MARGARET GATTY (1809–1873) AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED — ECCLESFIELD VICARAGE, 21 JULY 1857 REGARDING BOOK‑REVIEW CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LITERARY CHURCHMAN

A neatly written autograph letter signed (“Margaret Gatty”), penned from Ecclesfield Vicarage, Sheffield, dated 21 July 1857. Gatty writes to an unnamed correspondent concerning her book‑review work for The Literary Churchman, an Anglican periodical of orthodox High Church / moderate Tractarian persuasion.

She notes she has not heard back from the correspondent and is unsure whether the Editor wished her to select and review books of her own choosing. She therefore encloses another review “in case he likes to make use of it.” The letter is a revealing example of mid‑Victorian religious‑literary publishing, where contributors operated with minimal formal instruction and relied on informal clerical intermediaries.

Full text (as written): Ecclesfield Vicarage Sheffield Dear Sir As I have not heard from you & am not sure that the Editor of the Literary Churchman did not wish that I should select & review some books of my own choosing, I send you the enclosed in case he likes to make use of it. Yours &c Margaret Gatty July 21. 1857

Context & Significance

High Church / Tractarian Identity of the Literary Churchman

The Literary Churchman (est. 1855) was founded to provide Anglo‑Catholic / High Church book reviews, often in explicit contrast to Evangelical or Broad Church criticism. Its editorial stance was sacramental, tradition‑minded, and aligned with moderate Tractarian theology.

Gatty’s involvement fits perfectly: she and her husband Rev. Alfred Gatty were committed High Church Anglicans, and Ecclesfield Vicarage was known for its Anglo‑Catholic devotional life. Her moral and religious writings were widely read in High Church circles, making her a natural contributor.

Gatty’s position in 1857

By this date she was already known for Parables from Nature (1855–57) and was developing her editorial identity long before founding Aunt Judy’s Magazine (1866). This letter is an early example of her professionalisation as a reviewer.

Recipient identification

The recipient is not the editor. Gatty refers to “the Editor” in the third person (“he”), while addressing the correspondent as “you”. This makes the recipient almost certainly the reviewing secretary or sub‑editor — the intermediary who handled contributors, forwarded reviews, and managed book parcels. This was standard practice in religious periodicals of the 1850s.

Why the letter matters

This short note is a window into:

• Gatty’s early editorial development,

• the informal commissioning practices of Victorian religious periodicals,

• the gendered etiquette of women contributors,

• her integration into a High Church intellectual network,

• and the literary culture of Ecclesfield Vicarage, later home to Juliana Horatia Ewing.

Letters relating to Gatty’s editorial work are significantly scarcer than her family or parish correspondence.

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