Author: Wilson, Anne Carus
Biography:
WILSON, Anne Carus, formerly NEVILLE (1787-1859: ancestry.co.uk)
She was born on 13 June 1787 and baptised on 14 July at St. Nicholas, Plumstead, Kent, the only daughter and eldest surviving child of Lieutenant Charles Neville (1760-1837) of the Royal Artillery, who achieved the rank of Lt.-General in 1825, and his wife Ann Colden Williamson (1763-98). They had married at St. Mary’s, Lambeth, in 1783. Nothing is known of her education but her younger brother, Strickland (1789-1852), was educated at Wadham College Oxford and entered the church. She married Rev. William Carus Wilson (1791-1859) on 31 Jan. 1815 at St. James’s, Westminster, London. They went on to have eight children. He had been educated at Trinity College Cambridge (BA 1815, MA 1819) and was initially refused ordination and a living due to his Calvinist beliefs. His wealth and influence eventually secured his entry into the established church and he is now remembered for endowing Casterton Clergy Daughters’ School, first established at Cowan Bridge in 1824, which Charlotte Brontë attended. She drew an unflattering portrait of him as the Calvinist hypocrite Rev. Robert Brocklehurst, of Lowood school, in Jane Eyre (1847). A generous and philanthropic man, he was certainly active in promoting the education of the poor and poor relief, but suffered from a dark imagination, a taste for cruelty, and a fear of hell, so Charlotte Brontë’s portrait, whilst it may only be from a child’s perspective, will probably stand the test of time. She attended the school 1824-5 so it is unclear what contact she would have had with Anne Wilson. It is, however, highly likely that Mrs Wilson produced her educational works for young children (all published locally at Kirby Lonsdale) for her husband’s school: A Mother’s Stories for Her Children (1828), A Mother’s Sermons (1829), Daily Meditations (1835). She died on 15 Nov. 1859, in London. (ancestry.co.uk 10 Sept. 2022; “Wilson, William Carus,” ODNB 10 Sept. 2022; GM Feb. 1815, 177; A Brontë Encyclopedia [2013], 377-78) AA