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{{Short description|British author and philanthropist}}
'''Esther Milnes Day''' (née Milnes; 1752–1792)▼
{{Infobox Writer
| name = Esther Milnes Day
| image = Esther Day - James Millar.jpg
| image_size =
| alt = Portrait of Esther Day by James Millar
| caption = Portrait of Mrs. Esther Day by [[James Millar (artist)|James Millar]] (1735–1805)
| birth_name = Esther Milnes
| birth_date = 1752
| birth_place = [[Wakefield]], England
| death_date = 1792
| resting_place = [[Wargrave#Christian buildings and memorials|St Mary's Church]], [[Wargrave]], [[Berkshire]]
| occupation = author, philanthropist
| nationality = English
| notablework = ''Select miscellaneous productions'' (1805)
| spouse = [[Thomas Day (writer)|Thomas Day]]
| relatives = Thomas Lowndes (nephew)
| portaldisp = yes
}}
Day, Esther Milnes, 1753-1792; Day, Thomas, 1748-1789; Lowndes, Thomas, b. 1766?. Select miscellaneous productions, of Mrs. Day, and Thomas Day, esq., in verse and prose: also, some detached pieces of poetry. London, Printed by T. Jones, 1805 ([https://archive.org/details/selectmiscellane00daye/page/n3/mode/2up Internet Archive])▼
==Life==
Esther Milnes was born to Richard Milnes (1705-1757), of [[Scarcliffe#Location|Palterton]], sometime of Chesterfield, and Elizabeth (d. 1757), daughter of Thomas Hawksworth, of London.<ref name="ODNB" /> Her father and maternal grandfather were ranked as [[gentlemen]]. She was the heiress to her family's estate, with her three brothers having died young; her only surviving sister, Elizabeth, who married Robert Lowndes, survived their parents by only twelve years.<ref>The History of the County of Derby, p. 287</ref><ref>Familiae Minorum Gentium, vol. I, ed. John W. Clay, 1894, pp. 163-4</ref> The Milnes family- of which her father was a second son- had for generations been successful merchants and property owners in Derbyshire and Yorkshire.<ref>The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms, L. G. Pine, 1972, page 89</ref>
She was educated at "Mrs. Dennis's Female Boarding School in Queen's Square."<ref name="Day" />
Milnes married [[Thomas Day (writer)|Thomas Day]] (1748–1789) at Bath on 7 August 1778.<ref name="ODNB" />
Thomas Day was a singular character: an abolitionist, socialist, republican, campaigner for clean air and land reclamation, and hugely popular writer of children's fiction. His unsuccessful — until meeting Esther Milnes — search for a wife and subsequent scheme to illegally adopt and educate a young girl, [[Sabrina Sidney]], in an ultimately unsuccessful plan adapted from [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s [[Emile, or On Education|Emile]], have provided much material for historians and other commentators.<ref>See, for example, Iles, Katharine. ''[http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/7211 Constructing the eighteenth-century woman: the adventurous history of Sabrina Sidney]''. University of Birmingham. Ph.D., 2012; and Moore, Wendy. ''How to Create the Perfect Wife''. Orion, 2013 {{ISBN|0297863797}}, {{ISBN|9780297863793}}</ref> Despite that significant setback he continued a proponent of Rousseauism and insisted that he and his wife live a simple and secluded life. Esther was required to give up many of her social connections, luxuries, and previous leisure-time occupations, such as the harpsichord. Unusually, however, her husband insisted that she retain control over her own finances in case she ever tired of their [[ascetic]] style of life.<ref name="DNB">Stephen, Leslie. "[https://www-oxforddnb-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-7372 Day, Thomas (1748–1789)]." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. Accessed 17 Aug. 2022.</ref><ref name="Seward">Seward, Anna. ''Life of Erasmus Darwin''. Studley, Warwickshire: Brewin Books, 2010 ([https://archive.org/details/annasewardslifeo0000sewa/page/72/mode/2up Internet Archive])</ref>
In 1779 the couple moved to a small estate at [[Stapleford Abbotts]], near Abridge in Essex. In 1780, Thomas Day bought an estate at Anningsley in [[Surrey]] and the couple moved there in 1783. It was a philanthropic project whereby the Days sought to improve the lives of their workers.
"Day, Esther" The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 3818, https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/3818. Accessed 2022-08-16.▼
Esther Day had no children, and Thomas Lowndes (born c. 1766), her deceased sister Elizabeth's son, was treated by the couple as their heir.<ref name="ODNB">Rowland, Peter. "[https://www-oxforddnb-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-7372 Day, Thomas (1748–1789), author and political campaigner]." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 03. Oxford University Press. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.</ref> Thomas Day died in a riding accident on 28 September 1789 and Esther Day, debilitated by her loss, died less than three years later.
Day, Thomas, Day, Esther. Select Miscellaneous Productions, of Mrs. Day, and Thomas Day, Esq. in Verse and Prose: Also, Some Detached Pieces of Poetry, by Thomas Lowndes, Esq. Consisting of the first 52 Pages.The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID 12563, https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/12563. Accessed 2022-08-16.▼
After their deaths, Lowndes edited and published ''Select miscellaneous productions, of Mrs. Day, and Thomas Day'' in 1805; the collection consists of some unpublished works of Thomas Day, Esther Day's juvenilia, and some of his own poems to "increase the size of the work."<ref name="Day">Day, Esther Milnes, 1753-1792; Day, Thomas, 1748-1789; Lowndes, Thomas, b. 1766?. ''Select miscellaneous productions, of Mrs. Day, and Thomas Day, esq., in verse and prose: also, some detached pieces of poetry''. London: Cadell and Davies, 1805 ([https://archive.org/details/selectmiscellane00daye/page/n3/mode/2up Digitization], Internet Archive)</ref> The collection is dedicated to "the fair females of the British Isles," whom the editor reassures that with appropriate education, they would no doubt surpass men. In the "apology" which precedes Esther Day's work, Lowndes's comments informs us that the poems were written when she was between eleven and fifteen. He professes himself astonished that someone so talented should have ceased writing, and speculates that she may have been overly diffident.<ref name="Day" /> A twentieth-century commentator called it "earnest, remarkable work" for someone so young.<ref>Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English''. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990, p. 273. ([https://archive.org/details/feministcompanio00blai/page/272/mode/2up?q=Esther+Milnes+Day Internet Archive])</ref>
https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Day%2c%20Esther%20Milnes%2c%201753%2d1792▼
==Works==
[[File:Title page of Day Select miscellaneous productions 1805.jpg|thumb|Title page of Esther Milnes Day, Thomas Day, and Thomas Lowndes. ''Select miscellaneous productions, of Mrs. Day, and Thomas Day, esq., in verse and prose. London: Cadell and Davies, 1805.'']]
*Day, Esther Milnes, Thomas Day, and Thomas Lowndes. ''Select miscellaneous productions, of Mrs. Day, and Thomas Day, esq., in verse and prose: also, some detached pieces of poetry''. London: Cadell and Davies, 1805 ([https://archive.org/details/selectmiscellane00daye/page/n3/mode/2up Internet Archive])
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==References==
▲*"[https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/3818 Day, Esther]." The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID
▲*"Day, Thomas, Day, Esther. ''[https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/12563 Select Miscellaneous Productions, of Mrs. Day, and Thomas Day, Esq. in Verse and Prose: Also, Some Detached Pieces of Poetry, by Thomas Lowndes, Esq. Consisting of the first 52 Pages]''." The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID
*Rowland, Peter. "[https://www-oxforddnb-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-7372 Day, Thomas (1748–1789), author and political campaigner]." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 03. Oxford University Press. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
* Seward, Anna. ''Life of Erasmus Darwin''. Studley, Warwickshire: Brewin Books, 2010 ([https://archive.org/details/annasewardslifeo0000sewa/page/72/mode/2up Internet Archive])
*Stephen, Leslie. "[https://www-oxforddnb-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-7372 Day, Thomas (1748–1789)]." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. Accessed 17 Aug. 2022.
==Etexts==
▲*Day, Esther Milnes, 1753-1792; Day, Thomas, 1748-1789; Lowndes, Thomas, b. 1766?. ''Select miscellaneous productions, of Mrs. Day, and Thomas Day, esq., in verse and prose: also, some detached pieces of poetry''. London
==See also==
*[[Thomas Day (writer)]]
*[[Sabrina Sidney]]
==External links==
▲*[https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Day%2c%20Esther%20Milnes%2c%201753%2d1792 Online books]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:last, first}}
[[Category:1752 births]]
[[Category:1792 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:18th-century English writers]]
[[Category:English women poets]]
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