Mabel Richmond. The Making of William Penn, 1930 Longmans, London

Granet, Marcel. Chinese civilization 1930. Translater: M.R. Brailsford. Pub: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd.

Bonn, Moritz J. Brailsford, M.R. [transl.] The American Experiment. 1933.George Allen & Unwin

Pinnow, Hermann. History of Germany, 1933. Translated from German by M.R. Brailsford [G Allen & Unwin]

Pinnow, Hermann. History of Germany 1936. Trans. M.R. Brailsford, J. M. Dent,

BRAILSFORD, Mabel Richmond. Susanna Wesley. The Mother of Methodism. 1938 Epworth

BRAILSFORD, Mabel Richmond. William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. [With a portrait.] 1944 Pub: Friends’ Home Service Committee. (ran to 4 editions)

BRAILSFORD, Mabel Richmond. A Tale of Two Brothers: John and Charles Wesley 1954 Rupert Hart Davis, and Oxford University Press

External Links: Amersham Museum http://www.amershammuseum.org/ Quaker women, 1650-1690 https://archive.org/details/quakerwomen1650100brai Francesco Ticciati https://amershammuseum.org/history/people/20th-century/francesco-ticciati/