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ISABELLA CRAIG, the only child of John Craig, a Scottish hosier and glover, was born in Edinburgh on October 17, 1831.  Following the death of her parents while she was still a child, Isa lived with her grandmother, attending school until 1840―there is a suggestion in some contemporary publications that she may have contributed to the family income by needle-work.  In 1853, Isa secured a position on the staff of The Scotsman, writing literary reviews and articles on social questions; she had already from an early age contributed poems (signed either "Isa" or "C.") to The Scotsman and to various periodicals, and in 1856 her first volume of poems ("Poems by Isa") was published by Blackwood of Edinburgh.

     In 1856 Isa met Elizabeth ("Bessie") Rayner Parkes (1829–1925)―a campaigner for women's rights, journalist, poetess and author―the pair contributing to a Glasgow women's periodical, the Waverley Journal.  Bessie, who became its Editor in April 1857, advertised the paper as "a working woman's journal" and later established an office in Princes Street, London, where Isa  assisted her.
 

    In 1857 Isa moved to London where she took up an appointment as Assistant Secretary of the "National Association for the Promotion of Social Science" (NAPSS); the Secretary was barrister G. W. Hastings, son of Dr. Sir Charles Hastings, founder of what was to become the British Medical Association.  The English Woman's Journal strongly supported both NAPSS and the new "Ladies' Sanitary Association", founded by NAPSS to carry 'a social and sanitary crusade' into the homes of the poor.  Between 1857 and its final conference in 1884, NAPSS served as a forum for discussion on Victorian social questions (approximately five thousand papers were delivered to the Association, published in nearly fifty volumes) and acted as an influential adviser to governments.  It attracted many powerful contributors, including politicians, civil servants, the first British feminists, intellectuals (such as John Stuart Mill, John Ruskin, F. D. Maurice and Charles Kingsley) and reformers, and influenced policy and legislation on matters as diverse as public health and women’s legal and social emancipation.  Mary Carpenter, famous for her work with ragged and criminal children, reputedly became the first woman to speak in public in Britain when she addressed the Association’s inaugural congress in Birmingham in October 1857.
 

   The Waverley Journal had ceased publication by 1858, but it was soon followed by the English Woman's Journal, which was supported by other committed independent women among whom were Matilda Mary Hays (1820?–1897: novelist, translator of George Sand and the Journal's co-editor); Adelaide Anne Procter (1826-64: poetess and women's activist); Emily Faithfull (1835-95: publisher, lecturer and women's activist; a Surrey rector's daughter, Emily later founded the Victoria Press where she trained young working-class women as compositors); and Maria Susan Rye (1829–1903) social reformer, promoter of emigration and briefly Secretary of the committee to reform the law on married women's property, who was especially interested in finding work for educated middle-class women.  Maria established an office to copy legal documents in Lincolns Inn Fields,  and was a founder of the "Female Middle-Class Emigration Society" (in her "Recollections", Isabella Fyvie Mayo describes Maria as "a tall lady, severe of aspect and speech.")  Sarah Lewin was employed as secretary and bookkeeper.  In December 1859, the Journal moved to more spacious premises at 19, Langham Place, where a reading room and coffee shop were provided, and associated societies could meet to develop initiatives.
 

 
 The major theme of the English Woman's Journal was employment, and associated with it were the needs to improve the education of women of all classes and the social responsibilities of middle-class women for working-class women.  These concerns raised the issue of the appropriate division of labour between men and women and the extent to which these feminists supported the employment of married women.  Questions about class and status were also significant.  Women who sought employment seemed too often constrained by notions of gentility and the appropriateness of employment for a 'lady' . . . .

'EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN,—Miss Isa Craig addresses the following as a letter to the Times :—

"The cause of working-women has found an able and generous advocate in 'S.G.O.' [Ed.―letter below].  He touches the heart of the question when he maintains that in securing her independence the dignity of woman is deeply concerned.  The power of independent industry, which saves her from a mercenary marriage, renders her equally free to serve the needs of the world, or to become the fit and noble helpmate of a working man—and in these days, what Englishman is not a worker by hand or brain?  Brave champion that we have found in 'S.G.O.,' we have—I do not mean to be strictly statistical—five million good as he.  We have the great body of the respectable working-classes, as our manual workers are distinctly called, whose sisters and daughters are independent labourers in many branches of non-domestic industry; we hope the time is coming when they will see their true interests, and withdraw their wives from the labour market.  But among them, closer to the heart of nature, coming in contact with the great human needs of soul and body in their simplest forms, the 'communion of labour' may often be found in its highest possible perfection.  Then we have the large lower-middle class, whose husbands and fathers know the value of their womankind as clerks and shopkeepers, limited as their education has been.  Higher in the social scale, cultivated men seek eagerly the help and companionship of cultivated women.  It seems therefore, that the views of your correspondent must be mistaken, or must be held by only a very limited class of society, whose opinions cannot deserve notice.  These 'lords of creation,' these despisers of women, are not many among 'those who hold their heads high' in honourable manhood.

    Miss Faithful, Miss Rye, Miss Bessie Parkes, will tell of the respectful kindness, the generous aid of the men with whom they have come in contact.  And why?  They have asked help, not declared war.  They have owned that women can co-operate, but never can and never ought to compete with man.  If the woman's cause is the man's, so are the woman's difficulties.  The problem of one is the problem of both.  And this of the social and industrial position of women can only be solved by both working hopefully and helpfully together, holding one another in mutual honour and esteem.  The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science originated much of the discussion on this subject, which has been carried on so ably in your columns. Many of the schemes of female employment now attracting public attention had their origins in its committee; among them that of printing pursued by Miss Faithful, and that of law copying, which Miss Rye, in addition to her labours in the cause of emigration, carries out in her office in Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn.  The meeting of the Association in London in June will afford a further and fitting opportunity for the discussion of the question, which will be introduced by papers from several of the ladies engaged in the practical working of the plans which former discussions originated.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
ISA CRAIG, Assistant-Secretary to the National
Association for the Promotion of Social Science.
3, Waterloo-place, Pall-mall, S.W., April 29 [1862]" '

Matilda Hays comments on Isa's letter ―

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS.
(5th MAY, 1862.)

SIR,―The following letter was addressed by me to the Times on May 1.  As it has not appeared I shall be much obliged if you will give it the benefit of your circulation.

"TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

"Sir,―Your correspondent, Miss Isa Craig, says most truly that 'woman's cause is man's;' but not I think equally truly, that to 'man's advocacy' it should be left, unless, indeed, that advocacy has always shown itself so manly as that of 'S.G.O.'

"Again, Miss Craig says, 'that woman never can, or ought to compete with man;' and here again I cordially join issue.  Nature, in making man and woman so unlike in their very likeness, has herself affixed the power and limit of both, and so entirely do I hold this, that I believe that when women shall become an acknowledged power in the world, as well as in the home, taking their share in the world's work and progress, man, in place of competitors, will find their labours of head and heart supplemented and perfected to a degree yet undreamt of.  Society will become purified, and many of the worst evils under which we (men and women) now labour and groan, will disappear in the recognition of a power hitherto denied or held in abeyance, and which I, for one, cannot believe the Almighty to have bestowed in vain.

"As a fellow-labourer with the ladies who Miss Craig mentions, I too can and do testify to 'the respectful kindness, the generous aid of the men with whom we have come in contact,' while personally I can and do gratefully testify to the friendship of many good and noble men.

"But these are not the men who talk and write of 'our women' with covert sneer and ribaldry, from which 'generous' men, as well as women, turn with disgust.

"May the 'five million good as S.G.O.' rally round us, and with hand and voice help the good work which, neither in my thought nor Miss Craig's, is to further separate the sexes, (a separation to whatever extent it exists, be it remembered, brought about by men and not by women), but may render man and women the helpmates God intended then to be.―I am, &c.

"MATILDA M. HAYS."
London, May 3.

    A commentator writing in the Scotsman had this to say about the English Woman's Journal...."It has all along been distinguished, and continues to be so, by a lady-like good taste and sense, which preserve if from offensive manifestations of 'strong-mindedness' on the one hand, and an earnestness and definiteness of purpose raising it above the frivolity of crotchet and fashions on the other."  Alas, lack of frivolity was to contribute to the Journal's downfall.  Writing to Barbara Bodichon in December 1862, the Journal's Editor, Emily Davies, believed that the Journal would never have a 'very large circulation', but that the inclusion of 'a good tale' would help attract the public, while the 'solid matter' would help keep it 'special.'  But the Journal failed to win a viable circulation, and by 1862 its financial future had become uncertain.  It struggled on, but with internal disagreements among its members adding to its problems it closed eventually in 1864.  Bessie Parkes went on to start the Alexandra Magazine, but it too failed and, following her marriage to Louis Belloc, she gradually withdrew from feminist activities.  Bessie died in 1925; her son was the writer Hilaire Belloc [Ed. see also Bessie's poem The Mersey and the Irwell].  The Journal, however, did live on.  In 1866 it was revived by Jessie Boucherett, who renamed it the Englishwoman's Review, and in this form it continued in publication until 1910.

    In her role as Assistant Secretary to NAPSS, Isa epitomised the independent single woman of her age.  Nevertheless, and perhaps unsurprisingly considering her background, she does appear to have been daunted by the magnitude of her task, in its early years at least.  In a letter dated September 1860 with regard to a forthcoming conference at Glasgow, she writes thus: "I hope I shall not break down at Glasgow.  I like the work, but I tremble at the meetings.  I begin to feel that I must be doomed to go through them, for some evil done in a previous state of existence" [and from the same letter: "I like to see our Social Science men advanced for they are bound to advance Social Science"].  But this was an age in which women played essential but supporting roles, and regardless of what her feelings might have been about her work for NAPSS, when Isa married her cousin John Knox in 1866 she retired from paid employment.  Her marriage announcement in the Pall Mall Gazette (19 May, 1866) stated simply―

Knox―Craig―At St. John's, Lewisham,  Mr. J. Knox to Miss Isa Craig, 17th inst.

The witnesses included Hastings, Bessie Raynor Parkes, Emily Davis and Jane Crow.  It was reported widely in the press that―

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ISA CRAIG'S LITERARY LIFE.

    Largely self-educated in literature, Isa was an admired poet in her day, first attracting fame as the winner of the Robert Burns Centenary Competition at The Crystal Palace in 1858 in the face of over 600 entrants, including some strong competition (among the finalists were Frederick Myers, Arthur J. Munby, and J. Stanyan Bigg; Gerald Massey's entry, "A Centenary Song", was placed fourth, while among those unplaced was a respectable poem ― "Robert Burns: A Centenary Ode"  ― by the Scots "Pedlar Poet", James Macfarlan).  The Scotsman for 27th January 1859 carried the following report of the Burns Centenary event — and the non-appearance of Miss Craig to receive her 50 guineas prize! .....

    In 1863, during the height of the American Civil War, cotton exports to the cotton-processing towns of Lancashire were disrupted, resulting in factory closures and great hardship among the working populace of the area.  To help raise money to alleviate their hardship, Isa undertook to compile and edit a volume of verse containing contributions from notable poets of the day, among whom was Christina Rossetti . . . .
 

The result was a charming volume, Poems: an offering to Lancashire . . . .

    Following her marriage in 1866, what little can be gleaned about the remainder of Isa's literary career comes from several short newspaper articles, from Cassell's newspaper advertising (their reluctance to credit authors in their advertising makes attribution difficult) and from a search through the periodicals of the period.

    Between 1865 and 1867 Isa is reported to have edited The Argosy, a monthly magazine "of tales, travels, essays and poems."  Because the record of Isa's later life is sparsely populated with fact, one is tempted to speculate; here, perusal of the Index to the 1866 collected edition of The Argosy suggests who her literary acquaintances might have been.  Besides her friend of the Langham Place Group, Bessie Rayner Parkes, it is unsurprising to find listed many well-known literary women of the period ― Jean Ingelow, Christina Rossetti, Margaret Oliphant, Matilda Betham-Edwards, Menella Smedley and Marguerite Agnes Power.  Among the male contributors are William Allingham, Anthony Trollop, and fellow Scots Alexander Smith (see Isa's memorial essay),  George MacDonald and Robert Buchanan.

    But Isa's tenure at The Argosy was short-lived.  During 1866 the magazine's reputation was damaged by the serialisation of Charles Reade’s sexually frank tale of bigamy, "Griffith Gaunt".  Its strait-laced publisher, Alexander Strahan, horrified by the backlash, sold the magazine to Mrs Henry Ellen Wood in October 1867, and she conducted it successfully until her death in 1887 when her son took over.  The Argosy ceased publication in 1901.
 
    Following her brief tenure as The Argosy's editor, Isa continued to write for the periodicals of the age, including Good Words, The Sunday Magazine and, in particular, The Quiver, a pious monthly periodical from the Cassell stable intended "For Sunday and General Reading".  However, Isa's work is difficult to identify due to magazine (and sometimes book) publishers of the period often attributing only 'indirect' reference to authorship by citing others of the author's  published titles ― for example, the hardback edition of Deepdale Vicarage, a story originally serialized in The Quiver (1866-7), is attributed "by the author of Mark Warren" rather than to its author, Mary Kirby ― and on occasions the publisher gives no attribution whatever.
 

    In Isa's case, two of her serialized stories from The Quiver ― Peggy Ogilvie's Inheritance (serialized in The Quiver, 1867-8) and Esther West (serialized in The Quiver, 1868-9, and attributed to "THE AUTHOR OF PEGGY OGLIVIE'S INHERITANCE")― subsequently found their way into hardback editions, both being attributed by the publisher to Isa Craig-Knox (by 1891, Esther West had reached its ninth edition and is again in print).  There is a reference on the title page of the former to the author also having written Round the Court,  a series of scenes of Victorian domestic working-class life (serialized in The Quiver, 1867), which Cassells attribute thus: "BY A RENT-COLLECTOR".  In similar vein Cassells attribute A Heroine of the Home (serialized in The Quiver, 1880) to "THE AUTHOR OF 'ESTHER WEST', 'PEGGY OGLIVIE'S INHERITANCE,' ETC." which, by reference to the hardback editions of these stories, translates to Isa Craig (this, incidentally, appears to be Isa's last published story).  In contrast, Cassells do attribute Fanny's Fortune, (The Quiver, 1874) to Isa Craig-Knox, additionally referring in this story's title line to the author having written "Two Years" (The Quiver, 1870—attributed to "the author of Esther West, etc. etc").  Thus, one proceeds in ferreting out Isa's literary contributions to the periodicals of her day.
 

    I doubt that other titles attributed to Isa Craig in the "COPAC National, Academic, and Specialist Library Catalogue" are correct; these are Mark Warren, Deepdale Vicarage, In Duty Bound and Hold Fast By Your Sunday.  In her autobiography "Leaflets from My Life: A Narrative Autobiography" (1888), Mary Kirkby claims authorship of these titles (some written jointly with her sister Elizabeth) describing briefly the circumstances in which they were written for The Quiver magazine.  In the case of Hold Fast  By Your Sundays, other evidence which links this title to the Kirby sisters is (a) a reference on the title page to the author having written "Margaret's Choice", another title claimed in Mary Kirby's autobiography; and (b) reference in the book's Introduction, written in 1889, to the author's death ― Isa Craig died in 1903―which leads me to suspect that the author of this title is most likely Elizabeth Kirby.
 

    Outside of her writing for the periodicals, Isa published three volumes of poetry:   Poems by Isa (1856); Duchess Agnes, a Drama, and Other Poems (1864, which includes a drama ― see Gerald Massey in the Athenæum); and Songs of Consolation (1874).  I have collected others of Isa's poems that do not appear within her published collections under Poems: a miscellany.  Her educational books, Little Folk's History of England (1871); Tales on The Parables (1872: the second series here reproduced); and Easy History for Upper Standards (1885) were popular during her life.

    Why Isa's literary life should have come to a close at a comparatively early age is a mystery.  Apart from Easy History for Upper Standards (an adaption of her earlier Little Folk's History of England) referred to, after 1880 I can find no further newspaper advertising of her poetry and serialized stories in the Quiver or in other periodicals, and nothing further is listed in the British Library catalogue.

    Isa's private life is also a mystery.  I have been unable to trace her entry in the 1871 Census, but that for 1881 records her living with her husband, John Knox (age 42, "Iron Merchant/Monger") and daughter Margaret (age 11, "Scholar") at 13, South Hill Park, Hampstead; resident with her are her brother-in-law, William C. Knox (age 43, "Book Keeper/Clerk, iron-trade") and Angelina E. Smith (age 18, "General Servant").  The 1891 Census records the same household, but having removed to 88 Breakspears Road, Brockley, Deptford.  And in 1901, the Knox family were living at the same address, now with their daughter (aged 31),  Mary E. Parkinson (aged 32, described as a "visitor" ), and two servants; and it was here that Isa Craig-Knox died on 23rd December, 1903.

    The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes her thus: "A sparkling, happy-go-lucky person, Isa was loved by all who knew her." A contemporary edition of the Morning Post had this to say . . . .

"The world of letters has just lost an interesting figure in the person of Mrs Isa Craig-Knox, who passed away at her residence at Brockley on Wednesday, in her seventy-third year.  In competition with six hundred and twenty rivals she won the prize which was offered in connection with the Burns centenary for the best ode to the poet.  Mrs Knox published several volumes of poems and many popular novels.  She also wrote some children's  books and, in addition to the literary work which she did for the Scotsman for many years, contributed to most of the principal magazines.  In 1857 she left Scotland for London in order to assist Mr Hastings in organising the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, and she acted as his secretary and literary assistant until her marriage with her cousin, Mr John Knox, a descendant of the great reformer."

    Following her death, Isa's husband remained at their home in Breakspears Road where he died on 19th August, 1921, aged 82 years.  I have been unable to trace what became of Isa's daughter, Margaret.

    In 1892, Isa's former overlord at NAPSS, G. W. Hastings, by then the Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for Worcestershire East ― and perceived to be a vastly respectable figure ― experienced the rare and dubious distinction of expulsion from the House of Commons following his conviction for fraud.  As a Trustee for property under the will of one John Brown, Hastings had appropriated to himself over £20,000 from the estate.  He was jailed for five years.  Following his release he published "A Vindication of Warren Hastings", his famous ancestor who was impeached in 1787 for corruption, although in his case he was later acquitted.

"BLOW BREEZE OF SPRING."
A song.
Words by Isa Craig set to music by Florence Gilbert.

Sheet music
(.pdf, 164KB)

Midi
(.mid, 10KB)

"BEAUTIFUL SNOW"
A song.
Words by Isa Craig set to music by John Blockley.

Sheet music
(.pdf, 3MB)