Marie Bethell Beauclerc
| Marie Bethell Beauclerc | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Maria Bethell 10 October 1845 St Pancras, London, England |
| Died | 19 September 1897 (aged 51) Birmingham, England |
| Resting place | Key Hill Cemetery |
| Known for |
|
Marie Bethell Beauclerc (1845–1897) was a pioneer in the teaching of Pitman's shorthand and typing in Birmingham, England. In 1888 she was the first woman to be appointed as a teacher in an English boys' public school, at Rugby School. The Phonetic Journal September 1891 and the journal, Birmingham Faces And Places September 1892, both credit her with being the first female reporter in England.
Marie Bethell Beauclerc was born in London in 1845 as Maria Bethell. When she was around four years old, she and her older twin siblings Richard and Elizabeth, were sent from London to a boarding school near Bath. By this time Maria Bethell's surname and the surname of her siblings, had been changed to Beauclerc. The children's father, Richard Bethell, died when Maria was five years old however the reason for the name change of Maria, Richard and Elizabeth from Bethell to Beauclerc is unknown. Maria Beauclerc attended Weston Boarding Schools near Bath until circumstances forced her to leave school at age nine. At age twelve she began teaching herself shorthand from a manual which she found in some waste paper. The manual entitled The Phonographic Teacher, was written by Isaac Pitman (knighted in 1894). On her thirteenth birthday, Maria Beauclerc and her mother moved to Birmingham where she continued her studies through a member of the Phonetic Society in Bath who corrected her exercises through the post. The addition of Bethell to the name Beauclerc appeared for the first time in the title of a biography entitled Marie Bethell Beauclerc in The Phonetic Journal Sept. 1891.
In 1863, at the age of eighteen, Maria Beauclerc was engaged for two months as shorthand amanuensis to a phrenological lecturer visiting Birmingham. Later George Dawson (1821–1876), editor of the Birmingham Morning News between 1871 and 1873, also engaged Maria Beauclerc because of her outstanding shorthand reporting skills. The appointment of a female reporter by the Birmingham Morning News was extraordinary as it was the first time in England that a female had been engaged by a newspaper as a shorthand reporter. Maria Beauclerc became professionally known as Marie Beauclerc and her work at the Birmingham Morning News included the reporting of many public meetings, conferences and lectures. At this time, shorthand was still a male dominated expertise however from approximately 1865 until Dawson's sudden death in 1876, Marie Beauclerc also recorded most of the content of the nine volumes of Dawson's lectures, prayers and sermons. Four volumes were published after Dawson's death. George St. Clair, the editor of these volumes, acknowledges in the prefaces that "The discourses are mostly from the shorthand reports of Miss Marie Beauclerc." (George Dawson, Every-Day Counsels, London, 1888). A similar preface reads, "When a lecture is reported by Miss Beauclerc – as is the case with the one on the Shadow of Death - we have a near approach to fulness and accuracy;" Further on St. Clair adds, "I have had, as before, the invaluable help of Miss Beauclerc in collating and transcribing." (George Dawson, Shakespeare and Other Lectures, London, 1888). Marie Beauclerc is also credited in prefaces of volumes of work by author and preacher, Christopher J. Street (1855–1931). When Unitarian clergyman and lecturer, Robert Collyer (1823–1912), visited Birmingham from the United States, he engaged Marie Beauclerc to report and edit his sermons and prayers which were delivered at Newhall Hill Church Birmingham on 2 Sept. 1883 and published during the same year.
...
Wikipedia