Jane Stuart (Quaker)

Jane Stuart (c. 1654 – 1742), also known as "Wisbech's Secret Princess", was a Quaker who lived and died in Wisbech, England. There is a long-standing tradition that she was a natural daughter of James II of England.

Jane Stuart
Bornc. 1654
Paris, France
Died(1742-07-12)12 July 1742
Wisbech, Isle of Ely
OccupationSpinner
Known forreputed natural daughter of James II of England

No records of her during her life in the town have been located in the Wisbech & Fenland Museum that confirm the Stuart royal link; it was only after her death that the details of her life were recorded in oral histories of Wisbech residents.[1]

Biography

Stuart's father, James II of England, was an English prince in exile in France following the execution of his father, Charles I when she was born. The surname of Stuart's mother is not known, it is claimed that Jane let slip her mother's name as Alice.[2] James returned to England, bringing Jane Stuart with him, when she was about six years old.[3]

She was raised at court. Stuart was once engaged, but her fiance was killed in an accident when their coach overturned on their wedding day.[3][4] At one point, she was imprisoned with Quaker theologian Thomas Elwood.[3]

She left court for a life in keeping with her values as a Quaker around age 34, when her father, by then King of England, was exiled to France. She left in disguise, perhaps a Quaker's dress, and went north, ending in Wisbech, working first in fields and then as a spinner.[3][4] It was said that she reaped and worked in gardens in the summer and did knitting and sewing in the winter.[5]

She is reputed to have lived and spun in the basement of a property on the Old Market.[6]

She once travelled to Scotland to see her much-younger brother, James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales, also known as "the old pretender."[7][3] Later in life, Stuart was sought out by the Duke of Argyll; she recognized his coach and hid, thinking he was seeking her out to be a political pawn. It is said that Stuart preferred her simple life to that of one at court and claimed she would not give it up to be Queen of England.[3][4]

The meeting house Stuart attended was a thatched building, as shown in watercolour painting by Algernon Peckover.[8][9]

She died at the age of 88 on 12 July 1742.[3] [10] She is referred to in the Victoria County History.[11] She is supposed to have had all her teeth at the time of her death.[12]

The story of Stuart's life was the basis of a novel Royal Quaker by Mrs Bertram Tanqueray.[13]

Gravesite

Her final resting place is in the burial ground behind the Friends Meeting House on the North Brink.[14][15]

The graves at that time were unmarked. Stuart's was marked by box (Buxus sempervirens) hedging. Stuart's grave is stated as "exhibiting the initials 'J.S.' with the words and figures 'aged 88. 1742' and is supposed to record the sepultre of one of the descendants of the royal family of Stuarts" in The History of Wisbech published by William Watts in 1834. Box hedging remains around Stuart's grave. Today it forms the shape of a rectangle enclosing 'JS, AGE, 88, 1742' although in the past a drawing by Algernon Peckover showed it as forming "JS, aged 88, 1742" perhaps over the centuries parts required replanting.[16] A recent photo of the box hedging is on the Friend website.[17] The travel writer James Hooper was shown around the Friends Meeting House and Burying Ground by Alexander Peckover in 1897, later in his newspaper article he notes 'the headstone inscription - Jane Stuart Died 1742 Aged 88' and 'this highly accomplished woman once fainted in the God's Acre of the peace-loving Friends, and under the turfy spot on which she fell lie her remains'.[18]

References
  1. "Jane Stuart". Wisbech Museum. 22 December 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  2. "The Amazing Story of Jane Stuart, Re-told by D.Izett". Lincolnshire Free Press. 25 December 1939. p. 11.
  3. The Outlook: A Weekly Review of Politics, Art, Literature, and Finance. "The Outlook" Publishing Company. 1910. pp. 826–827.
  4. Egar, Samuel (1894). "Jane Stuart". Fenland Notes and Quiries. II: 178–179.
  5. "The British Archaological Congress in Wisbech". Morning Post. 27 August 1878. p. 2.
  6. Andrew C Ingram (2002). Wisbech 1800-1901. Middleton Press. ISBN 1-901706-931.
  7. Burnet, George B. (31 May 2007). The Story of Quakerism in Scotland : 1650-1850. Marwick, William H. Cambridge. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-7188-4226-0. OCLC 1059115716.
  8. N Walker & T Craddock (1849). The History of Wisbech and the Fens. Richard Walker.
  9. "Quaker Meeting House". www.wisbech-Society.co.uk. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  10. Mabel Richmond Brailsford (1915). Quaker Women 1650-1690. Duckworth & co. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  11. A history of the County of Cambridge and the isle of ely:volume 4,City of Ely;Ely,N and S.Wichford and Wisbech Hundreds. VCH. 2000. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  12. Donald, Chris (2020). "Interesting and Curious Facts of Yesteryear". Discovering Wisbech. Discovering magazines. 23.
  13. "Books of the day". The Standard. 23 March 1904. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  14. Podesta, James (15 February 2013). "Jane Stuart". Cambridgeshire Times. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  15. "Wisbech Meeting House" (PDF). www.heritage.quaker.org.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  16. Christopher Donald (2016). Wisbech's Secret Princess. Wisbech Quakers. ISBN 978-1-5262-0627-5.
  17. "Queen of the Reapers". www.thefriend.org. Retrieved 1 December 2019 – via https://thefriend.org/article/eye-16-march-2018.
  18. "East Anglian Town's - and last Wisbech". Eastern Daily Press. 16 March 1897.

Further reading
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