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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 NAPSS together with 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.' [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]" '

But Matilda Hays did not share this point of view―

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 . . . . but only for a time.  This was an age in which women played essential but supporting roles.  Regardless of what her feelings about it might have been when Isa married her cousin, John Knox, in 1866, she retired from paid employment, although she continued to remain fully occupied as a writer.  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.

It was also reported widely in the press of the time 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 from 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, perhaps, 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,  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 The National Magazine, Good Words, The Sunday Magazine and, in particular, The Quiver (a pious periodical from the Cassell stable intended "For Sunday and General Reading") from which a number of her serialized stories later appearedin hardback editions.  The last of Isa's serialized stories that I have identified, A Heroine of the Home, was published in The Quiver during 1879 and 1880. 

    Of other of Isa Craig's serialized stories, Mark Warren (The Quiver, 1864) seems to have been the earliest, followed by Deepdale Vicarage and The Half Sisters (The Quiver, 1866);  Peggy Ogilvie's Inheritance (The Quiver, 1867); Esther West (The Quiver, 1869); Fanny's Fortune, (The Quiver, 1874); and A Heroine of the Home (The Quiver, 1879-80).  In Duty Bound was published in hardback in 1881, but I have been unable yet to trace its serialization.

  A couple of other stories (at least) appear to exist.  Cassell's advertising for Peggy Ogilvie's Inheritance (1867) refers to its author having previously written Round the Court, while in the title line to Fanny's Fortune (The Quiver for 1874) is a reference to "Two Years" by the same author.  Both stories I have yet to trace.  The title Hold Fast By Your Sunday (1882), published unattributed, is generally credited to Isa Craig in bibliographies of her work, but reference on the title page to the author having written "Margaret's Choice" and also, in the book's Introduction, written in 1889, to the author's death, leads me to suspect it is more likely by Elizabeth Kirby.

    Outside of her writing for the periodicals, Isa published four volumes of poetry (including a drama), several educational books and a handful of novels.  The titles that I am aware of are Poems by Isa (1856); The Essence of Slavery (1863); Poems (1863); Duchess Agnes, a Drama, and Other Poems (1864—see Gerald Massey in the Athenæum); The Little Folk's History of England (1872); Yes or no?—Tales on the Parables (1872); Songs of Consolation (1874) was her last book of poems (I have yet to see a copy, but contemporary reviewers describe the collection as religious in character, comparable to the poems of Adelaide Procter); Easy History for Upper Standards (1885); Our Summer Home (a poem—1888). A Selection from Mrs. Knox's poems, edited by A. H. Japp, appeared in 1891.

    Regarding Isa's private life, there is nothing.  I have been unable to trace her entry in the 1871 Census, but the 1881 Census records her as 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 most recent published Census), the Knox family were living at the same address, now with their daughter (aged 31),  Mary E. Parkinson (aged 32, described as a "visitor" ― possibly a friend of Margaret's?), 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 being expelled 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.

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WHO WAS ISA CRAIG?

The Scotsman, 31 July 1931.

    In spite of the fact that Isa Craig's ode won the first prize at the Burn's Centenary Festival in 1859, very little is known about her.  There were over six hundred competitors for the fifty guinea prize.  The winning of the prize was, however, by no means a mere flash in the pan, for Isa Craig had several collections of her poems published, and people, who care to read them, will find many gems amongst them.

    The poetess was born in Edinburgh in 1831.  Her father, who belonged to an Aberdeenshire family, for many years carried on a business as a hosier and glover in South Bridge, Edinburgh.  Isa's mother died when she was a baby, and she was brought up by her grandmother.  Mr. Craig did not survive his wife long, so Isa was left to face life alone at an early age.  She found her way to London where she became secretary to the Social Science Association.  She was a very busy woman, and her poems were written in the intervals of leisure afforded by a life of toil.

    In a preface to one of her collections of poems she tells us that she followed no master in the art of song, and did not endeavour to work out any poetical theory. "I have simply expressed the thoughts and feelings suggested by nature and the scenes of life in the tone and language that came at their command.  Recognising in poetry an art to be cultivated with enthusiasm for its own sake, as well as the sake of the refined enjoyment which its exercise bestows, I have aspired as far as possible to render these poems artistic efforts."

    In many of her poems she reveals a great knowledge of human nature, pure diction, and tenderness of feeling, and her poem "The Garden" shows that she was a true lover of all it stands for, and in her sonnet to spring she says:—

    As Isa Craig lived during the Crimean War, it is not surprising that she wrote several war poems.  Amongst them are "War," "When Our Heroes Return," "They Died at Alma," and "Night Watches."  She published one book of poems in 1856 and another in 1865. Many of her poems were published under the name "Isa."  She also wrote under the initial "C."

    In 1866 she married her cousin, John Knox, who was an iron merchant in London.  After her marriage she appears to have given up writing poetry.  Towards the end of her life she wrote serial tales for the "Quiver" and other monthlies.

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KEAT'S SONNET "TO AILSA CRAIG"

ALTERED TO SUIT A RECENT OCCASION.

To Isa Craig.

Hearken, thou lady-poet Candidate!
    Give answer with thy pen, the land-fowl's wing,
    When were they musings prompted first to sing?
Where, from the sun, was thy gift hid till late?
How long is't since the mighty power, Fate,
    Bade thee to print thy fancy's pondering?
    Slept it in scraps asunder, wandering,
Or where the desk its papers congregate?

Thou answer'st not, for thou art modest, maid!
    They life consists of two contrasted ways,—
The last in light, the former in shade;
    First with thy hopes, last with the people's
        praise,—
Veil'd wast till occasion thee display'd,
And crown'd thee evermore with laurel bays.

MARY COWDEN CLARKE

Nice, February 9, 1859.

SISTERS, HELP SISTERS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
[3rd April, 1862]

Sir,—Will you kindly allow me space to draw public attention to a quiet, unostentatious work which has now for some little time been carried or by certain ladies, some of whom are well known to be deep thinkers in all which concerns their sex, able writers, and very hard workers?

    It in well known that a persevering attempt has now for some time been made to find employment for a class of women whose condition in life is a very pitiable one, women just educated enough to be above the work of domestic service, but not sufficiently so to be equal to the duties of governesses.  Miss Faithfull, with her printing establishment, has opened out one, but I fear as yet very limited field of labour.  Miss M. Rye has an office for copying law papers, engrossing deeds, writing circulars, even copying sermons and petitions. I hope the Revised Code Agitation has at least done this good, that it has found her penwomen some bread. I believe a lady named Craig procures employment at telegram work for other women of this class. Miss Bessie Parkes and Miss Jane Lewin are two more of these active ladies, in some circles well known for their energy in this movement.

    I speak from the best authority when I say that these ladies all find that all they can achieve in the way of finding employment for these unfortunate members their sex is but very little indeed, compared with the demand made upon them.  It is not that they weary of their labour of love, or are daunted in it, but they have arrived at the conviction that an outlet must be found for some portion of the stream of deserving applicants beyond the shores of Great Britain; the battle of life here for educated women is, and has been for many a year, so severe, that they and their kind champions at last feel some—many—-must retreat, or be altogether beaten down.

    A field is now open to them, they are ready to seek its occupation.  It was found that this very class of women are much wanted in Australia and Natal; that the colonists are often seriously inconvenienced for want of the very same educated workers, for whom the mother county can find no employment.

    The mere servant class this country has found in great numbers, and most wisely aided the colonists to immigrate, to the great benefit of both parties.  But what is wanted is that class of woman capable of filling the highest branches of domestic services, capable of active as a governess; if unaccomplished, yet with

education and ability sufficient to give a plain good education to the children of the middle classes. Again, I speak advisedly, there is room for schoolmistresses, who, though yet below the standard now sought for in England, are yet well equal to the task of teaching all that we are now going to demand as the absolutely necessary education of  our own poor people's children.

    These ladies of whom I have spoken, with others whose names I do not make prominent, are prepared to satisfy the public that this is true as regards the demand in the colonies, as they are ready also to prove they have the material to meet the demand.  They argue that it is a course good as to its policy to send out large numbers of these women, as it is, to their knowledge, a noble field of charity.

    They have communicated with persons of influence in the colonies. They have done more;—they have already commenced, and with success, their work, sending out some of their poor clients to these colonies, and the result has been most satisfactory; they were at once employed in positions of respectability, and at salaries which it would have hopeless for them to have expected here.

    Now, Sir, I do not wish to open any subscription list in your columns, to start a "society" with all its live and dead stock of expensive machinery. I don't desire a "meeting," a "bazaar," or even a "festival," with a Duke in the chair, and a tavern bill in incubation.

    If you permit this letter to appear, I hope it may induce a few of the wealthy ladies of the land to communicate personally with any of
these ladies whose names I have given.  A letter to Miss H. Rye, 12, Portugal-street, Lincoln's-inn, would, I am sure, procure an interview with herself or any of her colleagues.  It would be shown by plain unmistakeable facts that there is a great merciful work in hand, which will be cheered by sympathy, and can be most materially aided by a very small ******* little money ****** ambitious to seek help by glorifying their work, as one in which at great cost a great display is made; they are hard thinkers—a little blue, if you will, just enough so to make them wise as well as good.  It is women's work,—I wish to enlist such in it.  I think I will undertake to say that for every farthing given or lent them they will give an amount which will satisfy even your obedient servant,

 S.G.O.

____________

Ed. Text marked '***' was illegible in the original.

SPRING.
A SONNET.

I LOVE the spring, although her changeful skies
Weep oftener than smile—a child in tears,
With a smile lurking in her glad blue eyes;
And on her brow a coronal appears
Of fair and dewy flowers—the primrose pale,
And crocus bud of purple, white, and gold,—
While woodland voices all her coming hail,
And at her touch the cradled leaves unfold.
I love the spring-time for the lengthening light
And coming beauty.   'Tis like childhood's hours,
When life is all before us stretching bright,
And full with promise of its summer flowers,—
When tears are soonest shed and soonest dried,
And love hath no disguise, and beauty hath no pride.

ISA CRAIG

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And to end, a fantasy . . . .

ISA IN THE GARDEN.

ISA in the garden stands,
And the winds, with unseen hands,
Lift the midnight of her hair
From her brow so white and fair.

Isa plucks with finger-tips
One sweet rose; her crimson lips
Match the colour and the tone,
But the dew is all their own.

And I think, as Isa stands
With the rose within her hands,
Other sounds are in her ear
Than the river's gliding near.

Whispers soft as whispers be
When love lends its voice, and she
Hears its thrilling music stream
Through the wonder-gate of dream.

And then gentle whispers say—
"Isa, Isa, come away,
We have in our fairy bower
One sweet spray of orange flower;

"This we keep to clasp your brow
When your heart has breathed its vow,
And you move away beside
One who claims you as his bride."

Isa smiles as still she stands
With the rose within her hands,
So I turn away and leave
Isa yet a maiden Eve.

ALEXANDER ANDERSON