Arthur+Munby

Arthur Joseph Munby was a British lawyer, poet, and diarist who lived during the Victorian Era. He was born in York, England on 19 August 1828 to Joseph Munby and Caroline Eleanor Forth, and was the eldest of seven children (Stanley ‘Munby’). His parents were married in 1827 and moved to York shortly after his birth (Hudson 7). His father, a solicitor, held multiple positions within the community: “he held the offices of secretary of York County Hospital for 36 years, and of the Yorkshire School for the Blind for 43 years”. His father was also an accomplished violinist, played the organ for St. Martin’s Church (on Coney Street), and he held the chair for the York Choral Society (Hudson 8).
 * Family Life**

The Munby family initially settled on Coney Street, where two of Munby’s younger brothers were born, but moved to 3 Blake Street in 1838 (Hudson 7). Munby was placed in the care of his nurse, Hannah Carter, a domestic servant who was employed by the family for 28 years. He continued to visit Carter after her retirement (Hudson 8). Munby came from a Christian household, and found many of his friendships among the religious and devout, maintaining those friendships for the rest of his life (Hudson 10). He was baptized at St. Olave’s Church on 2 September 1828 (Hudson 7).


 * Education**

The official records of Munby’s schooling began in 1842, at age 14, when he entered St. Peter’s School, York for the Christmas term (Hudson 8). According to the History of St. Peter’s School: York (as referenced by Hudson), Munby remained with the school for two years through the consolidation of St. Peter’s School and the Propietary School at Clifton. He left St. Peter's in 1846 to study under a private tutor and was prepared for Cambridge by both his private tutor and Reverend A. W. Brown, the Vicar of Pytchley (Hudson 9).

Munby enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1847 and studied there from 1848-1851: “his name does not appear in the Tripos lists, [implying] that he was a ‘poll man’ and took an ordinary degree, requiring simple classics, mathematics and theology” (Hudson 9). There is no record of his academic performance, but it “is clear he was not academically gifted in the conventional sense, but was a slow starter, showing the promise of an original mind” (Hudson 9-10). He “graduated B.A. in 1851 (and M.A. in 1856) and was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, 11 June, 1851” (Hudson 12).


 * Professional Life**

Munby himself may have joined the clergy, “as an uncle and two of his younger brothers did” (Hudson 10), but his father wanted him to become a barrister instead. He was not particularly interested in the law; as evidenced by both the four year delay in joining the Bar (Hudson 12) and an unsuccessful law career (Stanley ‘Munby’). In addition to his work as a barrister, Munby also worked as a “voluntary unpaid teacher at the Working Men’s College…beginning 31 May 1858”. He also taught Latin during his tenure at the Working Men’s College (Hudson 13). R. B. Litchfield and Vernon Lushington – two of Munby’s friends from Trinity College – also worked at the Working Men’s College, teaching arithmetic and English composition respectively (Hudson 13). Munby continued to teach at the College until the 1880s (Stanley ‘Munby’). He also started work with the Ecclesiastical Commission in 1858, starting there as a “supernumerary clerk”. He remained with the Ecclesiastical Commission for his nearly thirty year career in the civil service, and gained the position of first-class clerk prior to his retirement (Hudson 45).


 * Literary Career**

Munby’s literary career began in 1852 with the publication of his first volume of poetry, //Benoni// (Stanley ‘Munby’). The volume was reviewed by a classmate, R.D. Blackmore, who called it “a friendly quizzical piece…lament[ing] a tendency to obscurity in the verse” (Hudson 12). Munby was also a member of two literary circles: “The ‘Tobacco Parliaments’ of the publisher and Christian socialist Alexander MacMillan from 1859, and the meetings from 1866 to 1874 of the Pen and Pencil Club…founded by Clementia Taylor” (Stanley ‘Munby’). Although Munby published multiple volumes of poetry, his literary reputation does not emerge from his poetical works, but instead comes from his diary which he kept throughout his life; spanning from 1859 to 1898, and covering a vast array of topics. It is in this diary that his collections of studies of working women can be found. Munby’s obsession with the body of the working woman began in early adulthood, and he pursued this interest for much of his life (Stanley ‘Munby’). Barry Reay, quoting from R. Allen, states: “Munby has been described as a flâneur, wandering the city and observing women as they went about their work: milkwomen, dustwomen and domestic servants” (19). Munby encouraged his wife to keep a diary of her own “as a means of keeping in touch with her life and activities as well as satisfying his need to have these represented” (Stanley ‘Cullwick’).


 * Main Publications**

//Benoni// (1852)

//Verses New and Old// (1865)

[|//Dorothy//][|(1890)]

[|//Vestigia retrorsum//][|(1891)]

[|//Ann Morgan's Love: a pedestrian poem// (1896)]

[|//Poems Chiefly Lyric and Elegiac//][|(1901)]

[|Relicta (1909)]

Munby met Hannah Cullwick in 1854 and “[t]he long relationship…went through different phases” (Reay 26). The relationship began clandestinely and remained so for the remainder of their lives. Due to the divide in their social standing, Munby was not able to visit Cullwick openly at her place of work. However, Cullwick was able to visit Munby at his home and perform menial tasks for him (Reay 26-27). They married at St. James’s, Clerkenwell on 14 January 1873, but maintained a relationship of ‘master and servant’, only representing themselves as a married couple when traveling (Stanley ‘Cullwick’). Although Cullwick’s friends and family were later aware of the relationship, Munby’s social circle never knew that Cullwick was Munby’s wife (Reay 28). Overtime, Cullwick grew unhappy with the secrecy required by Munby, wishing “to live openly as a married upper-class gentleman and lower-class woman” (Stanley ‘Cullwick’). This culminated in a rift in 1877, followed by a period of separation. However, they eventually reconciled with one another and maintained their secret relationship until their deaths. Cullwick died of heart failure on 9 July 1909; Munby died of pneumonia on 29 January 1910, in his home in Wheeler’s Farm, Pyrford. He was buried on 3 February 1910 at the Pyrford Parish Church (Stanley ‘Munby’).
 * Marriage and Death**
 * Works Cited**

Hudson, Derek, and Arthur Munby. //Munby, Man Of Two Worlds: The Life and Diaries of Arthur J. Munby//. Cambridge: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd, 1972. Print.

Reay, Barry. //Watching Hannah: Sexuality, Horror and Bodily De-formation in Victorian England//. London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2002. Print.

Stanley, Liz. “Munby, Arthur Joseph (1828–1910)”. //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography//. Oxford University Press, 2004. Web. 28 January 2014.

Stanley, Liz. “Cullwick, Hannah (1833–1909)”. //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography//. Oxford University Press, 2004. Web. 28 January 2014.


 * Further Reading**

Allen, R. “Munby Reappraised: The Diary of an English Flaneur”. //Journal of Victorian Culture 5 (2000)//: 260-286.

Cullwick, Hannah, and Liz Stanley. //The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant//. London: Virago, 1984. Print.