Scandal and Survival in Nineteenth-Century Scotland : The Life of Jane Cumming

Uncovers the life of Jane Cumming, who scandalized her contemporaries with tales of sexual deviancy but also defied cultural norms, standing up to male authority figures and showing resilience.In 1810 Edinburgh, the orphaned Scottish-Indian schoolgirl Jane Cumming alleged that her two schoolmistresses were sexually intimate. The allegation spawned a defamation suit that pitted Jane's grandmother, a member of the Scottish landed gentry, against two young professional women who were romantic friends. During the trial, the boundary between passion and friendship among women was debated and Jane was viewed'orientally,'as morally corrupt and hypersexual. Located at the intersection of race, sex, and class, the case has long been a lightning rod for scholars of cultural studies, women's and gender history, and, given Lillian Hellman's appropriation of Jane's story in her 1934 play The Children's Hour, theater history as well. Frances B. Singh's wide-ranging biography, however, takes a new, psychological approach, putting the notorious case in the context of a life that was marked by loss, separation, abandonment--and resilience. Grounded in archival and genealogical sources never before consulted, Singh's narrative reconstructs Cumming's life from its inauspicious beginnings in a Calcutta orphanage through her schooling in Elgin and Edinburgh, an abusive marriage, her adherence to the Free Church at the time of the Scottish Disruption, and her posthumous life in Hellman's Broadway play. Singh provides a detailed analysis not only of the case itself, but of how both Jane's and her teachers'lives were affected in the aftermath. In 1810 Edinburgh, the orphaned Scottish-Indian schoolgirl Jane Cumming alleged that her two schoolmistresses were sexually intimate. The allegation spawned a defamation suit that pitted Jane's grandmother, a member of the Scottish landed gentry, against two young professional women who were romantic friends. During the trial, the boundary between passion and friendship among women was debated and Jane was viewed "orientally," as morally corrupt and hypersexual. Located at the intersection of race, sex, and class, the case has long been a lightning rod for scholars of cultural studies, women's and gender history, and, given Lillian Hellman's appropriation of Jane's story in her 1934 play The Children's Hour, theater history as well. Frances B. Singh's wide-ranging biography, however, takes a new, psychological approach, putting the notorious case in the context of a life that was marked by loss, separation, abandonment--and resilience. Grounded in archival and genealogical sources never before consulted, Singh's narrative reconstructs Cumming's life from its inauspicious beginnings in a Calcutta orphanage through her schooling in Elgin and Edinburgh, an abusive marriage, her adherence to the Free Church at the time of the Scottish Disruption, and her posthumous life in Hellman's Broadway play. Singh provides a detailed analysis not only ofthe case itself, but of how both Jane's and her teachers' lives were affected in the aftermath. Frances B. Singh is Professor Emerita at Hostos Community College (CUNY). PROVISIONAL-- FOR FORECASTING PURPOSES ONLY Her Scottish father put her in an institution in Calcutta when she was small. Guilt made her Highland gentry grandfather send for her, but he considered her an encumbrance and boarded her in Elgin. When she was an adolescent, her grandmother enrolled her in an Edinburgh boarding school where she developed a crush on one teacher and received harsh rebukes from the other. Brushed off by the former and chastised by the latter, she retaliated by alleging that they were sexually intimate. The teachers sued for libel; in the case that ensued, she was seen through sexist and racist lenses, constructed as an Other. While the case was still going on, she was married to a Presbyterian minister. If the idea was that he would tame her and make her conformable as other household Janes, the plan failed. He turned out to be a womanizer and Jane took revenge on him by reporting his unchaste behavior to his fellow ministers. Later she made a laughingstock of him by joining another church. Posthumously, she became a mean show-stopping character in a play by Lillian Hellman. Such was the life of Jane Cumming, the biracial woman whose recovered story is the subject of this biography. Spanning three continents and more than two centuries and based on archival research, The Encumbrance offers a sympathetic portrait of the protagonist, seeing her as a resilient figure who, when threatened by figures of authority, took arms against her sea of troubles so as to oppose and end them "Her Scottish father put her in an institution in Calcutta when she was small. Guilt made her Highland gentry grandfather send for her, but he considered her an encumbrance and boarded her in Elgin. When she was an adolescent, her grandmother enrolled her in an Edinburgh boarding school where she developed a crush on one teacher and received harsh rebukes from the other. Brushed off by the former and chastised by the latter, she retaliated by alleging that they were sexually intimate. The teachers sued for libel; in the case that ensued, she was seen through sexist and racist lenses, constructed as an Other. While the case was still going on, she was married to a Presbyterian minister. If the idea was that he would tame her and make her conformable as other household Janes, the plan failed. He turned out to be a womanizer and Jane took revenge on him by reporting his unchaste behavior to his fellow ministers. Later she made a laughingstock of him by joining another church. Posthumously, she became a mean show-stopping character in a play by Lillian Hellman. Such was the life of Jane Cumming, the biracial woman whose recovered story is the subject of this biography. Spanning three continents and more than two centuries and based on archival research, this offers a sympathetic portrait of the protagonist, seeing her as a resilient figure who, when threatened by figures of authority, took arms against her sea of troubles so as to oppose and end them"-- Provided by publisher In 1810 Edinburgh, the orphaned Scottish-Indian schoolgirl Jane Cumming alleged that her two schoolmistresses were sexually intimate. The allegation spawned a defamation suit that pitted Jane's grandmother, a member of the Scottish landed gentry, against two young professional women who were romantic friends. During the trial, the boundary between passion and friendship among women was debated and Jane was viewed "orientally," as morally corrupt and hypersexual. Located at the intersection of race, sex, and class, the case has long been a lightning rod for scholars of cultural studies, women's and gender history, and, given Lillian Hellman's appropriation of Jane's story in her 1934 play The Children's Hour, theater history as well. Frances B. Singh's wide-ranging biography, however, takes a new, psychological approach, putting the notorious case in the context of a life that was marked by loss, separation, abandonment--and resilience.

Grounded in archival and genealogical sources never before consulted, Singh's narrative reconstructs Cumming's life from its inauspicious beginnings in a Calcutta orphanage through her schooling in Elgin and Edinburgh, an abusive marriage, her adherence to the Free Church at the time of the Scottish Disruption, and her posthumous life in Hellman's Broadway play. Singh provides a detailed analysis not only of the case itself, but of how both Jane's and her teachers' lives were affected in the aftermath. Frontcover 1 Contents 8 Dramatis Personae 10 Author’s Note 28 Explanatory Notes 36 Introduction: Placing Jane 40 1 Ante Jane 67 2 Educating Jane (1) 93 3 Educating Jane (2) 120 4 Jane and the Lords of the Law (1) 145 5 Jane and the Lords of the Law (2) 175 6 Jane and William Tulloch 204 7 Jane, Posthumously 235 Conclusion: Assessing Jane 258 Acknowledgments 270 Appendix A: Marianne Woods, Jane Pirie, and Romantic Friendship 276 Appendix B: What Really Happened to Miss Marianne Woods and Miss Jane Pirie? 282 Appendix C: “Corinna, A Ballad” 286 Appendix D: Richard Rose’s Letter to Sir William Written from the Kinnedar Manse, Dated January 12, 1835 288 Appendix E: Jane’s Letter to Sir William Written from the Dallas Manse, Dated February 15, 1836, Regarding Wood Stealing at Dallas 290 Notes 292 Bibliography 324 Index 342