Clare began
thinking about writing a will in the summer after his first book was published. The following winter he wrote to John Taylor,
his publisher: 'When you write me again I want some instructions respecting
making a will as life is unscertain -- I intend to leave my parents 5s a week
of the funded money and patty the rest with an eaqual share of what comes from
the publications till she remains a widow and then it drops to the child -- if
I dont make a will she gets all & I shall be d---d mad at that I assure you
so gi's your opinion sometime'. To
modern ears, it sounds as if he wasn't feeling especially well disposed towards
Patty at this time, but that is certainly far from the truth.
Clare's Journal
for October and November 1824 reveals that he made at least three draft wills
during this period. The undated
surviving draft is almost certainly one of these. In it, Clare left ten pounds to his sister
Sophia, an income of four shillings a week to his parents 'out of the Copy
right of my works' and any residual income from his works to his children. As for the annuity that had been purchased
with the capital put forward by his noble patrons, 'the £16 interest from the 4
per Cents is to be paid to my family as usual and the Principal divided amongst
the Childern at the youngest's coming of age, though my wife is to have the
benefit of the interest not only to bring up the childern but so long as she
continues unmarried'.
It was in order
to protect the interests of the children that Patty was only to receive the
interest and not the principle (or indeed her husband's copyright). The Married Woman's Property Act lay in the
future, so anything transferred to Patty would, in the event of her remarriage,
have automatically passed to a new husband.
The draft will
also expressed the wish 'that my friend John Taylor should be the Editor of my
Remains and that all my writings be submitted to him'. Clare noted in his 1824 Journal that he had
nominated as his executors the Reverend Charles Mossop, his friend Artis and
his publisher Hessey. 'All monies
arising from book profits etc' were to be left 'in their trust'.
In the spring of
1825, Clare returned to the question of his estate. He was dissatisfied with the wording of the
will that had been drawn up for him by a local lawyer. He sent a new draft will to Lord Radstock in
London. Radstock showed it to Eliza
Emmerson. She told Clare that 'several
parts appeared to me too indefinite'. It
happened that on the very evening Radstock came round with the will her lawyer
friend Mr Clutterbuck -- whom Clare had met when visiting London -- was dining
with her. She took the liberty of
showing him the will.
Clutterbuck made
pencil alterations in relation to various legal matters and reworded it in
'proper legal form'. Emmerson sent a
Clare a copy -- he would only have to send it back with any alterations he
wished to make -- and she would arrange for the formal signing. She applauded Clare for 'the honorable and
affectionate manner in which you have in the event of your decease, disposed of
your nobly-earned property'.
But she was very
concerned about the fate of Clare's unpublished manuscripts: the will proposed
that they should be sold after his death.
She informed Clare that she wanted to publish both sides of their
correspondence, at her own expense and for the financial benefit of his family. If Clare died first, she would take the
arrangements in hand. If she died first
and her husband outlived Clare, he would do so.
Thomas Emmerson outlived his wife, but seems to have destroyed Clare's
letters to her. By not publishing them,
he deprived us of what was undoubtedly the most intimate account of Clare's
emotional life.
Eliza thought it
would be unwise to sell Clare's manuscripts.
She thought that it would be better for publication rights to remain in
the hands of his executors: 'Do you mean your Memoirs, Essays, and the Natural
History of Helpstone, with all the letters and MSS in your possession to be
sold? If so, your Executors can have no
power as to their publication afterwards.' She also cited a passage from the draft will
sent to Radstock. Clare had written, 'I
give the M.S.S. copy of the Village Minstrel with other Poems to ...' Emmerson
queried, 'do you mean the selection that forms the 2 Vols -- or the Whole body
of M.S.S. poems, from which the Work is
selected? This is a delicate question
for me to put -- but I have a serious motive for asking it -- for the insertion of "other MSS. Poems
in the possession etc. etc." might be mistaken hereafter for all other
M.S.S. Poems in the possession of
T[aylor] & H[essey]." She
suggested that the passage should be reworded to make the distinction clear. Was it a delicate question for her to ask
because she was the intended recipient of The Village Minstrel manuscript? Was Clare giving away a memento of his
published work or a whole body of related manuscripts that might yield material
for future publication?
Two months later,
Emmerson wrote to thank Clare for sending back the will as revised by
Clutterbuck and further amended by the poet himself. His principal alteration seems to have been
the reinsertion of the names of Taylor and Hessey as the intended publishers of
his posthumous works. Emmerson replied
that, given their failure to publish his Shepherd's Calendar (it had been
languishing with them for well over a year, and wouldn't appear for another two
years), he should not entrust his affairs to the firm -- which was indeed in
considerable financial difficulty at this time.
'If you nominate your publishers
in your will -- your Executors could have no control over your M.S.S. property.'
The best course of action would be to give the choice of a future publisher to
his executors, who would of course favour Taylor and Hessey provided the latter
were disposed to act 'fairly and liberally'.
The executors would have the best interests of Clare's family at heart. They should be men not involved in
publishing: she suggested Lord Radstock, her own husband and Clare's friend
Artis.
She pursued the
matter in her next letter:
I like far best,
that your MSS etc. should not be sold,
but continue under the direction of yr Executors, to be published at 'half
profits' the third of which I should advise you to allow to your dear wife, in
the event of her marrying again -- for, it would be as much as you could
injustice afford to allow for your property -- as the poor children should be
chiefly taken care of in such an event as a second marriage.
Emmerson applied
considerable pressure to persuade Clare to accept this arrangement. She told him it was 'the most serious and
essential' aspect of his affairs and that both Lord Radstock and Mr Emmerson
strongly commend her proposal. He must
make a 'final answer'. (ln this letter
Emmerson also thanked Clare for including in the will mention of the silver
christening cup that she had given his daughter Eliza Louisa, her god-daughter,
and she asked what was to become of his copy of Young's Night Thoughts -- a
book most dear to her heart, because it was the first that she had sent him.)
Clare returned
the will to Emmerson on 3 July 1825, in a form ready for signature. Emmerson was not a woman to back down without
protest in the matter of the competition for patronage of Clare between her and
Radstock on the one side and Taylor and Hessey on the other. It may therefore be inferred that Clare
accepted all her suggestions, especially the crucial one about the right to
publish the manuscripts remaining in the hands of his executors. Clutterbuck was out of town for the summer,
but by the beginning of September Emmerson had the will legally signed. She said that she would bring it down to
Clare when visiting him later that month.
Clare wrote in
his journal on 12 November 1824: 'I mean to leave every thing both in the copy
right and fund money etc etc of all my Books M.S.S. and property in the power of my family at
le[a]st in the trust of those I shall nominate trustees.' Correspondence of 1850 between Clare's son
Charles and William Knight concerning possible publication of the later poetry
reveals that his family shared the assumption that power of publication
belonged to Clare's trustees. Assuming
that Emmerson's recommendations were incorporated into Clare's final will, the
intention remained the same for posthumous publication: power would belong to
his legal representatives.
© Eric Robinson & Roger Rowe
© Eric Robinson & Roger Rowe
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