Unbridling the Tongues of Women - The University of Adelaide

Unbridling the tongues of women
were financially stable even if they continued to have to look at both sides of a shilling,
she did regain some of her childhood’s confidence. She set about pursuing the
second of the ambitions she had formed as a child in Melrose.
For the rest of her life, Spence attempted to gain a livelihood with her pen. But
for over 20 years, from her early 30s until her 50s, her earnings were piecemeal and
occasional. Like the narrator in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, her financial
security came from an aunt’s bequest. 87 And some of her friends were wealthy
enough for their generosity to be substantial. In 1854, when she wanted to go to
Melbourne to visit the Murrays, she travelled there on a ship consigned to Edward
Stirling, by that time a partner in the mercantile firm of Elder Stirling & Company. 88
(Her planned holiday of six weeks became eight months of work; Jessie was unwell
and needed nursing and help with the children. 89 )
Spence returned to Adelaide on the steamer that was bringing John Taylor back
from Britain, carrying with him £30 for Spence for her first novel. 90 In 1865 the
Stirlings again provided her with a fare, this time to Britain and back. Edward Stirling
had withdrawn from his mercantile partnerships. The family was returning to
Britain for their eight children to complete their education; their eldest, Edward
Charles Stirling, had won a Westminster Scholarship, and was to read natural science
at Cambridge. 91 Perhaps they hoped that Spence would help entertain the younger
children. She agreed to go only when she was sure of enough spending money to
cover her other expenses. Her friend John Taylor told her he had left her £500 in his
will, but would prefer her to benefit from that at a time when she needed it, so she
should have £200 immediately to use on her trip. 92 Taylor, who had married one of
Stirling sisters, was a banker from Sydney turned financier and pastoralist in South
Australia. He left for Britain himself, shortly ahead of Spence and the Stirlings. But
he contracted something labelled ‘suppressed smallpox’ on the voyage and died two
days after arriving. 93 Spence reluctantly acquired the rest of his bequest much sooner
that she had anticipated.
In the 1870s she became a friend of Joanna and Robert Barr Smith. Robert Barr
Smith had taken Stirling’s place in the Elders’ mercantile firm, which became Elder,
Smith & Company, and had grown extremely wealthy: the Barr Smiths’ mansion,
Torrens Park, was the most lavish and hospitable in the colony. 94 Spence prized their
generosity with books: ‘What I owed to [Mrs Barr Smith] in the way of books for
about 10 years cannot be put on paper’. When she first considered undertaking a
40